Lit The Heart of the Jedi by Kenneth. C Flint

I never really thought of it that way! It was so artistically done.

 

There's lot of strong opinions here that I don't really share.

My copy arrived today. I am thrilled to have it, excited to read it, and will enjoy adding it to my novel collection.

I think it's very cool that someone put the effort to create this, and that I got the opportunity to order a copy. It's a good reflection of the love for the GFFA. The only thing that would have turned me off is if the author or editor did not know about the printing or were not in favor of it, which doesn't seem to be the case.

 

For anybody interested in hearing my thoughts and theories about The Heart of the Jedi, just click my YouTube link in my sig. My co-host and I just put up a podcast discussion about the whole debacle.

 

I think it’s fine that someone published the story as Disney obviously doesn’t care about that. I think copyright infringement should be taken seriously. And this is very blatantly that. I would definitely sue the **** out of whoever this was if I was Disney.

The laws need to change to allow for fan art and fan creations to be not at the whim of the company. However I think Disney does have every right to protect their rights to their IP especially for people who were selling it.

Should someone be able to sell copies of Star Wars detours without the permission of Disney? No. This is the exact same situation in my mind.

As I said earlier Lucasfilm obviously didn’t care the book was out there for Free or even gave permission we don’t know. It’s another game altogether when someone is selling something they have no legal right to. And if you tell me that the copyright on a book from 30ish years ago should have expired. I would say that would be horrible law.

So I for one am glad that **** got shut down. There is a case to be made against Amazon as well. But I have already said my piece on that.

 

I agree that it is likely copywrite infringement, of both Bantam and Lucasfilm (Star Wars) based on the format of the printing. I say 'likely' because I'm not a copywrite lawyer.

Obviously I don't care (I bought one), and I'll leave it to Disney and the lawyers to sort it out. You may think that makes me morally bankrupt because I put my own benefit ahead of anothers lawful property. I just say no harm, no foul but acknowledge the slippery slope.

I'd also like to propose an alternate reason why the book is no longer on Amazon. I believe the seller said he wanted a copy of The Heart of the Jedi for his bookshelf and decided to create the book and print it via Amazon. I'm assuming Amazon requires a minimum number of copies to proceed with a printing. It may just be that the initial printing run sold all its copies, and the seller has no reason to create more. Just a theory.

 

Wouldn’t bother me. Disney doesn’t seem interested in selling copies of it.

 

Still their property and they should have the legal right to do what they please with it. No one should ever so long as copyright is still good be able to make money off the IP of others that the company themselves are not okay with.

Say in the case of valve where they let the creators of Black Mesa make money off their game. That’s fine. However it’s also perfectly valid for a company to say no we aren’t going to sell this book and sue anyone to oblivion because they very clearly broke the law. This isn’t a really morally grey area. Stealing other works while still under copy right and then selling it? That’s not defensible in my view. Like ever.

Don’t get it twisted Disney isn’t a good company. However that doesn’t mean I am going to be okay with it when someone so blatantly violates the law. Not only violating a law, but also selling it on top of it.

This book was available for years and Lucasfilm and Disney were almost certainly aware of it. It was available for free which is why they didn’t care because they weren’t going to do anything with the book. My problem is selling other people’s works that you have literally no legal or moral right to sell. Even if this was at coast doesn’t change anything in my mind.

I don’t have a problem with people reading the book in general. I have a problem with someone selling it. That’s literally it

 

In the scenario of the Detours/HotJ comparison Disney can’t own Detours anymore though. Either the ownership of Detours reverted to Seth MacFarlane, he uploaded it to YouTube, and someone started selling burned discs of it for the cost of a DVD-R, or else Kenneth Flint released HotJ online without the legal right to publish his manuscript.

 

Huh? Detours and heart of the Jedi are still very much owned by Lucasfilm. The rights will never revert to either creators. That would be like saying that if Bad Batch was cancelled today it would eventually be owned by Dave Filoni.

It’s amazing that Lucasfilm didn’t ask Flint to take down the free version. Which is why I think he actually got the go ahead to publish it For free

 

In that case Disney would have allowed Seth MacFarlane to upload Detours on the internet for free, indicating they had no intention of ever releasing it for purchase. In which case I’d still find it very difficult to care about someone converting free digital media to physical media and selling them without profit. The only way money’s being lost is by Disney/Lucasfilm deciding not to sell something that people would have been willing to pay them for.

 

@iFrankenstein
I think you mean Seth Green.

 

So many Seths!

 

just so we are clear I have never read this book. It’s been a long time since I have read a book not for college.

 

Correct Lucasfilm isn’t losing money as they never released the book. That’s not my point. It should be up to the IP holder weather something is sold or not. No one should be allowed to sell a work that they had literally nothing to do with. Again Disney isn’t a good company. But that doesn’t mean I want their IP stolen and sold.

 

It is also not a guarantee that Lucasfilm ISN'T losing money. It is entirely possible that there are people who buy a limited number of Star Wars books, and bought this one in lieu of a book being sold by Lucasfilm. That is an important concept in Trademark/Copyright law.

 

True enough. I can almost guarantee that some people bought this book purely because it wasn’t made by Disney. Even more reason to sue. That’s if they can actually figure out who sold it in the first place. Which I doubt would be that hard.

 

Damn I wish I had known about this a month ago; that would have been a cool paperback to own

 

Evidence that many of the people who bought it did so specifically because it wasn't made by "Disney" is readily available on Twitter, as well as plenty of evidence that certain fans were promoting it heavily in order to harm sales of Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good. Still not a lawyer, but I suspect that if Disney wanted to claim they'd suffered financial loss as a result of their IP being stolen here, they could make the case.

Also, as a quick side note to the discussion about whether or not anyone is making any profit from this:

 

This is why I cannot see Heart of the Jedi as an accurate indicator of interest in more Legends stories. There definitely is interest, but this book is by far a collector's item first, and a Legends story second - at least right now.

 

Those are secondhand prices. I have a used copy of Zorba the Hutt's Revenge I can let go for $200 if anyone's interested.

 

Correct, that is a screenshot of at least one person making an enormous profit from their purchase on the secondhand market. (There are many others.) I realize it's not the same thing as the original Amazon publisher / seller profiting from it, I just thought it interesting in light of the original product description claiming that "no profit is being made" and "no one is trying to make a quick buck." Do you suppose any of these sellers intend to redirect the proceeds of their sales to Mr. Flint? (In fairness, one auction I saw does claim to benefit St. Jude's Children's Hospital, which is admittedly nice if true.)

I'll be honest, I do respect the hustle, but you might want to scale back that grand ambition just a tad:

 

I always despise second hand sellers. Even more so in this case as they are selling something they shouldn’t even have.

When I say second hand. I mean the people who sell a PS5 for 1,000 dollars. Or sell this book for 200. If you want to sell a book or console you already own for a decent price good for you.

 

Second-hand sellers are generally fine. This is more akin to scalping.

Edit:

Ok, we're on the same page then.

 

I don’t even care if you sell it for a bit more than market value. Just don’t sell anything for twice it’s value. It just pisses me off.