Lucasfilm’s Phantom Menace

Details

Author(s):
  • Lawrence Lessig
Publish Date:
July 12, 2007
Publication Title:
Lucasfilm's Phantom Menace, Washington Post, Thursday, July 12, 2007; Page A23
Format:
Op-Ed or Opinion Piece
Citation(s):
  • Lawrence Lessig, Lucasfilm's Phantom Menace, Washington Post, Thursday, July 12, 2007; Page A23

Abstract

In May, Lucasfilm announced plans to enable fans of the “Star Wars” series to “remix” “Star Wars” video clips with their own creative work. Using an innovative Internet platform called Eyespot, these (re)creators can select video clips or other content and then add images or upload new content, whether images, video or music.

Eyespot is one of many new technologies inviting “users” to do more than use the creativity they are consuming. Likewise, Lucasfilm is one of many companies recognizing that the more “users” use their creativity, the thicker the bonds are between consumers and the work consumed. (Put differently, the more money Lucasfilm can make.) Turning consumers into creators is the latest fad among companies scrambling for new profits in the digital age. How better to revive a 30-year-old series than by enlisting armies of kids to make the content interesting again? These traditionally protective commercial entities are creating “hybrids” — leveraging free labor to make their commercial properties more valuable.

Among companies enabling this remix creativity, Eyespot is one of the more enlightened. Remixers using Eyespot’s technology typically own what they produce. Eyespot allows them to share their work on or off its platform. No one’s getting paid (yet) for the creativity that Eyespot enables. (Other companies, such as Revver, are experimenting with ways to get creators paid.) And Eyespot at least explicitly grants to creators the right to their own creativity.

A dark force, however, has influenced Lucasfilm’s adoption of Eyespot’s technology. A careful reading of Lucasfilm’s terms of use show that in exchange for the right to remix Lucasfilm’s creativity, the remixer has to give up all rights to what he produces. In particular, the remixer grants to Lucasfilm the “exclusive right” to the remix — including any commercial rights — for free. To any content the remixer uploads to the site, he grants to Lucasfilm a perpetual non-exclusive right, again including commercial rights and again for free…