There comes a time in a parent's life where they need to tell their child about Star Wars.

[Sixswitch]

Oh, and is anyone else actually on Lucas' side with this? If it was some less mega rich director people actually liked some minor member of staff with no involvement in the actual design process milking his creation for cash would have everyone pissed at the little guy:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12910683

I am very bemused. Does it matter whether they're 'sculptures' or utilitarian acting suits? The things are clearly part of the Star Wars mythos, and copyrighted to Lucas. How is this any different from, say, knock off Transformers?

-Ss

[Jaynz]

I am very bemused. Does it matter whether they're 'sculptures' or utilitarian acting suits? The things are clearly part of the Star Wars mythos, and copyrighted to Lucas. How is this any different from, say, knock off Transformers?

That's just it, Lucas never bought the IP rights to the stormtrooper design, and only bought the props as props (keep in mind that many movies recycle props all the time). He simply used his monetary leverage in the US to enforce his claim - in very friendly California courts.

So this would be more like Hasbro buying only the toys that Takara had made for Diaclone, but not buying the rights to produce them on their own in a toyline.

[Dead Man Wade]

According to the intellectual property law of both the US and the UK, Lucas has no substantive claim to the design. According to the UK, ownership automatically defaults to the creator, not the commissioner, unless there is a stipulation in the contract. In the US, in order for a piece to be considered "work for hire", it has to meet several criteria, one of which is a contract explicitly stating that it is a commission.

However, I would be curious to know whether he had a formal contract with McQuarrie, and if that would have made a difference.

[Tetsuro]

Crack open a history book. That's the way most evil empires in history have worked. Few live past their first Emporer. Even the Soviet Union, with all its power, didn't manage to last once the generation of 'revolutionaries' died of old age. And, at the risk of Godwinning, 30 years is two decades longer than the worst Empire of human history got.

This is actually a reasonably good point. Someone made a pretty good argument that the reason USSR collapsed eventually was because they finally got a premier who had lived his entire life under the Soviet propaganda machine and actually believed in all of it, that any nation would choose to remain in the Soviet Union given the choice.

And let's face it, sticking to the movies we never really do find out what happens with the Empire with the Emperor gone; ignoring the stupid special editions which cut to revolutions taking place all over the empire (which I can see happening eventually but not within a few hours of the Emperor's death), the most realistic result is that the former Galactic empire is splintered and results in the Star Wars equivalents of China, Cuba and North Korea which end up upholding the Empire's values to various degrees, especially since all the worlds clearly had some kind of proxy leaders.

[Tetsuro]

EDIT: Gah, double-post

[inflatable dalek]

Did Julian Glover survive the second one? I bet he just took over. On the grounds he's Julian Glover.