Only AP (Alec Peters = Axanar Productions) is being sued. As I've stated, I think the guidelines are directed at AP to shut him down and prevent him and RMB (see "DVD") from making anything resembling Trek in the forever future. Sure, other productions fall under scrutiny. But that falls straight down on AP's shoulders. He's the one who crossed every line, express or implied, and he is responsible for the fate of fan films from now until the end of time. He wanted to be famous. He wanted guidelines. He wanted to lead fan films to the next phase of their development. He got what he wanted. Now we wait to see what his blind ambition will rain down on him as the lawsuit progresses. In my opinion, he will get much, much more of what he wanted. But what he wanted may not be anything like what he thought it would be.
AP: "I want guidelines!" CBS/Paramount: "After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
Fan films, with a small handful of exceptions, aren't really my cup of tea, but these series-crippling guidelines really suck. I feel so, so bad for all those who enjoy making and watching these DIY labor-of-love productions. You have my sincerest sympathies. Also...
Haven't posted here in ages, but I just wanted to chime in and say that these guidelines are terrible and seem specifically directed at the four major productions that exist. I wonder if they would make it retroactive and essentially force things off Youtube.
It is CBS' IP, they can do anything they want with it. Though I doubt they pull completed works off of YouTube.
Statement from Vic on STC FB re: the stupid boycott thing: "While we are grateful for and humbled by fan support, helping fan productions will not come in the form of anger and threats of boycott toward CBS. Those that are calling on the fans for any such actions do not represent the ideals of Star Trek, nor the best interests of Trek fan films in general. If you insist on spreading negativity about CBS, do it elsewhere. It is not welcome here and I've asked that any such posts be deleted immediately. The last thing any of us would ever want would be for the owners of Star Trek to say, "Why are we spending so much time, effort and money on this? Let's just wipe the whole thing clean off the map and be done with it. It's not worth all this trouble." A CBS representative will be on "Engage" the official Star Trek podcast on June 29. At that time, hopefully many questions will be answered, so let's wait and see before jumping to conclusions. If you wish to ask a question, you can do so on their Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/EngageTheOfficialStarTrekPodcast Thanks again for your love & support of Star Trek Continues!"
I don't know which is worse: the lop-sided way the hosts on the video presented the story, or all the idiotic comments posted in reply.
What about the use of music? Where does that fall into it? Many of the fan films use the scores from the various TV Series and films (interchangeably and often very very badly spotted and edited - drives me nuts). With the music you have to consider CBS/Paramount and whomever holds the rights, such as Intrada or LaLa Land Records (and so on and so forth). Licensing music is expensive and I was always surprised the larger fan films got away with their use.
I know some fan productions composed their own music, or used similar sounding music from royalty free sites. I'd imagine actual Star Trek music could be used as long as it was licensed, otherwise, the answer is probably "no" on music.
CBS/P states they promise not to sue anyone who follows the guidelines explicity. If someone strays from a couple of those guidelines does it absolutely follow they will automatically sue or in the least issue a C&D? I'm wondering if something might change after they're done with AP and Axanar.
They did say that they could change the guidelines at any time, and enforce them at their discretion. To me, this means you can keep making your fan films, but if you start making "independent productions" a la Axanar, they'll sue your ass into next week without being as nice as they were before. I also think radio productions, fan fictions, and audio dramas will be fine, too. This was primarily targeted at productions that rake in money to make near professional looking quality fan films that could dilute the brand.
What I find odd is that anyone is at all surprised by these rules. These were all fully predictable. For anyone who has been following fan films it has been widely known that the people at CBS/Paramount who deal with the Trek property had long resisted providing guidance or officially acknowledging fan films. When directly asked about what could or couldn't be done, they wanted to avoid the subject altogether. Why? Because the moment they officially acknowledged these productions by setting any limits, those limits were going to be written and handed out by CBS/Paramount's legal department... who don't give a rats ass about fans or their pet projects. From the point of view of CBS/Paramount, as long as fan films remained benign, they were willing to look the other way and not involve the lawyers. The moment any of these fan films became malignant, there was going to be strict rules brought down (effecting everyone, not just the individuals who screwed up). Because of this, the fan film ecosystem was always an extremely fragile one. From my point of view, both Star Trek: Of Gods and Men and Star Trek: Renegades were dangerously close to crossing the line from being a benign production to a malignant one. The saving grace... they weren't very good. By contrast, Axanar didn't have to be good (or anything beyond essentially vaporware) because they crossed every line that shouldn't have been crossed. In fact Peters assumed that they could get away with all these transgressions because CBS/Paramount wouldn't be willing to destroy the whole fan film community just to stop Axanar. Now... who is to blame for this? Peters, of course... but he didn't get to the point of being able to play brinkmanship with CBS/Paramount on his own. He was helped by key figures in other fan productions to reach a point where he could create this situation. And even when they saw him breaking understood rules for fan film productions, these people didn't call him out on it. The fan film community needed to self police... and instead they stood by and did nothing. This is an extinction level event for fan films, small projects may survive but the big ones are going the way of the dinosaurs. Peters may have pulled the trigger on this, but a lot of people who could have acted stood by and watched him slowly take all the steps brought us to this point.
^ And just who, exactly, in the fan film community was in a position to stop him? Calling him out would've accomplished... what, exactly? From what I've seen/heard of him, Peters isn't the kind of guy to take a hint. Even the Acme safe dropped on your head kind of hint.