Potential plagarism by ST: Titan TV series fan campaign?

[Sumghai]

I've been following the recent fan campaigning CBS for a potential ST: Titan TV series for a wee bit now.

A while ago, the page admins posted on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekTitan) and YouTube a CGI video of the Ent-E going into warp. Amidst glowing praises by rabid fans, a YouTube user immediately revealed that A) the animation was a fan creation and B) he was the original artist and they stole the video from him.

After being called out on this, as well as not giving credit to the artist, the video was pulled (or at least, made private).

More recently, the Titan fan page admins posted this:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

Again, no attribution or credit given to the original artist(s), and an image lookup revealed that it was cover art from an upcoming ST novel.

I've bought these issues to the attention of the page admins, who have so far deleted my comments.

Thoughts? Or am I making mountains out of molehills?

[Count Zero]

I don't know but I think you're posting this in the wrong section of the board. I'm moving it to fan productions.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I think they need to educate themselves a bit about permissions and attribution. "Plagiarism" isn't the appropriate term here unless they claim to have animated or painted those things themselves. My guess is that they don't see the difference between what they're doing and about a thousand videos at YouTube that use CG and model shots from the Star Trek movies (which is also not necessarily legally okay, but it's widespread).

[Sumghai]

Count Pony wrote:

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I don't know but I think you're posting this in the wrong section of the board. I'm moving it to fan productions.

Okie doke.

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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I think they need to educate themselves a bit about permissions and attribution. "Plagiarism" isn't the appropriate term here unless they claim to have animated or painted those things themselves. My guess is that they don't see the difference between what they're doing and about a thousand videos at YouTube that use CG and model shots from the Star Trek movies (which is also not necessarily legally okay, but it's widespread).

I'll admit "plagarism" might not be the optimal choice of words here, although I did so based on past experiences...

Aside from being a Trekker, I'm an Adult Fan of Lego (AFOL) who regularly posts models and creations on Flickr. The general culture of Flickr is that if you posted something on your "photostream", you are in effect declaring you are the original artist, even if you don't explicitly say so.

Now, some inexperienced kids would go download other people's LEGO creation photos and reupload them onto their own stream. Most use lame excuses like "I didn't know there was a favourite button" or "I thought it was cool, so I'll save them for myself", although there has been the odd case of said kids claiming ownership of the photos.

Eventually, a whole bunch of us grown-ups were fed up with this, and started a Flickr group called Brick~Busters that would identify and screencap these kids (dubbed "swipers") as part of a name-and-shame campaign - if the publicity didn't get them to repent and remove the images, we would send Flickr an infringement report and watch the admins take the photos down.

I suppose social sites like Facebook work differently to photo/artwork sharing sites like Flickr and DeviantArt. A pity there isn't a proper reporting mechanism on FB.


Interestingly, the Titan fan admins finally responded by claiming that they did have permission from the "artist's agent but not direct contact". My response, of course, is to ask them why didn't they post a disclaimer in the first place.

[Linnear]

I have a serious problem with this group. They clearly have no clue what they are doing. And they are duping people into giving them money, so they can get more "likes" on their Facebook page!

A total scam in my book.

Alec

[Sumghai]

Linnear wrote:

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I have a serious problem with this group. They clearly have no clue what they are doing. And they are duping people into giving them money, so they can get more "likes" on their Facebook page!

A total scam in my book.

They've basically told me that if I had any more questions, I should just email them and not post on the FB wall for all to see - looks like they're trying to internalize and quell any dissent.

Perhaps somebody should email CBS about this? I've heard that whilst the company (probably) has ambivalent attitudes towards fan productions, they'll definitely clamp down on peeps misusing Trek IP (be it selling knockoff merch or bogus TV campaigns)

[Danlav05]

All they are doing is getting people to 'like for a STAR TREK TITAN series starring Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis and Tim Russ' if they get a million likes.

[COLOR=#000000]

[COLOR=#000000]We are a group that is campaigning for a new Star Trek series based after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis following the mission of Captain William T Riker aboard the USS Titan a ship mentioned in Star Trek: Nemesis but never seen.

Our goal is to gain 1 Million plus followers on Facebook which we will then contact CBS for the series to be made we are able to gain funding but until we reach 1 million followers we will not be able to start production as Cys can be made.[/COLOR]

[/COLOR]

Even if they are genuine in their intentions they are going about it completely the wrong way.

Is it a petition or a project? There is no clarity whatsoever.

They will not say WHO they are and what they are doing, so they almost certainly can't be industry professionals.

Compare that to the Renegade project who list personnel, and have OF GODS AND MEN under their belt, whatevr you may think of it.

I asked who they are and what exactly this was. They deleted the comment. I unliked the page - this is either a con or they're completely deluded, I'm sorry to say.

I'd love a Sirtis/Frakes Titan series hopefully someone will do it someday.

[Tom]

A Titan series is never going to happen. What do they need funding for? Are they planning to make the show themselves? do they have any production experience? Sounds like either dreamers or swindlers to me. Looks like the guy putting this on is out of Denmark. I can tell you that none of the actors he has listed to star in the series is on board with this, so that's a lie and i'm also sure he has not talked to CBS.

[doubleohfive]

Sumghai wrote:

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I'll admit "plagarism" might not be the optimal choice of words here, although I did so based on past experiences...

Aside from being a Trekker, I'm an Adult Fan of Lego (AFOL) who regularly posts models and creations on Flickr. The general culture of Flickr is that if you posted something on your "photostream", you are in effect declaring you are the original artist, even if you don't explicitly say so.

Now, some inexperienced kids would go download other people's LEGO creation photos and reupload them onto their own stream. Most use lame excuses like "I didn't know there was a favourite button" or "I thought it was cool, so I'll save them for myself", although there has been the odd case of said kids claiming ownership of the photos.

Eventually, a whole bunch of us grown-ups were fed up with this, and started a Flickr group called Brick~Busters that would identify and screencap these kids (dubbed "swipers") as part of a name-and-shame campaign - if the publicity didn't get them to repent and remove the images, we would send Flickr an infringement report and watch the admins take the photos down.

I suppose social sites like Facebook work differently to photo/artwork sharing sites like Flickr and DeviantArt. A pity there isn't a proper reporting mechanism on FB.

So you guys are a bunch of adults playing with LEGOs bullying kids who save your pictures to their streams because they don't know any better? Classy.

As for the original topic, why would you report this to CBS? Are these people making money off the Titan project? Because if they aren't I don't see how or why CBS would care about any of this.

[Tom]

Well they are taking money (kickstarter, selling merchandise) indicating that they will be producing a show that supposably CBS would approve of if they got 1 million 'likes' (good luck with that BTW lol). Thing is, who are they? they have no past productions or anything showing that they can produce. They are lieing about the cast participation, I know that for a fact. To me it looks like this one guy from Denmark who is either a big dreamer and/or con artist trying to dupe Star Trek fans.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

How much money have they collected? the Kickstarter link on their home page doesn't work.

[batboy853]

Im not seeing anything on that page related to collecting money to me it looks like any other facebook group. Yeah they show images of T-shirts, but no where to buy them, and mention kickstart but I think they are talking about kickstart as in collecting likes. like a petition to cbs like a "hey you said you wanted viewers, here's 1 million viewers" sort of thing.

and with just every other facebook group they post images related to their topic, they dont claim to be the original owners. like right now on my main feed i'm seeing people who have posted images of the peanuts gang, various memes, they aren't the original author....

In addition facebook's policy is if you have the original artwork, like original image file you created then you can claim to own the painting and then facebook would remove the image, same with flickr and every other image service.

I think you guys are taking facebook way too seriously.

[Captain Atkin]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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How much money have they collected? the Kickstarter link on their home page doesn't work.

It looks like they don't have a Kickstarter page. I did a search on the Kickstarter site, and found nothing. If they did have one, Kickstarter probably shut it down.

[Sumghai]

Danlav05 wrote:

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Is it a petition or a project? There is no clarity whatsoever.

They will not say WHO they are and what they are doing, so they almost certainly can't be industry professionals

Their description claims that they have a CGI team making campaign videos, as well as the expertise to do all the SFX for the actual TV show.

Quite frankly, given that the only video they have is a whole bunch of fading text (their Ent-E warp CGI vid was outed as stolen from another YT user), not sure if these guys are serious or screwing with Trek fans.

doubleohAHHHHHH!!!!! wrote:

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So you guys are a bunch of adults playing with LEGOs bullying kids who save your pictures to their streams because they don't know any better? Classy.

The word is building, thank you very much.

The BB group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/brick-busters/) started out after an AFOL's creation was submitted by a kid as an entry for an official LEGO contest, which he subsequently won. Once we passed word through to LEGO Legal regarding the actual builder, Legal stripped the kid of the accolade, much to his distress.

Since then we've been working with both LEGO's Creation Lab and CUUSOO admins in taking down plagarized models, as well as our usual stint on Flickr. The community appreciate our efforts very much.

But I digress.

Captain Atkin wrote:

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It looks like they don't have a Kickstarter page. I did a search on the Kickstarter site, and found nothing. If they did have one, Kickstarter probably shut it down.

They've since stated they are going to nix their Kickstarter by using proceeds from their website ads to pay for more FB ads (and in turn, more likes).

[batboy853]

so what is your gripe? they aren't collecting money, not profiting from it, so it seems like it is just like every other facebook group. and they aren't claiming the work they post is their own. so why are you trolling them?