OK, this morning I recieved an email from Lucasfilms regarding the http://dvd.starwars.com website. Looks like there is potentially going to be a lot of new stuff on there ans they are pre-warning webmasters that this content is exclusive and should not be captured and posted.
I am posting this here so people are aware. Whilst Raz, Zed and the moderation team can not take direct responsibility for anything you post, if you start posting images from the exclusive site it is Raz who will get the email complaints admin and tech contact for the forum.
Basically people, be sensible, if you accessed it via the DVD web-link consider it off limits for reposting please.
That's what I was thinking. From experience I have found that the size and importance of a new item on the official website is related to how far down the food chain of websites they go with an email like this.
SWMovies.Net isn't that near the top of the food chain, (i.e. pretty insignificant to LFL) so hopefully that indicates some real goodies.
Raz is right about the fair use clause, but the problem is that we all know that LFL would go to court and there are very few people out there who would be willing to risk going up against LFL lawyers. Who could afford to do it? Without the lawyers to argue your case you would still end up loosing.
I'm thinking trailer and teaser poster here. There's reportedly a big desire in LFL to beat the record on trailer downloads that was let by LOTR I believe.
You also have to recognise that the fair use clause does make mention of the quantity of an item used. I think there is also an issue with regards to restriction but I am no lswyer. By giving this restriction notice I think it is safe to say that anyone who does step over the line would find themselves in a very shakey position indeed.
I sent an email to Paul Ens on the fair use issue and he was kind enough to reply.
What he basically says is that anything on StarWars.Com is OK, as long as it is reported in such a way that it does not negate the need to visit the source. i.e. Fair Use as defined previously.
He woudn't be drawn on whether the content on http://DVD.StarWars.Com would become available on the regular site though.
It appears that SW.C are within there rights to request no external disclosure on the dvd site right now as there is very little there that could be displayed elsewhere without violating the fair use clause.
I think it will get interesting if they release the trailer through the dvd site as a screen cap would fall into fair use, but they want to ban them as well.