A British court case between Lucasfilm and an artist who made 50 Stormtrooper helmets and sold them ended with the court declaring that Lucasfilm did not have an exclusive claim to the iconic image:
Mr Justice Mann ruled that the models were not sculptures and so did not have copyright protection, which would extend 70 years beyond the death of their creator. Instead he ruled that the models were industrial designs, which could be protected for only 15 years.
Yesterday Lord Justices Rix, Jacob and Patten agreed, dismissing Lucasfilm’s appeal. They said that the helmet and armour had a “utilitarian” rather than artistic purpose. They also ruled that Lucasfilm could not enforce its US copyright in Britain, but agreed that Mr Ainsworth did not own the copyright. He has a bill of more than £2.5million, although he will seek to recover many of his costs from Lucasfilm.
Link via io9
2 comments:
Warning, this has nothing to do with this post. A friend asked me if I understood what stardotstar meant in geekery. Do you know? I didn't.
Here's a definition. I don't know if there's a cultural meaning behind the technical one.
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