The Wall Street Journal reports that starting tomorrow (as part of a celebration of the 30-year anniversary of the first film's debut) users will be able to submit their mash-ups clips to posting on the site. Lucasfilm has a team of screeners in Costa Rica who will watch all of the fans' mash-ups before they are posted on the site, to ensure that no one uploads pornography or other objectionable material.

It seems like a significant step that Lucas, who has been fierce in protecting his copyrights on the series, has decided that it is now better to try and harness fans' enthusiasm for video mash-ups and monetize it.

"We see what's going on at YouTube," says Jeffrey Ulin, senior director for distribution and business affairs at Lucasfilm, who says the company began to think about allowing mash-ups last summer. "We see what's going on out there on the Web generally. And we wanted fans to come to Starwars.com as the center of fan activity." Currently, he estimates, the site attracts about two million unique monthly visitors; he anticipates the new content will boost traffic significantly.

The clips, which run up to 60 seconds long, will assemble memorable moments from the movies, grouped under categories like "Leia Confronts Vader" and "The Lost Limbs" -- the latter a collection of various characters' limbs getting the chop. One category devoted to a much-maligned lizard-like character from the three "Star Wars" prequels urges fans: "Don't be shy. Here's your chance to edit Jar Jar."