Take that George Lucas!

[busydude]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12910683

A prop designer who made the original Stormtrooper helmets for Star Wars has won his copyright battle with director George Lucas over his right to sell replicas. The five-year saga, which ended in the highest court in the land, has stakes of galactic proportions.

For a man who has spent half a decade and almost £700,000 fighting the full force of a movie mogul's legal team, Andrew Ainsworth has refused to be weighed down.

He has had bailiffs at his door demanding $20m (£12m) and has defended the onslaught in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court - not to mention the US.

But like the iconic characters he helped create as a 27-year-old art school graduate - and which still surround him in the same modest workshop 35 years later - he has become battle hardened.

"You've got to decide right at the start, can you afford the downside?" he says.

"And you've got to be able to live with it and be under no disillusions that if it all goes wrong, you're scuppered, you're bankrupt... I think if you're in a small business on your own you know the bottom line."

He says it is hard to accept when something you create is taken off you, and adds it has been a struggle because he went to court on a principle, against accepted wisdom.

The journey has certainly been long for the father-of-two, who has been selling his plastic composite helmets and body armour from his studio in Twickenham, south west London, for eight years now.

It was in 2002, when struggling to pay school fees, that he first sold a helmet and "bits and pieces" gathering dust on top of his wardrobe.

 

[0roo0roo]

so if you draw something in the uk after 15 years people can rip it off?

wtf?

 

[PhoenixEnigma]

so if you draw something in the uk after 15 years people can rip it off?

wtf?

15 year copyright expiration sounds downright sane. What on earth is in the water those brits are drinking?

 

[0roo0roo]

sounds like an arbitrary copyright limitation, you can't copy star wars, just the props?


in any case it just sounds like a bad ruling all around.

 

[busydude]

sounds like an arbitrary copyright limitation, you can't copy star wars, just the props?

Yeah, you can make and sell props legally now.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Awesome!

It shows how copyright is screwed up though, even though he designed it, Star Wars technically has the rights to it... which in this case was shot down but often times it's not. It's even more true with music. An artist has zero rights to their own music... the RIAA has. Guess it's like if you design something on company time, the company owns it.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea no..if you hire someone to make something for your company, they don't own it after unless you explicitly make that the case. apply this to any other area and it becomes a bit ridiculous


if an artist signs away their rights, yea the riaa owns it, if they don't, they own it themselves, its not that complicated

 

[Bignate603]

yea no..if you hire someone to make something for your company, they don't own it after unless you explicitly make that the case. apply this to any other area and it becomes a bit ridiculous


if an artist signs away their rights, yea the riaa owns it, if they don't, they own it themselves, its not that complicated

Exactly. If I make a new design at work while they are paying me my company owns it.