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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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carlosp said:
YouTube's protection from legal action for copyright infringement isn't an automatic thing under copyright law. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 specifically created a "safe harbor" exemption for platforms like YouTube that might inadvertently host infringing content. It placed the burden for identifying infringement on the rights holder through a formal notice to the website.

Websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo can also claim "safe harbor" protection for any infringing material that appears on their platforms. Their terms of service place the onus on the people seeking funding for ensuring they have secured the rights to produce/distribute whatever products are part of the projects' proposals. However, I don't believe safe harbor would apply in instances where the platform knowingly engages with projects — as Indiegogo did in its recruitment of Axanar —that make it crystal clear in their proposal they do not have a license from the relevant copyright holders.
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Yes, IGG is considerably more problematic.
 
carlosp said:
YouTube's protection from legal action for copyright infringement isn't an automatic thing under copyright law. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 specifically created a "safe harbor" exemption for platforms like YouTube that might inadvertently host infringing content. It placed the burden for identifying infringement on the rights holder through a formal notice to the website.
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Thanks for the specifics-- I was pretty sure they were protected. I still think, however, that KS would be wise to be more proactive in their policing just given the amounts of money involved.
 
Modified Axanar fan art:
11011198_812975738816951_6039750880229647157_n.jpg
 
I don't see any way in which safe harbor applies to Axanar; I was just pointing out their attorney has won significant copyright cases with that as the defense. As for Fair Use, the extent to which fan fiction could claim it was fair use is not settled law, and groups like the Organization for Transformative Works argue that non-commercial fan works sufficiently transform the original works in the same way that parody does, and so are more than derivative. This principle has never been tested in court, though plenty of IP lawyers claim it won't fly; it appears to be one of the things that attracted Winston & Strawn to take on Axanar's case pro bono.

However, even in the best of circumstances, a "fan works are transformative" argument runs into Axanar's very real problem of essentially being a commercial operation, which undercuts a key part of the Fair Use tests applied by a court.
 
carlosp said:
However, even in the best of circumstances, a "fan works are transformative" argument runs into Axanar's very real problem of essentially being a commercial operation, which undercuts a key part of the Fair Use tests applied by a court.
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Right, that's the problem. It's obvious to me that Axanar Productions is, and has been for some time, a commercial operation. Regardless what the principals claim, there has been financial benefit.

I'm not an "attorney by training," but to me it's plain as day.
 
I personally think that crowdfunding sources should have an automatic cap: allow the projects to set their base goals and, say, three stretch goals perhaps based on a percentage of the base goal. After that, shut 'er down. I like the idea of Kickstarter as just that: a way to get a project underway, not as a profit-maker in it's own right.
 
Captain Atkin said:
It could be from PGA, if he is a member of that union. I believe that Alec is a SAG member, from having acted in "Prelude to Axanar". All of the actors in that film were SAG members.
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The PGA is a Guild, and Alec doesn't meet the minimal producing requirements to become a member so far as I can tell. I'm a member of the PGA.
 
The commenters have noticed too, and hasten to point out that Axanar was going to "blow Beyond out of the water".
Of course the same commenters also think that Star Trek is " the most significant book franchise in history " so perhaps they're not the best judge of reality.
 
Nobody's even read the script. They don't have a cast and the director isn't same the guy who did the Prelude the love so much. What makes them so sure it's going to be so great?

Oh wait, blind faith. Never mind.
 
King Daniel Beyond said:
Nobody's even read the script. They don't have a cast and the director isn't same the guy who did the Prelude the love so much. What makes them so sure it's going to be so great?

Oh wait, blind faith. Never mind.
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Lomg time reader of this soap, first time commenting, but I couldn't resist....


Has anyone checked to see if he's Spocks half brother? Maybe people are donating their pain via Kickstarter....

It has many names, Eden, sha-ka-ri, Axanar....
 
carlosp said:
Producers guild initiation fees for New Media producers are far less than the ~$3K SAG-AFTRA requires from actors. The Axanar annual report pegs the amount spent on "union fees" right at that $3K. BTW, having the production pay for his union fee/dues is another direct financial benefit Alec Peters received using money raised of CBS' intellectual property. Normally, actors pay union dues themselves, so you can add the $3K to the salary Peters paid himself, too.
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Right. Add in travel - convention tickets - the still unexplained automobile - and you get even more
financial benefit.

"What does Axanar need with an auto?"
 
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