In fact, there's nothing new about fans co-opting their favorite media sensations. According to Henry Jenkins, director of comparative media studies at MIT, humans have always reinterpreted the stories they hear. "Throughout most of human history, people operated according to a folk culture model -- that is, they saw themselves as entitled to add to or retell the core myths and stories of their culture."

Jenkins points out that more than 200 appropriations of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" were published in the 20 years after the novel first appeared and many of them circulated commercially.

If anything, what's recent is the inflexibility of media corporations in responding to fans' creations. "Contemporary mass culture assumes that the average citizen consumes but does not participate," says Jenkins, "whereas fandom holds onto the ideal of a culture where everyone is free and able to participate."

Not that many fan filmmakers would turn down an offer to join the big studios. Both "Troops" and "Bounty Trail" helped their creators move on to work in the film industry. "Bounty Trail" caught the attention of Lucas, who subsequently hired the fan-film director to work on the production of the second "Star Wars" prequel.

While technology enables fan filmmakers to achieve near Hollywood effects, it has not delivered the key to good filmmaking. The acting and screenwriting in most fan films are not exactly of Oscar-winning quality, and other production values tend to betray the films' amateur origins. In the "Star Trek" knockoff "Hidden Frontier," you can't help speculating on the little things -- like if those among the cast who actually look good in their Starfleet uniforms are the aspiring actors, while those who do not are the regulars at "Trek" conventions.

"My opinion on fan films (and I've only really seen the 'Star Wars' ones) is that on the whole they're mediocre," says Scott Middlebrook, who has reviewed more than 60 fan-made films for Force Flicks, a "Star Wars" multimedia fan site. "A lot of the more popular films are fairly average -- nothing more than light saber duels with little or no story. Parodies seem to come up better than the serious films. I guess if the film's not taking itself too seriously, it's easier for the audience to do the same. Plus, 'Star Wars' fans can get a tad anal and nit-picking (myself included) about the more serious stuff."

But, again, the effects aren't half-bad. That's partly due to the immense amount of sharing on the Internet among fan filmmakers when it comes to special effects and other production techniques. Many designers who have made their own 3-D models of "Star Wars" vehicles and droids are willing to share their work for credit on a fan film.

A plethora of tutorials -- essentially constituting a "'Star Wars' Filmmaking for Dummies" -- show filmmakers everything from how to create light saber and laser blast effects to making authentic-looking costumes and props. Says Justin Young: "We will always be a step or two behind ILM [Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic], but I think how close we have come would shock most people."

As for the legal issues, fan films appear to fall within a gray area between fan fiction and parody, both of which are legally protected under U.S. law. Within the fan-film scene, de facto rules keep most fan filmmakers from selling their work.

Still, at least one fan film has landed its producer in trouble with the law.

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