Ah, a nice shot of optimism in the last post there I still need time to research and think, and maybe ask lucas for permission if I get brave enough(squeak). Thank you again for all your input.

I am sorry cheesgrater but Dean is correct.

1. A trademark is a word, words or an image used to market a product. There are limits on what can or can not be trade marked (the Beatles were not allowed to trade mark the word Apple, only the imgae and word together). The name of Star Wars and the likeness of Boba Fett may well be registered trademarks but that is just a marketing issue. If Boba Fett was not a registered trade mark the use of his likeness would still be a copyright violation.

2. Doing a drawing of Boba Fett would be deemed a derivative work and as such would also be a breach of copyright because the creator has moral rights to control how their creation is exploited or represented.

3. Picking up on the "free" issue the fact that something is free makes it less likely that you will be allowed to do it. Companies/people spend their time and money creating things. They may wish to make money from that effort, charging for games, films, books or whatever. As they see it, if you can get a free Star Wars game then you are going to view it as a worthless item (as in no commercial value as opposed to no qualitative value) and are less likely to pay for their Star Wars game. They think it devalues their franchise and also decreases their ability to license Star Wars to other companies.

One final point of note is that you could well be sued by a company other than LucasArts. They have licensed a number of other companies to sell Star Wars games (THQ for example). Those companies have paid a lot of money for the rights and they are not likely to allow you to do the same thing for free.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

Both Cheesegrater and Dean seem to be right as the character Boba Fett is probably covered by copyright while the title "Star Wars" is not (instead, that is protected by trademark).

About things that are not covered by copyright according to the copyright basics section at the US Copyright Office: "Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents"

[edited by - HenryAPe on April 21, 2002 5:58:51 AM]