Legal Wars: Episode I

Online auctions in hot water over Star Wars trailers...


by empire |
Published on

With the second trailer to Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace recently released in the states, it appears some fans are willing to cross legal lines to cash in on the picture's immense hype. A search on eBay, the San Jose-based online auction house, found 25 prints of the first and second trailers for the upcoming picture available to bidders. Flustered attorneys from Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox had several of the auctions shut down by eBay after contacting the auction house. But as of yesterday, 25 copies of the trailers were still very much for sale. "What they're doing is an illegal act, and we will do anything we can possibly do to protect our copyright,'' said Tom Sherak, chairman of 20th Century Fox's Domestic Film Group. "We are dealing with this as we speak'' added a Lucasfilm spokesperson, "Once some of the sites are taken down, more appear. That's a real problem. We're trying to work something out with eBay, but right now, it has to be done on a case-by-case basis'' Incredibly, two never-opened copies of the second trailer, complete with "original sealing sticker" and in SDDS and DTS audio formats, were sold Wednesday by two California residents pocketing them an easy $360 a piece. Not bad considering the bids began at just $25. Other bids have also netted considerable profits, with mint condition prints of the original trailer, still sealed with stickers from 20th Century Fox netting $200 and $300 each. But the recent trailer auctions on the Web aren't the first. A copy of the first trailer was sold for $405 on eBay in December. There is no word on how the sellers got the trailers, and eBay will not disclose contact information. Kevin Pursglove, a spokesperson for eBay, said the company would be willing to work with Lucasfilm and Fox if sellers were pushing illegal material. "If they requested that we take down the bidding sites, we would do so immediately, no questions asked,'' Pursglove said. ''We work very actively with content providers and encourage them to give us a call if there is any problem with products being sold''

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