CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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Star Trek isn't supposed to be the next great thing. It's a pretty consistent great thing. How many billions has it made? How many movies? This isn't John Carter or Battleship we're talking about.
I'm going out on a limp: the fans that through a fit that there was a Beastie Boys song in the trailer were a small minority (albeit very vocal keyboard warriors). How many millions watched it?
Alec isn't gonna change. If Paramount takes him in, they will just get Axanared faster and furioser. It all seems like a cynical PR play to me.
I still think that the basic issue of "fan" productions becoming technologically able to emulate professional productions and distribution is going to create the real consequences of all this. Nice to hear it on G&T at length this week.
As to whether some studio interests are taking advantage of Alec's incursion to justify a swat down of new technologies, and might be playing it from that dance card deliberately now, I'd give it at least 50/50.
Will be really interesting to see whether CBS is onboard with the movies side on this. I would think episodic television has more to lose earlier by letting Axanar itself score a win.
I still think that the basic issue of "fan" productions becoming technologically able to emulate professional productions and distribution is going to create the real consequences of all this. Nice to hear it on G&T at length this week.
As to whether some studio interests are taking advantage of Alec's incursion to justify a swat down of new technologies, and might be playing it from that dance card deliberately now, I'd give it at least 50/50.
Will be really interesting to see whether CBS is onboard with the movies side on this. I would think episodic television has more to lose earlier by letting Axanar itself score a win.
AP gots the crazy eyes.
I can imagine his maniacal cackling after the taping, rubbing his hands together like a mad scientist planning his next diabolical experiment. Man, that guy creeps me out.
Well the PR guy has posted a blog, no, not International PR, still nothing from that guy, the fellow who does PR just for the United States. I guess the International PR division is the bigger of the two as its, well, International but he never has much to say.
It's a fine piece of PR, I guess, and if you're that way inclined it could sound like Star Trek music to your ears with regards this story but to me it appears to be Team Axanar attempting to present itself as firmly on the side CBS and Paramount just wanting this whole mess to be tidied up, a mess it suggests everyone shares some responsibility for creating (which may come as something of a surprise to the likes of James Cawley to name but one).
It's all positioning now.
It's a fine piece of PR, I guess, and if you're that way inclined it could sound like Star Trek music to your ears with regards this story but to me it appears to be Team Axanar attempting to present itself as firmly on the side CBS and Paramount just wanting this whole mess to be tidied up, a mess it suggests everyone shares some responsibility for creating (which may come as something of a surprise to the likes of James Cawley to name but one).
It's all positioning now.
Quoting Mike Bawden:
Hello?? Since when is using someone else's copyright NOT illegal (save for the fair use exceptions, which fan-films / fan-fic is not fair use)????
And it's only "risky" when you blow past any line in the sand that has been well-established for years that everyone else abides by.
Making a fan film isn’t illegal. It’s just risky.
Hello?? Since when is using someone else's copyright NOT illegal (save for the fair use exceptions, which fan-films / fan-fic is not fair use)????
And it's only "risky" when you blow past any line in the sand that has been well-established for years that everyone else abides by.
Where is the risk supposed to come from if it's not from breaking the law, exactly?
one does get the impression that 'a gift too good to be true' is in the air...
Another gem from Mike Bawden, where he's talking about "playing in CBS's sandbox":
As an outsider looking in, I only see ONE bully in the sandbox, Mike. His name is Alec.
Worse still, when there is no one paying attention to the children playing in the sandbox, someone has to make the rules – and that usually falls to the biggest kids. Sometimes those kids can be bullies. And bullies don’t like it when the kids they pick on punch back.
As an outsider looking in, I only see ONE bully in the sandbox, Mike. His name is Alec.
That's begging the question. You pulled out the hoary old "us fans know stuff the studios don't..."
...Which is always horseshit.
Media fandom, particularly Trek fandom, contains many extremely negative and extraordinarily loud fans.
Whenever a project is launched that doesn't suit their prejudices they rant that it will bomb.
Some movies succeed and some fail.
The set of "failed movies" will therefore by necessity fall mostly within the broadly inclusive set of Movies Fans Proclaim Will Suck.
This does not demonstrate causation nor does it prove that critical fans are smart.
TL;DR version: Even a blind hog finds an acorn occasionally, and a remarkable number of blind hogs are Trek fans.
So you're saying Into Darkness was consistently great?
I like ST:ID better than most of the TOS era films (except STII:TWoK) - and over ALL of he TNG era films. YMMV.
Please do not put words in my mouth I never said that fans know better but markets do not always respond like the models. Any decent marketing class covers the disasters that should have been overwhelming success. The same way the market place sets the price in a fair market. And yes I'm sure the model includes all the hardcore fans who must and will buy anything that has the Delta on it that has the words Star Trek but at the end of the day personally I felt into darkness was a disappointment and I'm wary of any future films. Unless I hear from a friend or three that say it was amazing I will wait til blue ray is out.
"Ménage a Troi and Transfigurations were really bad episodes. No way I'm going to watch the next one. I'll just skip it and wait for the VHS."
I always wondered happened to Baghdad Bob.....
Bob Dylan probably lost some fans when he went electronic. Didn't hurt him. Indeed, he probably made a net gain in fans. Sometimes you have to go to where the fans are. "Adopt, adapt, and improve," the motto of the Round Table.
Been a Trek fan as long as Peters, and STID is my favorite of all Trek movies. (I will insert the obligatory "of course, that doesn't mean I think it's perfect," here.) The closest thing to TOS in theme and purpose of any Trek movie (again, with the obligatory, "in my opinion," added on).
The thing is, there really hasn't been a "disastrous" "Star Trek" movie, either. It's not like NEM was "Waterworld" or "Catwoman". NEM just reflected a tired franchise and a fan base that was losing interest.
The thing is Trek cannot succeed alone any more just on a "fan base." That it still tries to stay as true to its original mythos as it does actually amazes me.
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