Legality of fan films?

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djbobbyrhodes

Well-known member
Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about the legality of fan films. I recently came up with what I believe would have been a MUCH better sequel to the Indiana Jones franchise. Obviously, George Lucas isn't taking scripts from random people on the street. So I thought for fun, I might like to shoot a mock trailer or short based on my Indiana Jones idea. I know I wouldn't be able to profit from this. But am I going to get my pants sued off if I shoot this and put it on youtube?
 
That's entirely at the whim of Lucasfilm. They supposedly have a policy of "it's OK if you don't make money on it," but that's their voluntary policy, not a legal one. Could change whenever it strikes Lucas's fancy.
 
Is it important that it be Indiana Jones? Why not just create your own character who is vaguely similar to him? There are lots of characters who could be considered "rip-offs" of Indiana Jones (Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, Rick O'Connell from The Mummy, Nathan Drake from the Uncharted video games, etc.), but they are all just slightly different enough to be legally distinct.
 
If you make it a parody, you can claim fair use. Of course this doesn't keep anyone from suing you...
 
djbobbyrhodes said:
Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about the legality of fan films. I recently came up with what I believe would have been a MUCH better sequel to the Indiana Jones franchise. Obviously, George Lucas isn't taking scripts from random people on the street. So I thought for fun, I might like to shoot a mock trailer or short based on my Indiana Jones idea. I know I wouldn't be able to profit from this. But am I going to get my pants sued off if I shoot this and put it on youtube?
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Absolutely, positively, NOT legal. Will you get your pants sued off for shooting and posting on youtube? Probably not. But it might quickly disappear....

As others have said, if you don't make any money and your film doesn't harm the property, they could turn a blind eye (although they could end up forcing you to sign away all rights to what you make to them).

From a legal standpoint, whether or not a rights holder chooses to enforce a copyright is entirely up to them. For trademark it's a bit different, because they have to actively police and enforce their trademark in order to protect it. If they fail to take action on infringing uses of their mark(s) they can loose them. Very different from copyright.

What's the idea?

Edit: Fair use for trademarks is a bit different than fair use for copyright. For Indiana Jones, I believe the name, logo, and character are all trademarked.

INDIANA JONES
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I like Agcohn's plan, of just making it "Indiana Jones like". After all, Indy himself was patterned off of old serials from the 40's.
 
The idea is the one Lucas SHOULD have used for Indy 4... :cheesy:

It has all the elements of a good Indiana Jones flick. Nazi's, archaic ruins, ancient religions and a bit of the supernatural. And surprisingly, no talking aliens.

I'm going to keep this close to the chest for now. If I don't do the fan film, I'm going adapt it to an original screen play and get it registered. <---(Dripping with irony). However, if George Lucas wants to steal my idea, all I want is a PA job on the set. Maybe a nice credit too...

I know that Lucas Films has endorsed Star Wars fan fiction, so I wonder if Indiana Jones falls under the same category.
 
George Lucas has always seemed to be fond of Star Wars fan films, and making one is 100% more likely to give you tons of clicks on youtube than if you change the character and make it into a ripoff.
I think you''re better off asking the question at theforce.net or something.
 
I forgot where I read it, and it was the better part of a decade ago so things can change, but Lucasfilm's policy has been that as long as you don't turn a profit (you can make money to recoup costs, but anything else needs to go to charity) and it's not obscene (no Princess Leigh porn), they don't care. As far as they're concerned, it's free advertising. I mean, Lucasfilm holds an annual contest for Star Wars fanfilms (with George himself as a judge).

But if you are dead set on doing an Indiana Jones fan film, contact Lucasfilm's legal department and ask. They will give you the final word on what their policy regarding fanfilms is.
 
Mike Harvey said:
But if you are dead set on doing an Indiana Jones fan film, contact Lucasfilm's legal department and ask. They will give you the final word on what their policy regarding fanfilms is.
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Either that, or you will get a standard technical reply after three months that you need a lawyer to interpret.

I've had both happen to me.
 
Lucas are famous for suing everyone and anyone for using their trademarks or breaching copyright. Eventually that turned quite a lot of people sour so they started to 'ease up' on the policy allowing fan films and other works of fiction to exist as long as they turn no profit and they don't do something that devalues their products.

It's questionable what would happen if you made a successful fanfilm that actually maintained real quality in acting, story, lighting etc. - legally you'd'nt be able to do shitzels with it, 'cept put it on Youtube and Vimeo, but Lucas could certainly turn that into an excuse for getting rid of a film they perceived as 'too good'...or, if they are smart, they'd negotiate and release it. :-)
 
Darky Mikado said:
Lucas are famous for suing everyone and anyone for using their trademarks or breaching copyright. Eventually that turned quite a lot of people sour so they started to 'ease up' on the policy allowing fan films and other works of fiction to exist as long as they turn no profit and they don't do something that devalues their products.
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That must have been a long time ago though? Fan films have been huge for ten years now.

The only time I know that Lucas went ape **** during this time was about The Phantom Edit, and that didn't happen until someone mass copied a bunch of discs and handed them out for free outside the Chinese theater on Hollywood blvd. to get Lucasfilm to release Star Wars on DVD.
This was around 2001-2002, when the official word from Lucas was that he wouldn't release ANY of the Starwars films on DVD until they were ALL completed and it would only be in a 6-film box set.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
The only time I know that Lucas went ape **** during this time was about The Phantom Edit, and that didn't happen until someone mass copied a bunch of discs and handed them out for free outside the Chinese theater on Hollywood blvd. to get Lucasfilm to release Star Wars on DVD.
This was around 2001-2002, when the official word from Lucas was that he wouldn't release ANY of the Starwars films on DVD until they were ALL completed and it would only be in a 6-film box set.
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The only other time I can think of was around that same time, Dr. Dre used the THX "Deep Note" at the beginning of a song that, if I remember right, contained offensive language after Lucasfilm denied him permission to used it. But again... there is that whole for profit and demeaning the trademark thing (as well as using it after explicitly being told no).
 
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