May 4, 2022 by Alison Hall

If you’ve ever watched The Big Bang Theory, you know that the guys are obsessed with Star Wars.

In one episode, Leonard suggests a Star Wars marathon weekend to Sheldon, who replies with “Movies or video games? Or board games? Or trading card games? Or Legos? Or dress up? Or comic books? Or dramatic readings of novelizations? Yes to all!”

They settle on the online game. The scene just scratches the surface of all the Star Wars derivative works, many of which I owned “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . . ” (or, more accurately, forty-some years ago in Pittsburgh).

So, just how many hits do you think searching “Star Wars” gets in the Copyright Public Records System? On this Star Wars Day, I got more than 8,400.

Now, not all of them are related to the first Star Wars movie, registered by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1977—for example, some are about the star wars defense system from the 1980s.

But most are on topic, and several can be seen in the Find Yourself in Copyright exhibit.

How do I find myself in Star Wars? I’m an old-school fan—the original trilogy was a huge part of my childhood. I know I’m not alone, given that all three original movies have been added to the National Film Registry. I remember seeing the films in the theater, and I remember how big of a deal it was when Star Wars was on TV for the first time. But even greater are my memories of the creative works that came from the movies.

Source: Find Star Wars in Copyright | Copyright: Creativity at Work