CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

He's just trying to control the narrative now that he and his sycophants are apparently done spamming the Kickstarter comments. The delusion is strong with that one.

 

Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I guess I'm gonna have to eat sushi...

 

Alec, you got caught with your hands in the cookie jar and now your paying it back. Had you not got caught, you would not be paying that money back. How stupid do you think we are? Self imposed restitution does not alter the fact that spend money that was not yours. Your a fucking thief and you got caught, nothing more to it. Many of these donors believed in you and gave you there a hard earned money.

 

This might be a good time to mention 17 U.S.C. § 506, which makes "willfully infringing" a copyright a crime--punishable by up to five years in prison--if said infringement was "for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain." And while I'd have to check with the Justice Department, I'm fairly certain, "But I'm Star Trek's biggest fan!" is not a viable criminal defense under this statute.

And while I'm thinking out loud here, I'd also direct everyone's attention to 18 U.S.C. § 1962, which is popularly known as the RICO statute. This happy little fellow makes it a crime to use any income "derived, directly or indirectly, from a pattern of racketeering activity" to establish or operate a business. And yes, criminal copyright infringement is expressly defined as a "racketeering activity." And the maximum penalty for racketeering is 20 years in prison plus forfeiture of all ill-gotten gains.

 

Hopefully the folks at L&L or perhaps the DOJ are keeping this in mind.

 

Is it also a crime to divert financial assets of your corporation to yourself as payroll and expenses generating tax deductions which you keep, [hypothetically] pay no personal income taxes because of how you structured it, and then put the money back the next year, whereby the cycle could be continued indefinitely? When you openly declare that in retrospect it was *never* intended as payroll or expenses?

Haven't you just manipulated the payroll and business expense tax systems to give yourself a negative-interest loan paid for by the govt?

And isn't the situation aggravated and amplified by wiring several people into the loop, not just yourself?

As I see it, the only way Alec could get out of this would be to admit that yes, the original payments *were* intended as payroll and expenses, and that his "putting back" of money was a voluntary unrelated act. Is he really going to try to go so far as tell the IRS the deductions were taken by mistake? He said its all squared away except for "some entries in the taxes". Is he really going to try to sell the IRS on the idea that it was not intentional?

So if he denies it was pay and expenses, potential crime. If he admits it, caught with hand in cookie jar.

Guess its his choice.

 

Someone got owned.........

 

So you are saying that it is possible that the NIGHTMARE SCENARIO isn't that "the film that thousands (or tens of thousands) of people want to see doesn't get made?"

How lovely.

 

I find it interesting that the "the most transparent fan-film" has to redact the financial information so the donors won't see where the money went; they can only see Alec's doctored accounting (pre-court documents). Not really so transparent.

 

On last Sunday's G&T Show someone--I think it was @jespah--compared LFIM to Frank Abignale, Jr., the famous con artist who was the subject of the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can. Personally, I think LFIM is more like Kevin Trudeau, the FTC's longtime arch-nemesis who is now serving a 10-year federal prison sentence.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Trudeau spent years producing and appearing in infomercials designed to sell bogus cures to people on subjects ranging from curing cancer to getting out of debt. He was the subject of numerous FTC orders, which he largely disregarded, claiming he was the victim of a government conspiracy to silence him and his followers. Here's just one highlight of Trudeau's shenanigans, according to a 2010 opinion from the Seventh Circuit in Chicago:

Trudeau actually beat the contempt conviction in that case, but he was quickly cited again for failing to obey a 2004 FTC settlement, which led to his present incarceration. The Seventh Circuit upheld that conviction earlier this year.

Incidentally, Trudeau's lawyers are Winston & Strawn. Sound familiar?

 

Holey buckets, Alec will be apoplectic when he finds out. He strikes me as someone not used to being told "no". Kickstarter, what a bunch of #haters, eh?

 

I am very familiar with Kevin Trudeau - having had to rescue a few family members from his scams and schemes - but I had no idea he was represented by W&S.

How interesting....

 

Lord Garth could plead temporary insanity, compelled to skirt the law by his love of Trek and mission to rescue it for the fans.

You know, original costumes may have more mojo than expected.

 

Why us everyone taking Alec at his word that he paid anything back? Again, show us the cancelled checks and/or the bank statements.

 

I'm guessing Peters is going to find it difficult to ever raise money on Kickstarter or Indigogo ever again.

 

It just makes it worse for him if you give him credit and there is a lie that comes out later. I'm fine entertaining something like 150k donation or 400k studio buyout claims (as hypotheticals, whether or not I believe it), and don't want to get in his way if he wants to walk out into the air past the cliff edge. Give him credit, then demand he prove it.

 

Scumbags, the whole lot of em

 

What are the chances they are fed up and want to force a settlement out of Axanar?