They are coaching fans with "talking points" now.
Any examples?
here you go
Hi everyone,
We've worked up a series of talking points about the lawsuit that will help keep the online conversations productive and on-point (from our position, anyway). Please feel free to use these talking points in your own comments when you post them to Facebook or any of the comments sections of the dozens of articles currently running their stories about the lawsuit.
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Key Talking Points re: CBS/Paramount Lawsuit
1. Axanar Productions (Alec) found out about the lawsuit through the news media. The lawsuit was not served until Wednesday, Dec. 30th.
2. Axanar Productions and Alec are known at CBS and could have contacted the production directly with their concerns and suggestions for addressing those concerns; but chose to file a lawsuit instead.
3. Axanar Productions takes this lawsuit seriously and wants to work out an amicable and mutually beneficial solution with the original IP owners. We have already reached out to them.
4. For more than forty years, CBS and Paramount have allowed fans to produce Star Trek films. We celebrate ALL fan films on our website and have documented much of the history of Star Trek fan films there (in articles written, incidentally, by a Star Trek fan).
5. We’re not doing anything new here – we’re just doing it differently and with the help of fans who are professionals in various aspects of production, design, marketing, etc. If there’s a professional “edge” to Axanar Production’s work, it’s because these fans are really good at what they do.
6. We believe that fans who work on Axanar Production’s projects (i.e. PRELUDE TO AXANAR and AXANAR) should be compensated for their effort beyond a pat on the back. We can’t afford to pay full union rates, but we do pay something to help defer the costs associated with providing skilled talent to our projects. There are aspects of production which cannot be done by unskilled fans, and almost every fan film deals with this problem by occasionally paying skilled technicians for their time when necessary.
7. Why CBS and Paramount have decided to sue Axanar Productions and thousands of Star Trek fans by proxy is beyond us. It seems an odd thing to do given we’re on the verge of a year-long celebration of Star Trek’s 50th anniversary.
8. Fan activism in Axanar Production’s defense is welcome – after all, Star Trek has a history of fans rushing to the franchise’s rescue since the mid-1960’s when Bjo Trimble and thousands of other Trek fans flooded the mailroom at NBC to give the original series a third season.
9. While fan support is appreciated, Axanar Productions won’t actively coordinate a response to either CBS or Paramount. We want to work with them on this issue, not intentionally antagonize them.
10. We ask fans to be civil, respectful, factual and persistent in expressing their displeasure and urge all parties to work out a mutually beneficial outcome.
11. All fan films solicit for donations. We're certainly not the only fan film that has utilized the power of crowd-funding to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. We're just the most open and honest about how much has been raised, and where the money goes. Our Axanar Annual Report is hailed as a standard in crowd funding. This 23 page document details where every dollar from both of our Kickstarter campaigns was spent, as well as lessons learned and a detailed explanation of costs.
http://www.axanarproductions.com/revised-axanar-annual-report-released/
NOTE:
DO NOT talk about any legal argument.
DO NOT criticize CBS or Paramount or any Star Trek
Best Regards,
Robert Meyer Burnett
Sounds like someone has read too many books by Marc Cushman. The effect and reach of the 1968 letter-writing campaign to save Star Trek has been frequently exaggerated in the service of the self-congratulatory mythology of Star Trek and its fans. It speaks volumes that they're invoking a nostalgic fantasy here.
