Disney and Star Wars

Surely you've heard by now that Disney bought* Lucasfilm and Star Wars.** They're going to make Episodes 7,8 and 9, or so they say. I hear good and bad - people unhappy with what Disney did with what Disney did with Tron and the fourth Pirates movie (which I haven't seen yet, so I can't comment on it). And I hear the naysayers talk about John Carter of Mars - but I liked it - and the "real fans" would NEVER be happy with any adaptation of the classic ER Burroughs book anyway...

Here's a link to a clearinghouse page on the news: http://www.theforce.net/topstory/story/SWcom_Posts_About_Disney_Acquisition_148648.asp***

But I digress. One thing that I didn't think of is alluded to in this week's Dork Tower comic:

from http://www.dorktower.com/

Lucas did a bit of litigating to keep Star Wars his. But Disney has a pretty solid track record of protecting its intellectual property by suing anybody who violates it. And by anybody....

Click to read the whole thing...

Or this from last year.

Those are, of course, a couple high profile examples. But the history is there.

And the history of Star Wars is - well, a TON of fan stuff... Lucasfilm has been very relaxed in comparison to Disney when it comes to protecting IP.  So, I'm wondering if the days of fanfilms are just about over. It would be pretty sad. Yeah, a lot of the fanfilms were, well, pathetic. But they were honest. They were FAN made films in homage to Star Wars. Some are well done labors of love:
Troops was the first one I had heard of - still one of the best:



There are a few - I can't remember the titles - that are very well done - they have CGI that is, well not AS good as the Star Wars films, but better than Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, anyway :)

My point? Dunno - just hoping that the rather free nature of fandom on the web doesn't get a lot of Cease and Desist letters in the future now that Disney owns the Skywalker franchise...

Still gonna be in line for the midnight releases of Episodes 7, 8 and 9... I just can't help myself - even if they're terrible - I don't care...



















*For the paltry sum of 4 BILLION dollars... omygosh!
**It was, sadly, NOT the primary topic of conversation the next day for me at work - which was a district wide meeting with the bishop. He did open the floor for questions but I just couldn't make myself ask, "So, what do you think Disney will do with Episode 7, Bishop?" Call me a coward... or a pragmatist... And yeah, maybe YOU don't care - but this is my blog after all...
***Since blogger is being complete crap today and not cooperating, you have to get the raw link, sorry...