Unauthorized 'Star Wars sequel' faces copyright reality

Three recently published science fiction novels by Chinese writer Zheng Jun have stirred up controversy with their claim to be a "sequel to Star Wars" on the book covers.

The works do not have authorization from Lucasfilm, the copyright holder of the legendary US movie series owned by creator and director George Lucas.

On his popular micro blog, author and translator Qu Chang wrote that it is "surprising the books were published".

Zheng "must have not considered the intellectual property rights" involved in the US movies, Qu noted.

Zheng admitted that he never thought about authorization, claiming he wrote "just a fan work, not the original work", which is clearly stated in the introduction.

His three-episode series expands to 1,000 years after the Star Wars stories. Zheng wrote the first episode in 1999 and finished the last in 2008.

"Characters from Star Wars appear only in the first two chapters of my first book and then it's a new story 1,000 years later with new characters all created by me," Zheng told the Beijing News. "It is a treasure-hunting story."

He said he wrote the books because the stories in the original Star Wars "turn less and less interesting as they go on".

"The story should not belong to George Lucas alone. It belongs to everyone who loves it," he said. "So I decided to write a better story."

He added that the promotional material on the cover billing his books as a sequel to Star Wars is the result of negotiations with his publisher Chongqing Publishing Group.

"If there is any dispute about the copyright, we will try to solve it in the framework of the law," said the writer. "It is our duty to maintain good order in copyrights."

The original six-episode movie series spawned a collection of officially licensed materials known as the Expanded Universe that includes more than 100 books, TV shows, video games and comic books .

Qu said that all those derivatives together form a fictional universe with its own world view, which is "a serious matter". Without authorization, Zheng's books "disrespect the original works".

"They are fake to some extent because they have no connection with Star Wars but have used the fame of Star Wars in promotion," Qu said.

Zhang Hongbo, director-general of the China Written Works Copyright Society, said using the title Star Wars is not necessarily copyright infringement, but could constitute unfair competition because the name might mislead consumers.

If the books use characters, plots or the structure of the original works, they could have copyright problems, but "an authority has to judge how the two works are connected", Zhang said.