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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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Albinator said:
That's fine, but the script was never published in any form.
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The script may have never been publically released; but if it was printed out (or e-mailed) to members of the production team/casting agencies (as has been admitted to by Axanar themselves) it HAS indeed been 'published'.
 
BillJ said:
I can tell its real Star Trek because there is no science officer and two tactical officers!
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The "pub" in "publish" means "public", so I don't think very limited distribution to casting agents, etc., necessarily qualifies, any more than me sending design documents to vendors for bid means it's been "published".
 
Maurice said:
The "pub" in "publish" means "public", so I don't think very limited distribution to casting agents, etc., necessarily qualifies, any more than me sending design documents to vendors for bid does means it's been "published".
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But once you start distributing a script, there's a very real chance it ends up public.
 
mkstewartesq said:
And, unrelated to any prior post - but I’m gonna throw this out there so that I don’t get beaten up if this all goes south for C/P six months from now, as we are largely talking at hypothetical levels - using current law - and may forget that the facts do matter.

U.S. copyright law changed drastically in 1976. Before 1976, U.S. copyright law was a minefield of technicalities, where simple missteps could put a cloud over ownership or even throw a work into the public domain.

For works created before 1976 (such as, say, every single episode of TOS and every single TOS script), the 1976 law attempted to retroactively give these works similar (but not the same) protections to works created after the new 1976 law went into effect. But the 1976 law did not “fix” any defects that may have arisen before 1976, and it did not “rescue” any works that may have inadvertently fallen into the public domain due to lack of compliance with pre-1976 legal formalities.

So every discussion we have about infringement - and Axanar’s liability for same - does have to recognize the possibilities that either (i) there is some oddity about the law in effect when the scripts and episodes were created that could allow a loophole for an “infringer” to slip through, or (ii) someone somewhere along the line forgot to cross an “t” or dot an “i” and the protections for pre-1976 ST are not as strong as we are assuming.

We’d like to think that a studio system like C/P wouldn’t let those things happen - but humans run studios, and humans can make mistakes. Or bad deals - I find it almost unfathomable that a studio with such an emphasis on licensing and control today previously gave Gene’s family an incredibly broad (and apparently perpetual right to also market their own ST merchandise with Lincoln Enterprises and its successors. But they did.)

So don’t rule out the possibility that, no matter how clearly we see “right” and “wrong” here, there could always exist some technical deficiency or peculiarity in pre-1976 law that nonetheless gives Axanar some wiggle room.

- M (your reliable wet blanket since 1968)
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Well, the Pre-1976 situation COULD get Axanar 'off the hook' for mentions of Garth, Pike, and any the the TOS characters from the TV episodes. That said, the characters taken from the TOS era feature films, the 'Star Trek: Enterprise' TV series (IE Ambassador Soval) and the JJ Abrams ST2009 character of Captain Robau (Axanar spells it 'Rabau' - but the rest of the character description publically online shows this is meant to be the USS Kelvin Captain from ST2009); seem to be all fair game and all copywritten post 1976. Then their is the fact that I'm sure CBS could claim the 1966-1969 'Star Trek (Remastered)' series is post 1976 and make the claim using those remastered episode versions too. Also, I DO believe Paramount themselves renewed the copyright in 1978 - as later syndicated credits back in the day that TOS was shown 7 days a week the the copyright read 1978 (and that's probably WHY they - Paramount - did it and updated the syndication prints too.).
 
Noname Given said:
The script may have never been publically released; but if it was printed out (or e-mailed) to members of the production team/casting agencies (as has been admitted to by Axanar themselves) it HAS indeed been 'published'.
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I'll repeat again that whether or not a script was "published" has no bearing whatsoever on whether that script is infringing copyright. I'm not sure why we keep discussing publication - but if I am missing something, I apologize and please let me know.

That being said, here is the official legal definition for "publication" under U.S. Copyright law.

'To publish a work is to distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. Publication also includes offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.' http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/definitions.html

So, to recap, merely sending to friends or even a limited group for internal use does not typically constitute "publication". And before anyone latches on to the part that says "offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display"- that's really referring to a wholesaler/distributor situation where the ultimate intent is that the copy of the work be "distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending" but it is being done in a more indirect path. See the last sentence of the last quote.

So who is "the public"? See http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf

"The legislative reports define “to the public” as distribution to persons under no explicit or implicit restrictions with respect to disclosure of the contents." Important point - giving - or even selling - the copy to someone on the condition that they keep it confidential or not "spread it around" is not a publication, because it wasn't disclosed "to the public"

"The reports also state that it is clear that any form of dissemination in which the material object does not change hands, for example, performances or displays on television, is not a publication no matter how many people are exposed to the work."

"However, when copies or phonorecords are offered for sale or lease to a group of wholesalers, broadcasters, or motion picture theaters, publication does take place if the purpose is further distribution, public performancenor public display."

M
 
HMS Ark Royal said:
Has anybody noticed they are using the Alternative universe dates in the Prime universe?
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Noticed that too. None of the various stardate calculators I've found online have been able to render dates pre-TOS (or if they have, it's pretty convoluted).......
 
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