The guy who designed the original storm trooper costumes for Star Wars has been making and selling the costumes to enthusiasts. Lucasfilms is objecting and has filed a cease and desist. So who owns the costume design? As materials stay in the popular culture for longer and longer thanks to home video sales, this becomes more and more of an issue. Disney is usually the one who makes outrageous copyright demands, demanding exclusivity to images and stories they ripped off from the public domain for years past any kind of precedent. Now Lucasfilms is in the mix.
They should just be really, really happy that any fanboys survived the sequels. I know my Star Wars enthusiasm died in the wake of Jar Jar Binks (and was buried deeply after the pastoral ad nauseum romance of Anikin and Amidala).
But seriously, who should own the costume reproductions? The artist who created them or the movie that used them? I tend to favor the creator. I guess I come at this from a journalistic perspective, but it seems that Lucasfilms got first rights, and second serial rights, and even foreign first rights. But it seems as though the author ought to retain some reprint rights.
Makes me long for more Woody Guthries. People who played his music without permission were more likely to be seen as potential friends rather than people who must be stopped at all costs.
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