Fan Edit - Fair Use Issues

Fair Use Issues

While fan edits skirt the lines of fair use, their creators emphasize the use of the final product should only be for those who own the source material (often commercial DVDs), and are not to be distributed for profit or other personal gain. Lucasfilm is aware of the existence of Star Wars fan edits, and has stated they will take action when they believe copyright infringement has taken place.

In July 2007, Lucasfilm took action against fan editor "daveytod" after taking issue with his fan edit documentary, The Clones Revealed. It is unclear exactly why Lucasfilm took this action against "daveytod". Their email to him cited the possibility of 'consumer confusion', that The Clones Revealed might be mistaken for an official Lucasfilm product. The email was sent to several active members of the fan editing community and resulted in the short down time of FanEdit.org until it was made clear which film was being cited with a cease and desist. The reasoning given by Lucasfilm's anti-piracy team during communications with http://fanedit.org moderators seemed to display the mistaken impression that 'The Clones Revealed' was an Episode II bootleg.

In November 2008, http://fanedit.org was briefly closed after receiving a complaint from the MPAA regarding the use of links to its copyrights appearing on the site. After a three day downtime, the website reopened without any links to potentially infringing files.

Fanedit.org has a policy to not allow fanedits made from pirated versions of films to be listed in its database. One notable victim of this policy is The Purist Edit, made from the leaked DVD screener of the theatrical version of the film. Despite being the second major fanedit available and its historical importance, it's not listed on fanedit.org