My understanding is he was NOT kicked out of Trek-BBS, but rather he requested to have his account deleted.
CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
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I think you're confusing Alec Peters with Tobias Richter as the latter made a big deal of requesting his account be deleted and then was upset when he checked and it showed as 'Banned' (Because that's the only way to inactivate an account with this version of BBS software.
Of course with Mr. Peters - he had a number of Alt/Dupe accounts on this BBS at one time (another rule violation, but I guess when you're Alec Peters, rules only apply if you want them to.)
The sad part is that all this must be killing other fan film's fundraising efforts.
My name is Neil and I'm disgusted by the behavior of Alec Peters.
Also, here is a new interview with me about the Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection which I co-produced for La-La Land Records. I'm happily married and working on more officially authorized Star Trek stuff in addition to many other official soundtrack projects.
You were saying, Mr. Peters?
Neil
After skimming the response, I actually suspect that the most compelling arguments would be the "premature" and "impermissible restraint" arguments. I'm very curious to hear a lawyer's take on this issue, especially with respect to the cited cases.
That said...
Wouldn't there be an argument that Axanar has already admitted that they intend to violate Plantiff's copyright? It says so all over their kickstarter and indiegogo campaigns. If I'm thinking logically, I would think that the court would be obligated to act here, other issues aside. If the court knows someone intends to commit an illegal act, and they have the authority to prevent it, don't they have an obligation to do so?
If that's the case, I would think that Axanar is sunk in any event.
Thoughts?
That said...
Wouldn't there be an argument that Axanar has already admitted that they intend to violate Plantiff's copyright? It says so all over their kickstarter and indiegogo campaigns. If I'm thinking logically, I would think that the court would be obligated to act here, other issues aside. If the court knows someone intends to commit an illegal act, and they have the authority to prevent it, don't they have an obligation to do so?
If that's the case, I would think that Axanar is sunk in any event.
Thoughts?
There's no doubt about this. Look how the Star Trek Continues campaign is struggling. They're only 25% funded with a month to go.
Neil
Love that set! Great work, Neil!
And what is Peter's great achievement a failed prop auction company, yeah he made Prelude and has gotten a shit load of awards for that and like twoish minutes of a teaser for this Independent Star Trek film to rival anything the studios are putting out and got sued possibly destroying all fan films in the process. Lying to his donors, by saying we have a locked script and his lawyers either lying to the judge or have been lied to that there is not script. Yeah that a career to be proud of.
That is a good question are the donations taxable income for the corporation since they are not a 501(c)(3)?
In criminal law if more than one person is involved, conspiracy can open this sort of thing up for charges ( https://www.quora.com/Is-it-illegal...s-opposed-to-actually-attempting-to-commit-it ) but I don't know anything about civil tort on this.
Unless they are able to get retroactive nonprofit status for 2015, I don't think donations would be tax deductible. Which I have said before I guess might possibly open them up to some problems with being accused of fraud by some donors, as Axanar threw around the terms nonprofit and "not for profit" so much in so many places that a donor might reasonably have assumed they could take the deduction, and donated to a certain level based on that assumption.
The donations are taxable income for Axanar, but if they spend all the money within the tax year there is no tax due.
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Well, I may not have been active in Star Trek fan film fandom; but I was a co-founder, writer (fully wrote our two produced 'Dirty Pair' parodies, contributed on dialogue for 'Urusei Yatsura: Attack Sherbert' 'Iczer-C' and 'Ranma 1/2 Summer Vacation' parodies, and my co-founder and I wrote the scripts for 'Ninja Team Gatchaman: 7-Zark-7 Must Die', 'Ninja Team Gatchaman: Bring Me the Head of Sandy Frank' and the final parody we did - finished in 2009 - 'Mighty Morphin' Iczer Rangers') and was a voice actor and production coordinator (we had a crew of 17 regulars we used for voices, some were SAG and just wanted some VO experience - but we were 100% Anime Fan based.)
We called ourselves "Sherbert Productions" and our heyday (where we went to a number of Anime Conventions every years - and developed a small following that both liked our stuff - but hated the fact we didn't distribute copies of our works beyond those directly involved with a production) was from 1989 - 2001 or so. We had announced 'Mighty Morphin' Iczer Rangers' as a project in 1999; but as we got older and Anime became easier to find on the internet, etc; interest dropped off, but as myself and my cofounder hated that we announced something we never finished - in 2007 we managed to get enough of the 'old gang' together to finish the voice over for 'Mighty Morphin' Iczer Rangers' - spent a year or so putting all the audio/music/sound effects, etc. - and showed it in 2009.
Again, unless you were an Anime fan who liked parody fan dubs circa 1989-1999; you would never have heard of us, but the one reason we did it for over a decade was we found it fun (and prior to the Ninja Team Gathaman Parodies (circa 1996) they were all done with two semi-professional SVHS VCRs using a 4 track audio mixer (again all analog except for and Amiga 1000 we had for titles and some other effects) to create as professional a result on the technical end as we could - and from the comments we got and a few 'hard core' Anime sub-titlers who showed up and enjoyed our work, we achieved a high level result. in 1996 - we went digital on the editing front and purchased two high end professional Betacam SP Decks and an Amiga 400 (used) with the Video Toaster and a digital Audio Software with Hardware editing system called 'Studio 16' (all totaled about $14,000) because we had the idea of trying to do something on the professional level - and came close to acquiring an actual anime property - but couldn't close the deal. Over those ten years I probably sent about $10,000 on related things for Sherbert (and my co-founder about the same) - but we did it because it was fun and we enjoyed it.
A bunch of the friends I still have that were involved comment about what we could have done if Crowdfunding had been available in our heyday. We did have a number of folks willing to pay big bucks for a copy; but I had (and still have) a good career and I (and other in the group) were worried about being sued (Back then a group of the U.S. Anime dubbing companies formed J.A.I.L.E.D. which was supposed to primarily go after fan sub-titlers who distributed; but at a convention Robert Woodhead (of AnimEgo who owned the U.S. rights to Urusei Yatsura) paid us a visit as we were showing it; and said he was okay with it as long as we didn't distribute (this was 1992) - and if anything that's one of the main reasons many anime fans who liked our stuff didn't like the fact we didn't distribute.
I also remember in 1996/97 when people started bringing up the parody 'fair use' case that had been adjudicated - but as we also used music from films; and lifted clean sound effects where we could find them from Laserdiscs (kids ask your parents, but also in those days in Anime circles most Anime fans had - or had someone with access to a Laserdisc player - and it's what we used to create the base video portion of a work we were doing - IE laserdisc to SVHS to gvet a very clean master.)
I still maintain the site we had (and it still looks pretty much like it did when I first put it up in 1996. I had it offline for a couple of years but brought it back in 2009 when we decided to show 'Mighty Morphin' Iczer Rangers.
http://www.sherbertfanparodies.org/
[And sorry if I rambled a lot. I realize most Star Trek fans probably have little to no interest in Anime fan parodies from over a decade ago, but again in our heyday we even had a few big name anime magazines and fanzines talk about us and our stuff over the years; and while most won't think it was much of an accomplishment, I honestly am still proud of and enjoyed what we did - and did want to show that not all 'Axanar Haters' have just sat on the sidelines and complained. Again, it may not have been Star Trek fandom I was involved with - but there are a number of parallels in that there were four 'big' Anime fan dub groups from around 1987 - 2000; and a few other groups trying to get something done, but never finishing - and there was some 'infighting' between us back then too. We were not the first fan dub group on the scene but we were technically the most proficient and prolific (and yes, that does sound a lot like something Mr. Peters would say, but it is/was the truth); and our work was well liked (even if our distribution policy wasn't.)
Anyway, I'm done. If you got this far, you must be an Anime fan, or like reading long diatribes.
I wonder if convention visits and sushi count? Also, wouldn't he have to be paying State, Federal and FICA taxes on the salary he's paying himself?
Yeah, I'm also turned off by Peters need to make value judgements of people in order to impress others.
I don't often do this, because it's not my style. But here we go:
Alec, if you're reading this. And I know you are. I'm a so-called "hater." I don't hide behind the anonymity of the internet. My full name is displayed for all to see.
I've been a professional writer for nearly 20 years. I've won awards for my work as an investigative journalist, including on a story about how Steve Jobs may have pressured authorities when an iPhone prototype went missing. I'm proud of my journalism work, which has uncovered government, police and legal corruption. I've been published in newspapers, online publications and in e-books. I ran an event for three-years that helped non-profits with free marketing and branding work.
I'm a journalist by training and in practice. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing. I'm a writer. Editor. I've been around the world and back. I don't hide. You can google me. I have a loving family. Good friends.
And I'm a "hater." A "loser." And proud of it because I don't think what you're doing is right. You don't stand with STAR TREK. You don't stand for the fans. Certainly not this fan and many others.
So call me a "hater" and "loser."
But, at least, I don't have a major corporation suing me for IP infringement.
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Yes, Alec Peters and his various sock puppets were banned. Conversely, Tobias Richter had his account deleted at his request--which, as somewhat of a misnomer, is also called a ban.
Thanks for the link!
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