First, the issue of copyright infringement. You say that Disney is "notorious for using the law like a cudgel." I say "notorious" is a pretty good word, because it's an over-simplified, shallow, internet-driven perception of the company that isn't backed up by facts. They're made out to be litigation-crazy whenever a story like the one about the day care center using Disney characters on its walls comes to light, but no one points out that it's a company using Disney's characters for their own commercial gain. Or that there are tons of people constantly trying to rip off Disney and being completely shameless about it — for evidence, just look in any bargain bin of DVDs, or drive even a half mile off Disney World property in Orlando.

There is an enormous difference between copyright infringement and "inspiration." People have been making stuff inspired by Star Wars since 1977, and they'll continue to do so. If someone made something that was as derivative of Star Wars as Star Wars is derivative of Flash Gordon, there'd be absolutely no case for copyright infringement. And Lucasfilm has been every bit as likely to defend its trademarks against commercial works as Disney will be.

Where there's a gray area is with fan fiction and fan films. Lucasfilm has been pretty lenient and even encouraging with those; there's no guarantee that Disney will be as lenient. But I just don't have that much sympathy. There are billions of ways to be more creatively inspired by Star Wars than just putting on Stormtrooper helmets and doing a parody.

There's still plenty of opportunity to work with Lucas's characters and settings, though. It's just that now, your work will be the property of Disney instead of the property of Lucasfilm. I think your general tone of "Disney = commercial entertainment product, Lucas = creative work" is also overly simplistic; there's a balance between commerce and creativity in everything, or else George Lucas wouldn't be obscenely wealthy. There's plenty of room for creativity within Disney, and this post gives just a few examples.

The only point that I'd agree with you on: if Lucasfilm had made a 7th Star Wars movie, it would've been because George Lucas wanted to make it, not because he wanted to bring in some more cash. (The fact that he's devoting the money from the sale of Lucasfilm to further education is proof of that). But then, we've seen how that works. And more important is that "inspiration" you were talking about. Whoever ends up working on the 7th Star Wars movie is going to be someone who loves Star Wars and wants to work with those characters. How do we know that for sure? Because Disney just spent four billion dollars on a property, so they're going to do whatever they can not to screw it up.

More evidence: Disney bought Marvel three years ago. After that, they put Joss Whedon — a huge fan of Marvel characters — in charge of The Avengers. Not only was it a fantastic movie, it was a pretty huge pay-off. That should be reason enough for the fans and the accountants to stop worrying.

And finally, as for the "toys and sleeping bags and breakfast cereals" that Disney sells: have you seen what Lucasfilm licensing has been doing for the past 25 years?