Star Wars!
Policy: No commercial gain, Doesn't sully image

In an article found at http://www.lclark.edu/~loren/cyberlaw97/morrisseybutler.htm , the section about Derivative Works, the author quotes Jennifer Granick as saying the following about Lucasfilms "tolerates the publication of fan fiction, so
long as the stories are not for commercial gain and don't sully the
'family' image of the Star Wars characters."

This matches with what is said in Web Wars: The corporate crackdown on fan websites, an article by Jeff Yorio published May 17, 1997.  This article gives an earlier pre-Internet policy for Star Wars.  It says:

At the height of the original Star Wars phenomenon, Lucasfilm was wary of giving its stamp of approval to the tremendous amount of fan fiction being published. Their solution, according to Gran, was to set up a no-fee licensing bureau that reviewed material and offered criticism about what might be considered copyright infringement. The ugliness of legal threats was avoided, and fans could still have their say. "That was an ingenious and creative way to accomplish the same result without alienating a lot of fans," says Gran. 

Information at Space.Com seems to indicate a shift in policy from the above, published in 1997.  In an article published November 7, 1999, the policy seems to be zero tolerance of fan fiction.  The following  is the extract from the article pertaining to this:

Fan fiction not welcome
While the news indicates that the Star Wars empire is taking a few cautious steps toward an "open source" model, Lucas is far from giving away all the keys to his kingdom. 

The site is very stringent about only wanting "parodies and documentaries" -- no "attempts to expand on the Star Wars universe will be accepted," ensuring that George Lucas and the company he founded remain the only sources for canonical information and stories about Star Wars and its characters.

Jeanne Cole, a Lucasfilms Ltd. spokesperson, is quoted as saying the following in a paper found at http://members.spree.com/sip1/ussferryboat/TS/Fanfiction_paper.htm:
 

"What can you do? How can you control it? As we look at it, we appreciate the fans, and what would we do without them? If we anger them, what's the point?" 

Miscellanies.Net, a site created by Elizabeth Durak in protest of Star War's attempts to encourage fans to move all their Star Wars material to the official site, quotes a message from the StarWars.com dated March 30, 200 as saying the following on the question of Lucasfilms trying to control fan sites:

Lucasfilms has always been pleased with the enthusiasm and creativity of Star Wars fans and offering free webspace at fan.starwars.com is just another way to allow fans to participate in the Star Wars universe. At the same time, in order to protect that universe, Lucasfilms must request that you not create any derivative works based on Star Wars for anything other than personal, noncommercial purposes. It is the intent of this policy to avoid the possibility of future misunderstandings when projects developed by Lucasfilm?s professional staff might seem to others to be similar to their own creative work."

Elizabeth Durak further backs up this point on her page Miscellanies.Net launch March 10, 200, when she quotes from fan.starwars.com's Terms of Service.  Section 8.6 as quoted by Elizabeth Durak reads 

"Solely for the purposes of displaying your Homestead-powered Web site on the Internet, for Homestead's and Lucasfilm's advertising and promotional purposes, and for the purposes set forth in these Terms of Service, you hereby grant to us the right to exercise all intellectual property rights, in any media now known or not currently known, with respect to any content you place on your Homestead-powered Web site."

In a post to HPFGU-OTChatter by Neil Ward, he confirms Star Wars hypersensitivity when it comes to their copyright.  In a post dated April  22, 2001, he says the following:

I recall that George Lucas, or his advisers, were said to be very sensitive about their trademarks.  I band I know of, for example, were forced to change their name from Skywalker to Solar Race, as this was reckoned to be a misuse of the character's name.  A few years later, there was a DJ (IIRC) called Skyywalker, who got away with it because of that extra 'Y'! 

The big eight usenet groups (comp., humanities, rec., misc., news., sci., soc., and talk.) feared receiving cease and desists from Lucasfilms Ltd.  When Star Wars fans went through the proper procedure to create a Star Wars fan fiction newsgroups in the days before the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, they said no because all traffic to that group would be by its nature illegal.

Marc Hedlund, director of Internet development for Lucasfilms, is quoted in an article found at Echostation that the company tolerates the publication of fan fiction, so long as the stories are not for commercial gain and don't sully the "family" image of the Star Wars characters.

Echostation has a lengthy discussion about a Star Wars fan film titled "The Dark Redemption" about the tales of Mara Jade. Lucasfilms sent the web site which had the movie information, production information, the sale of the video, etc a cease and desist.  This move was not all that unexpected and the people in charge of the film pulled the material.  This tale has worried a number of fan fiction authors becuse it is in a sense the same thing fan fiction writers do only in a different medium.

Recursive example of copyright censorship (Score:3, Insightful)
by FreeUser on Wednesday March 22, @10:25AM EST (#14)
(User Info) http://jean.nu/ mentions another Star Wars fan film, "Star Wars: The Remake"  a 15 minute silent film, receiving cease and desists from Lucasfilms and then mysteriously vanishing off the net. 

There is yet another discussion of Star Wars official policy regarding fan fiction in "Is Luke Skywalker Gay" published April 14, 2000 by David Plotz at Slate's website.  There are two notable quotes from this article.  The first is

Lucasfilm has suppressed Skywalker slash on the grounds that it harms the Star Wars image, but it allows PG-rated fanfic.

and

Lucasfilm is flexing this muscle for obvious reasons. It fears a lawsuit by some fan claiming that Lucas stole her plot for his next movie. 

Valdron, in a post to Scifi.Com's message board dated February 23, 2000 mentions an incident involving George Lucas and Gene Rodenberry in regards to fan appropriation.  He says:

In fact, there is a probably apocryphal story that George Lucas once went to Gene Roddenberry to ask him what to do about all the copyright violations being perpetrated by fans. Roddenberry is supposed to have told Lucas "Leave them alone, they'll make you rich!" 

Have you got more information to add to what is already here? Do you have history on the origins of this policy? Send all Questions, Comments, Suggestions to Fan Fiction Policy Support.