What can be done?

[ThankYouGeneR]

Firstly folks need to calm the hell down. It's tempting to immediately assume the sky is falling. But one has to remember "guidelines" were already existent previously yet all manner of fan productions were being made without CBS saying "boo."

The language of these so called "guidelines" is curiously vague. After all is said and done the only thing it states specifically is, "If you do this we promise you won't be sued." Yet curiously nowhere does it say specifically what they will do if you stray beyond said guidelines. And that is truly odd because more often than not lawyers love legalese that spells out what will happen if you break the rules.

These are guidelines, not rules.

Consider further. Previously every fan production in existence was already violating CBS/P's IP by their mere existence. Yet CBS/P said and did nothing. Their approach was "no harm, no foul." Keep your head down and play quietly.

Until Axanar.

What changed?

Because Alec Peters went beyond the modest scope that CBS/P could easily ignore. AP sought to set himself up as a for-profit competitor piggybacking on CBS/P's IP. He constantly boasted about producing a "professional" feature to rival official CBS/ P productions, constantly disparaged said productions and used donated funds to set himself up to profit financially rather than for what all other fan productions do with donated money: make the damned film (or episode or whatever). Axanar collected well over a million dollars and had nothing but a twenty minute trailer to show for it all the while setting up a studio for profit as well as selling merchandise and paying himself a salary.

Meanwhile every other fan production continued to do as promised: using collected funds to actually make the productions fans wanted and expected to see from them.

These "guidelines" are primarily to shut down Alec Peters. By strict interpretation and enforcement of these guidelines AP is blatantly guilty and hence is toast.

Meanwhile, after the dust has settled, what has changed?

Essentially nothing except a clear awareness of what not to do to get on CBS/P's bad side.

- don't seek to profit from someone else's IP.
- don't try to register and/or merchandise anything derived from that IP.
- don't promote yourself as anything officially connected to CBS/P's IP and productions.
- keep your aspirations modest and refrain from promoting yourself as a competitor to CBS/P.
- avoid feature film sized productions.
- keep your funding targets reasonably modest.
- respect those who support you and deliver on what you promise.

Essentially do what most everyone else was doing before while aware you could be shut down at any time...just like before.

While annoying for everyone else who has played nice AP has served to illustrate what will happen if you go too far. CBS/P has demostrated under what conditions they will go after you. And this in light of the fact they could have shut anyone and everyone else down immediately based on the mere existence of their individual productions yet chose not to.

Further clarification is likely forthcoming as some of the more prominant fan productions figure out where they stand and how they go forward if they so choose.

Then you go from there.

This

 

[Warped9]

To be clear I believe the landscape has indeed changed and CBS/P has issued a stern warning advising would be fan film producers what not to do. To that end I advise caution and play it safe.

- Stay away from full episode or feature film length productions. I'd say anything over 45-50 minutes is venturing into territory CBS/P would rather not see. I suspect that fan productions reaching 30-35 minutes would be tolerated given the rest of guidelines are followed.
- Avoid arc based storytelling. Keep stories self-contained. I suspect you could get away with small threads of continuity from one instalment to the next, but anything distinctly serialized could raise a red flag. Also best to avoid direct sequels or followups to "official" Trek productions.
- No merchandising which also includes perks or rewards for crowdfunding contributions.
- CBS/P hasn't banned crowdfunding, but they would prefer productions keep their targets modest. This could mean producers might have to do more frequent funding drives with smaller targets to keep their productions going. I don't think CBS/P are comfortable with seeing funding drives with targets of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That said it has been stated that they don't object to private donations outside actual crowdfunding. Make of that what you will. This has a plus side in that there is a lot less pressure to reach a reasonably modest target than one in multiple six figures.
- I think CBS/P is trying to guide fan films toward one-shot productions, but I don't believe they are expressly forbidding series. If something like STC put out self-contained stories no more than 30-35 minutes long and respected the other guidelines then they likely wouldn't object to recurring characters.
- Finally avoid bringing familar Trek alumni into your production. From CBS/P's perspective this is like trying to convey some sort of official endorsement for your production. I'm thinking this might require further clarification: does it mean absolutely anyone previously connected to Trek or primarily those most widely recognized?


This is my take on it. Your mileage may vary.

 

[dmac]

I still didn't get where the "Recurring Characters" was extrapolated from. True, a series could be defined as a weekly or daily program having recurring characters (cast), location, (outerspace) sets, antagonist or protagonist. Still the #1 guideline does not use the word Series.

recurring characters

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Outer Limits and Twilight Zone were anthology series. The use of recurring characters does not define a series.

 

[Sgt_G]

Where does it say you can't use recurring characters? I think some people are reading too much into the guidelines.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Several people informed us that our productions were dead since "you can't use characters more than twice" or some other similar interpretation. We have opined otherwise.

 

[dmac]

Outer Limits and Twilight Zone were anthology series. The use of recurring characters does not define a series.

If the guidelines read NO SERIES that could very well mean no recurring cast which is one of the major definitions along with regular daily or weekly releases.
The guideline do not say NO SERIES so I am not worried.

 

[Zaminhon]

The fan production must be less than 15 minutes for a single self-contained story, or no more than 2 segments, episodes or parts, not to exceed 30 minutes total, with no additional seasons, episodes, parts, sequels or remakes. - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/fan-films#sthash.njqyEVOH.dpuf

That pretty much covers "Series". The ban on additional episodes covers it and of course a British TV Series is the same as a US TV Season.

 

[Warped9]

That pretty much covers "Series". The ban on additional episodes covers it and of course a British TV Series is the same as a US TV Season.

Strictly speaking there is no "ban."

 

[Zaminhon]

Yeah, the film makers are free to do what they want, but "no additional seasons, episodes.. " is rather specific.

 

[OpenMaw]

Yeah, make "additional episodes" at your own risk.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Just a random thought. I'd love to see a feature length Monty Python-esque Star Trek parody. Done well it could be amazing.