I love Star Wars but Lucas' people are punks

Lucasarts after a buck?! Well sh** on me.

That's some puny lightsaber.

Size matters not

Yeah, but Yoda still a decent lightsaber...

Until he lost it and then made do with a branch.

Are you talking about something from last three or the first three, which were actually the last three except that they came first?

LOL I love Starwars

"It is apparent from the design of the Pro Arctic Laser that it was intended to resemble the hilts of our lightsaber swords, which are protected by copyright ... ," said the letter, dated last month and provided to CNN by Wicked Lasers.

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"protected by copyright" ??? I would have thought it was protected by trademark. Patent might be another possibility, though that would be a design patent (on the shape, like a Coca-Cola bottle) rather than a utility patent (I'm presuming the Light Sabres used in the movies don't actually work).

I thought the Lucas people could afford better cartooneys attorneys than that.

The letter calls the company's newest laser "a highly dangerous product with the potential to cause blindness, burns and other damage to people and/or property."

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So what is THAT sentence saying, that it's also a ripoff of the FUNCTION of a Light Sabre??? I wanna attend that trial...

Namatu said:

Are you talking about something from last three or the first three, which were actually the last three except that they came first?

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Maybe it would be less confusing if these movies were referenced by the year the first of each three came out. I saw the original 197x one in a theatre, then the next two when they came on TV, and I never saw the later ones which were actually "earlier" in the story or whatever.

It's just as well I know so little about Star Wars, because I know too much about Star Trek, more than a 50-something man should know...

Going to port this to the TV/movies forum. I'm also editing the title. Feel free to call the douches within the confines of the thread, but be a little careful in the titles. Thanks.


May the force be with you all.

The Lonely One.

Hmmmm

Guess I have no problem with this. LucasFilms have a product they want to protect.

I like this: "Most people feel it's kind of ridiculous ...," he said. "We would never use any comparison like that to 'Star Wars' or a lightsaber or anything like that."

Yeah, because manufacturers in Hong Kong are among the world's most ethical.

This looks like a lightsaber: http://www.wickedlasers.com/images/products/spyder_iii_pro.jpg

The pic is from the company's website.

I think it's pretty obvious that the device is/was inspired by the Star Wars lightsaber. But I don't know that it's something that Lucasarts can protect. Personally, I think they're being a little silly about it...except if they're worried about some kind of future liability. Suppose a couple of kids have a "lightsaber" fight with these things and someone loses an eye (hey, it could actually happen here). Lawyers being lawyers, ten will get you twenty that Lucasarts would get sued, along with the manufacture and anyone else in a ten mile radius.

Maybe this lawsuit is intended to protect them, even if it fails.

Dr.Gonzo said:

Lucasarts after a buck?! Well sh** on me.

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I want to know if George Lucas is actually involved or interested in any of this, or is it just the morons that George sometimes hires?

Paul said:

The Lonely One.

Hmmmm

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Edit: Ones

robeiae said:

I think it's pretty obvious that the device is/was inspired by the Star Wars lightsaber. But I don't know that it's something that Lucasarts can protect. Personally, I think they're being a little silly about it...except if they're worried about some kind of future liability. Suppose a couple of kids have a "lightsaber" fight with these things and someone loses an eye (hey, it could actually happen here). Lawyers being lawyers, ten will get you twenty that Lucasarts would get sued, along with the manufacture and anyone else in a ten mile radius.

Maybe this lawsuit is intended to protect them, even if it fails.

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robovowels, you'll have to do better. This acutally makes sense to me...

Personally, when I first saw this product, I was thinking, "What the Hell? It should be outlawed pronto!" (Remember, I'm Canadian, and we don't pack guns here, either.) Some idiot's going to buy it for their seven-year-old kid, who is going to seriously injure someone else's seven-year-old kid (or his younger sister...) And yeah, because Lucas has more money than that company will ever have, they're going to get sued along with the manufacturer. 'Cause people taking responsibility for their own stupidity is, well, a smart thing to do...

But as far as the actual design goes, the Star Trek franchise has a better claim on cell phone makers. Communicators, anyone?

And now I hear some lab in the States is trying to make Rowling's invisibility cloak a reality. Just think, a geek with an invisibility cloak, a lightsaber, and a communicator. What's the world coming to?

Yeshanu said:

r

And now I hear some lab in the States is trying to make Rowling's invisibility cloak a reality. Just think, a geek with an invisibility cloak, a lightsaber, and a communicator. What's the world coming to?

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I believe the PC term is 'lonely one'.

"These references make it clear that the public is being led to believe that the Pro Arctic Laser is an official lightsaber device and/or copied from our design," the Lucasfilm letter said.

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I'm impressed that these guys were able to design a functional laser from Lucus's toy ones.

...I want one now!

And I don't think that hilt looks anything like the ones in Star Wars; the SW ones looked all metallic and more cylinder like.

The Lonely One said:

The Star Wars empire has decided to sue the creator of a laser product that looks similar to a lightsaber.

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Why is that stupid?

You are honestly arguing that you believe that the designers of that product had no intention of using the look of a light-saber handle as any kind of inspiration?

The product makes no sense otherwise. If it is a 'real' laser for technical use only (rather than a toy) then the handle is inane - it should have mounting points so it can be attached to an optical bench.

Sure, it is being marketed as a Lucas-like light sabre via 3rd party websites rather than their own. So what? If I make a plush toy that looks like Mickey Mouse and then argue that *MY* website didn't it call it 'Mickey' - only 3rd party websites link to it describing that - do you think I would be OK ?

What else can Lucas Inc do? Let people buy this highly dangerous product being marketed as a toy? And don't pretend that it isn't being marketed as a toy. They talk about using it to light cigarettes. That's right - a laser that needs safety glasses to avoid permanent blindness is being marketed as a gimmick that LIGHTS CIGARETTES.

I've worked with high power lasers. Like any good engineer, the first thing I used it for was to set my logbook on fire just to see how powerful it was. (Answer - pretty damned powerful. And yes, I'm an idiot)

The only decent thing to do is to do whatever it is in their power to stop it being marketed like that - to make it clear that they have NOTHING to do with this dangerous toy.

They aren't suing guys like this: www.howtodothings.com/fashion-personal-care/how-to-build-a-light-saber

It seems that they are doing the decent thing.

Mac

The Lonely One said:

This is as stupid as the Writer's Guild getting pissed about science-fiction-technology-made-real Kindle 2 text-to-voice (which is a computer software that has been around forever, thus the Writer's Guild is a little untimely).

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Wooo, I could not let this pass without a mention.

If I remember right, The Writers Guild did not object to the technology in the Kindle but to Amazon's infringement on the authors audio rights, which Amazon did not hold.

IMHO, this is no different than many publishers saying they hold e-rights because an older contract stated they owned the rights in whatever version the book is to be printed in and they consider e-publishing the same as print publishing.

The Writers and many other Guilds look at E-rights as separate, just like audio. It does not matter the technology, but how it impacts the rights of the authors now and in the future.

Ok...back to the Lucas and Light sabers...

Wow. Ok, the hilt does resemble a prequel saber. Which is kind of cool. But I guess the biggest danger is liability. I mean, some people will have kids who thinks it's a saber and then Lucas get sued. I vaguely remember something like that happened way back in the '70s involving - I think - a Battlestar Galactica toy and somehow Lucas and Star Wars toys got caught in the crossfire

There's a fine line between being inspired by fandom and stealing. Actually I also vaguely recall that there was a clause in Roddenberry's contract with Paramount insisting they allow - possibly aid - anyone who thought they could invent the tech seen on the show. So that limits what they can do via cell phones. They are very protective in other areas.
And Lucasfilm did figure out years ago that they couldn't shut down every fanfic and fan vid out there. They tried. The backlash sent them into retreat. Now they actually promote such creativity on the main website. (With the obvious distinction: no making for profit!)

All those years spent in Star Wars and Star Trek fan clubs one picks up all sorts off odd tidbits!

Wimpy looking compared to a 'real' lightsaber though isn't it? Although there was a rather cool moment in Warehouse 13 - a crossover with Eureka on the SyFy channel where they invented one on the fly. But that was fiction, for fun and I'm sure they had permission.