Lucas v. Lucas

CEASE AND DESIST DEMAND
Pursuant to Title 17 of the United States Code

Law Offices of Smith, Brown, and Jones
13011 Avenue of the Stars
Century City, CA

91376

Dear Mr. Smith, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Jones:

It has come to the attention of our client, Mr. George Walton Lucas, Jr. (hereafter referred to as “the plaintiff”), that your client, Mr. George Walton Lucas, Jr. (hereafter referred to as “the defendant”), has infringed upon the copyright of the work of the plaintiff. Specifically, the defendant’s film American Graffiti (1974) contains work derivative of the plaintiff’s film Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), and, as such, violates Title 17 of the United States Code, which grants monopoly protection for original works of authorship.

We have found the unauthorized use of the plaintiff’s work being used on Netflix on Wednesday,
June 8th, 2022.

Specifically, the defendant’s film contains a drag race scene that is derived, without permission, from the pod racer scene in the plaintiff’s film. To clarify,

• The tensions of each film as a whole are reduced to a single conflict, mediated through said races, between two characters: Sebulba and Anakin Skywalker in the plaintiff’s film, Bob Falfa and John Milner in the defendant’s.

• Both race scenes feature vehicles which are illegally altered.

• Both feature strange alien creatures such as Jabba the Hutt, a toad-like creature in the case of the plaintiff’s film, and the character nicknamed “Toad” in the case of the defendant’s unauthorized work.

• Both race scenes conclude with a fiery crash.

Furthermore, the events depicted in Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace predate those in American Graffiti, as evidenced by W. Haden Blackman’s graphic short story “Into the Great Unknown,” featured in Star Wars Tales #19 (published May 14, 2004, by Dark Horse Comics). In this story, Mr. Han Solo, fleeing the Galactic Empire, crash-lands on Earth and is killed by Native Americans. According to Mr. Blackman’s narrative, Dr. Indiana Jones discovers Mr. Solo’s body some one hundred and twenty-six years after Mr. Solo’s unfortunate demise. Since Dr. Jones was born in 1899 (per The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992-1993), produced by Amblin Television/Lucasfilm in association with Paramount Network Television), the date of Dr. Jones’ discovery places Mr. Solo’s arrival on Earth sometime in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. As such, events in the plaintiff’s film Phantom Menace predate those in the
defendant’s unauthorized work American Graffiti.

The strength of our potential lawsuit has been established by the Supreme Court’s decisions in
these recent landmark cases:

• Lucas v. Gordon
• Lucas v. Riefenstahl
• Lucas v. Kurosawa
• Lucas v. Herbert
• Lucas v. Lao Tzu
• Lucas v. Campbell
• Lucas v. Rohr
• Lucas v. Lang
• Lucas v. Jaggar

We, therefore, demand that your client, the defendant, within 30 days of your receipt of this letter,
cease and desist the use and distribution of the film American Graffiti. If your client fails to comply
with this requirement, we will take any and all available legal remedies against your client, and
will seek all available damages.

Sincerely,
James J. Smith
Senior Attorney