Movie Wars

If you’re like me you thought the last two Star Wars movies were nightmarish catastrophes. If they weren’t riding the coattails of the first three, we wouldn’t have a third one coming out in May and we probably wouldn’t have the second poison in the first place.

But it is a good universe to tell stories in and I would like see more of them. Have no fear my fellow hopefuls because in about a month, Panic Struck Productions will release a fan-created Star Wars movie called Revelations. (And the trailer looks pretty awesome.)

Until I learned about this project through Slashdot, I never knew fans made movies. I thought they limited themselves to stories and websites. But fan movies aren’t new and Lucas apparently loves to let them happen. As long as it’s non-profit, there’s no suing.

It got me thinking about copyright. What if the rules were less stringent and people could make money off the Star Wars universe? Yes people would be making money off of others’ hard work but the last trilogy ended more than 20 years ago; patents are usually expired after that. Why can’t people make a film if they only use material that’s two decades old?

I’m first to admit that it may make some really bad Star Wars movies but wake up everyone; we’re already there.