Author Archives: joberg1

@ObergJustin

Regarding the “Star Wars Fan Film: The Essence of the Force”, I do not think that this is protected and legal under Fair Use. I would call this film a derivative of the original. It includes the original Star Wars name in its title, it features recognizable characters from the franchise, lightsabers and the force. All of these make up and our main parts of the original Star Wars work. The Copyright law defines a “derivative work as “a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a… motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted” (Chap 1). The law also says in section 206 that the owner of the copyright “has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work” (Chap 1).

As for the “Star Wars Sage (The Best Trance Remix Montage” I also do not think it is protected by Fair Use. The video clearly uses clips and music from the original work. It also does not portray itself as a parody, a criticism or for educational use. In section 106 of the Copyright law it says that “the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to… reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords. I would think this would apply to this video as the clips and music from the original work are being reproduced.  Copyright laws can be very unclear and subjective but I do not think that either of these videos could be considered legal.

I found this photo on Google Maps while searching in Key West, Florida. I find it to be an interesting scene due to the inability to know what is really happening. Is the man stretching? Is he reaching to pick something up? Or has the Google car actually captured a man at one of the worst times, tripping and falling off a ledge. All scenarios could be true because there is not enough evidence to prove one over the other.

There is something about a photograph that makes it mysterious and creates the ability for there to be alternate explanations for what is happening in the picture. Even though this photograph recreates the scene exactly like it happened, we still do not know for sure what is going on. This is where I think Walter Benjamin states it best in his article “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” when he says, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (page 3). If we were actually standing at this place where this picture was taken and we had the ability to watch what was happening there would only be one scenario we could imagine. But since this is just one single frame of existence stripped away from all the surrounding context, there are now many stories one can come up with because there is no way to truly know the truth from a single picture.