CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

[oswriter]

So I asked one of my sources, someone who handles finances for a large nonprofit, about Axanar applying for 501(c)(3) status after raising $1 million through crowfdunding and everything else Peters has done:

No, it sounds like a terrible idea, but it's not technically impossible. If they get good advice about completely giving up their original plans, and can somehow convert their thinking to being truly philanthropic and charitable for public benefit, it is possible. Generally people find it tough to put their egos aside, even in the best scenarios, and from what you've said recently, these folks don't seem like the kind of people who could make it work. They sound like they are at the stage of throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if any noodle will stick.

Well, maybe not spaghetti so much as coffee...

 

[SuperSpaceMan]

New blog post. This one should be obvious: Coffee Talk With Axanar

I have come to wish I could see the reaction at Ares Studios in response to your daily blog....

 

[Noname Given]

So I asked one of my sources, someone who handles finances for a large nonprofit, about Axanar applying for 501(c)(3) status after raising $1 million through crowfdunding and everything else Peters has done:

No, it sounds like a terrible idea, but it's not technically impossible. If they get good advice about completely giving up their original plans, and can somehow convert their thinking to being truly philanthropic and charitable for public benefit, it is possible. Generally people find it tough to put their egos aside, even in the best scenarios, and from what you've said recently, these folks don't seem like the kind of people who could make it work. They sound like they are at the stage of throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if any noodle will stick.

Well, maybe not spaghetti so much as coffee...

- Coffee
- T-Shirts (using one of the 'Minions' ©DreamWorks)
- CDs
-DVDs/Blu-Rays
- A 'U.S.S. Ares' ship model kit (using elements © CBS/Paramount)
- Patches and Emblems (all 'Star Trek' related and using elements © CBS/Paramount)

All the while claiming they're not making 'commercial use' of anything from the Star Trek IP or anything ©CBS/Paramount

 

[nx1701g]

My absolute favorite response to this whole thing appeared in the comments section of the Wall Street Journal article on the subject:

Are these people insane? Are you asking a conglomerate who owns the rights to something you are infringing on to sue you? Or are you going to try to bring a lawsuit against them because you feel they wronged you?

I wonder if this is Peters with another of his accounts? As we've seen before he has a penchant for multiple user names.

P.S. Original Poster I know that this is from reddit, didn't mean these questions against you.

 

[nx1701g]

Hahaha. One of the Axanar Marines schools me about copyright on Reddit:

Oh yeah, the marines are busy over at Reddit. Hell, one of the moderators must be a big supporter of the show because even though my account is three years old (though I only have about 20 posts as I visit Reddit infrequently), I'm "the very definition of a shill account."

Paranoia much?
(I'm avidan2006 if anyone is interested)

Yeah, I had that happen when I was "Speaking" with those 'Marines'. I love how they always go to the "Your a shrill if you disagree with me".

And I thought the more vocal Star Wars fans were bad.

This is getting sad at this point. I'm going to recommend Axanar's next project: The Axanar House for Mental Health.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

At least that sounds charitable. Every little bit towards getting that 501(c)(3) helps!

 

[Karzak]

 

[Amaris]

Oh yeah, the marines are busy over at Reddit. Hell, one of the moderators must be a big supporter of the show because even though my account is three years old (though I only have about 20 posts as I visit Reddit infrequently), I'm "the very definition of a shill account."

Paranoia much?
(I'm avidan2006 if anyone is interested)

I'm really surprised that they haven't shown up here yet.

Good point. I would have expected some to be here by now. I mean TBBS is pretty big, at least big enough to be noticed as a Trek site.

Oh yeah, the marines are busy over at Reddit. Hell, one of the moderators must be a big supporter of the show because even though my account is three years old (though I only have about 20 posts as I visit Reddit infrequently), I'm "the very definition of a shill account."

Paranoia much?
(I'm avidan2006 if anyone is interested)

Yeah, I had that happen when I was "Speaking" with those 'Marines'. I love how they always go to the "Your a shrill if you disagree with me".

And I thought the more vocal Star Wars fans were bad.

It's madness. I get being devoted to something like Star Trek, and wanting a fan film to succeed, but a lot of this behavior is downright cultish. On their sites (Axanar Official site, Axanar FB page, Axanar Fan Group on FB) if you disagree, even in passing, you get banned. Any perceived "negativity" is quickly shot down, and your posts erased when you're banned. That's rather convenient for them considering almost all of my posts explained copyright law and how Axanar violated it.

 

[Ion]

^
Reminds me of that old Psygnosis videogame on the Amiga. What was it? Oh yes...

Lemmings.

 

[Balrog]

I also see that the site is

Copyright © 2016, Axanar Coffee

Not CBS. Not Paramount. Axanar Coffee.

If this isn't a blatant, open-and-shut, rampant misappropriation of the intellectual property of CBS and/or Paramount for a for-profit enterprise (pun unintended), I don't know what is.

Does that "copyright" mean if someone tries to sell a likeness of said coffees without permission, Alec Peters will sue them for 'Copyright Infringement'?

Oh, the Dark Roasted flavor of Irony!

 

[Earthrise]

Hahaha. One of the Axanar Marines schools me about copyright on Reddit:

Oh yeah, the marines are busy over at Reddit. Hell, one of the moderators must be a big supporter of the show because even though my account is three years old (though I only have about 20 posts as I visit Reddit infrequently), I'm "the very definition of a shill account."

Paranoia much?
(I'm avidan2006 if anyone is interested)

Yeah, I had that happen when I was "Speaking" with those 'Marines'. I love how they always go to the "Your a shrill if you disagree with me".

And I thought the more vocal Star Wars fans were bad.

My answer is always, "I wish. Because that means I would be getting paid to spend my day arguing with someone who is wrong on the Internet!" (Yup. XKCD reference.)

 

[oswriter]

Hahaha. One of the Axanar Marines schools me about copyright on Reddit:

Oh yeah, the marines are busy over at Reddit. Hell, one of the moderators must be a big supporter of the show because even though my account is three years old (though I only have about 20 posts as I visit Reddit infrequently), I'm "the very definition of a shill account."

Paranoia much?
(I'm avidan2006 if anyone is interested)

Yeah, I had that happen when I was "Speaking" with those 'Marines'. I love how they always go to the "Your a shrill if you disagree with me".

And I thought the more vocal Star Wars fans were bad.

Incidentally, under the pre-1976 copyright act, the term lasted 28 years and could be renewed once, for a total of 56 years. So even under the law that applied at the time TOS was produced, it would still be under copyright today.

 

[Tom]

Oh yeah, the marines are busy over at Reddit. Hell, one of the moderators must be a big supporter of the show because even though my account is three years old (though I only have about 20 posts as I visit Reddit infrequently), I'm "the very definition of a shill account."

Paranoia much?
(I'm avidan2006 if anyone is interested)

I'm really surprised that they haven't shown up here yet.

Good point. I would have expected some to be here by now. I mean TBBS is pretty big, at least big enough to be noticed as a Trek site.

I will bet anything that Alec is reading all these posts, you can wave to him if you like. His 'marines' are not going to come here because they will hopelessly out numbered and out reasoned with.

Also sure that people from CBS and Paramount (Hi There ) come to trekbbs also.

 

[oswriter]

Just had a brief conversation with someone who works for a CBS licensee. I suggested they start selling shirts that say "OFFICIALLY LICENSED STAR TREK FAN",

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

I'm really surprised that they haven't shown up here yet.

Good point. I would have expected some to be here by now. I mean TBBS is pretty big, at least big enough to be noticed as a Trek site.

I will bet anything that Alec is reading all these posts, you can wave to him if you like. His 'marines' are not going to come here because they will hopelessly out numbered and out reasoned with.

Also sure that people from CBS and Paramount (Hi There ) come to trekbbs also.

Is that so...

HEY ALEC! YOU'RE A RUBBISH ACTOR!

AND TONY TODD SAYS SO!

 

[Karzak]

A perspective worth considering:

While this article is about Kylo Ren and The Force Awakens, I think some of the central thesis certainly applies to the Axanar fans out there we have been observing and deriding for their unbridled fanaticism these last few days.





[Warning - spoilers for The Force Awakens within the main body of the article (but not what I've pasted below)]






The Dorks Awaken, Hopefully

Thirty years ago, nerds were the good guys and cool kids were the bad guys, and it was as simple as that. But things have changed. Due to various cultural shifts and new technologies, nerds are now causing more suffering in America than socially adept people are. You can call it a disturbance in the Force if you want to, but whatever we call it, it’s something that we nerds need to acknowledge and address.

The fact that – as the result of aneurotypicality, past trauma, or some combination of the two – we exist largely outside of sociality and socialization means that we are also largely unaffected by these things. This gives us the capacity to do good and important things, and we are justified in being proud of this. But it is time – past time – for us all to confront, both collectively and each alone with himself, the fact that it also gives us the capacity to do great harm. Philosophers and inventors are indeed people who see things differently and march to the beats of their own drummers, but so are mass murderers. And at this point, somebody philosophizing or inventing is not what I see on the news every two weeks.

Usually, a flip-out mass shooting is the doing of someone who was tired of feeling invisible – whether it be at work, or in the eyes of women, or with respect to his pet views about politics. We nerds were disregarded, if not actively persecuted, when we were teenagers, and the promises of adults that this would change after high school turned out to be empty ones. We found, to our supreme heartbreak and the spite of our young trust in the promises of authorities, that, although the physical beatings and face-to-face mockery tapered off, society’s accolades would continue to be, throughout adult life, largely doled out on bases barely modified from those we had hoped to age past.

But this has always been the case. What has changed is American society’s ever-increasing premium on fame for the sake of fame, augmented at the close of the 20th century by two phenomena: the rise of reality shows, on which unremarkable people got national attention for no special reason (instead of nerds, who deserve attention for being special), and, even more importantly, the spread of the internet and the rise of a distinct culture within its boundaries, one that engendered the possibility of “microfame” of the MySpace/Facebook and YouTube variety. More than ever before, it became possible for someone with a pretty face who knew “how to talk to people” to achieve something that is enough like fame to envy while acting alone from home – and for someone without a pretty face and with no idea of how to talk to people to achieve the accompanying negative image of fame by trolling the first type of people.

This is not a minor point. Microfamous internet celebrities put themselves out there, usually with their real faces if not always with their real names. Trolls operate by augmenting their voices while concealing their identities. You will note that, unlike Vader, Kylo Ren does not wear a mask because he was disfigured and needs it to survive – he wears a mask because he just thinks wearing a mask is awesome.

Paradoxical as it may seem for someone who is tired of being unnoticed to put on a mask, it serves the purposes of concealment and intimidation once he has crossed the line into actively seeking negative attention. Before the mask, there was simply no attention – or perhaps, worse still, a promise of future positive attention that never materialized. By a few years into post-school young adulthood, it becomes clear that the positive attention is probably never going to come, especially in this age when people become famous in their teens or very early twenties or not at all. The options, then, are negative attention or invisibility, and invisibility in a fame culture is tantamount to nonexistence.

This is why so many nerds – or “fanboys,” as those of this type have come derisively to be called – cling so hard to a sense of ownership over certain cultural touchstones such as the Star Wars films. If you cannot be famous, in either a positive or a negative way, then at least something that is famous can be yours. This is why so many nerds have reacted with so much aggression towards the fact that none of the three new principal protagonists introduced in The Force Awakens is a white male. To call this “unrealistic,” of course, is asinine, since we are talking about a film series that is already enthusiastically unrealistic on every level, and to present this reaction as a protest against the supposed power of the alleged “P.C. Police” is just another cover.

It's a much longer article, and the introduction is more detailed than what I've pasted here but it's well worth reading.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Kylo Ren *IS* a white guy

Whitest guy since Michael Jackson

 

[Professor Moriarty]

A perspective worth considering:
It's a much longer article, and the introduction is more detailed than what I've pasted here but it's well worth reading.

[snip]

Blergh, thanks for reminding me what a disappointment TFA was. But the parallels the author draws between Emo Ren and fanboys are... interesting.

 

[Amaris]

I'm really surprised that they haven't shown up here yet.

Good point. I would have expected some to be here by now. I mean TBBS is pretty big, at least big enough to be noticed as a Trek site.

I will bet anything that Alec is reading all these posts, you can wave to him if you like. His 'marines' are not going to come here because they will hopelessly out numbered and out reasoned with.

Also sure that people from CBS and Paramount (Hi There ) come to trekbbs also.

*waves*

Also, they probably won't engage too many here because on this turf they can't just bully and ban people off the site. That's what irks me the most, is that they ban you from their sites if you disagree.

I hope reddit doesn't do that kind of thing, as I think the moderator of the Trek forum there is an Axalyte, because he's the one who called my account a shill account.

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

And now Alec has ordered his minions to join this group and flame it