It's an OLD joke Sgt..........I think from the Olympics back in the day. East Germans would always award extremely low scores for ANYONE that wasn't .............East German. Man I am OLD.
CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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It's an OLD joke Sgt..........I think from the Olympics back in the day. East Germans would always award extremely low scores for ANYONE that wasn't .............East German. Man I am OLD.
@Mytran is right. The guidelines don't prohibit anything. That's simply not their purpose; they have no force of law. They don't force fan producers to do (or not do) anything. What they do is list items or activities that if they are engaged in increase your chances of having legal action taken against you.
So you produce a 20-minute episode instead of a 15-minute one? Does that mean CBS automatically sues you? Of course not. It's but a single step outside the safe harbor the guidelines create. CBS has already indicated that such a minor infraction isn't likely to draw its legal attention. But let's say you make a series of ten 20-minute episodes that you put on Blu-rays and sell for a $25 "donation," along with T-shirts, novelizations, patches, coffee and posters? Now you've sailed your little boat, the S.S. Fan Minnow, far, far out from that safe harbor for what you think will be a three-hour tour, but then the weather starts getting rough, and you're subject to the onslaught of a lawsuit. That storm may never come, or it may materialize out of nowhere, and your tiny ship gets tossed. But you're the one that sailed out that far so you're the one responsible for the consequences that may follow.
What I would do? I'd write the story I want to tell as a completely original work, not a Star Trek tale, and I register the copyright for that. Then I'd adapt the story as a Star Trek fan script. That way you've registered your own creations in an original, protected work.
LOL - the're past tense. For good!
My read of this is slightly different:
He seems to take issue with desktop-wallpapers with the STC-cast in costume (plus Enterprise and the words "Star Trek") offered as "thank you" to donors of $10 or more, which he thinks are infringing on CBS's IP (which is probably true). I got the impression he believes that the images only became an IP-violation with the issuing of the guidelines (?) and that the guidelines are legally binding. He asked two questions, one about those wallpapers and one if the donations were used to fund convention appearances (plus hotel fees, etc.) and advertisements at those cons. The second he got answered, the first not - i'm not clear what exactly he asked, it might have been somewhat hostile (along the line: "Proof to me, that CBS gave you permission to violate that guideline"). He got two responses along the same lines, one from Vic and one from an unidentified person doing the online communication for STC. The first one he seemed to be OK with, the second one he took issue with for some season, that is not clear to me.
After that he did, what any one sane person would do and "directed" (his words) various law enforcement agencies (the FBI, his local sherrif's office and police and some other ones (i think he mentioned the "State Department"
)) to investigate STC for charity fraud.
[Edit to add:] Oh yes, around the same time, he gave "directions" to the cops, his twitter accounts got suspended (which might have been the action of some STC-fans), which he classifies as "impeding an federal investigation", because he seems to think, that the investigators need to see his claims there.
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What a shame for everyone.
(Prelude is more interesting to me than the entire 3 Kelvinverse movies so far, and it'd suck if it never got released.)
(Prelude is more interesting to me than the entire 3 Kelvinverse movies so far, and it'd suck if it never got released.)
Donate some money and maybe you'll get another 3 minute scene filmed in a carpark.
In four timely years.
PS @carlosp is right. Copyright starts when you type or write 'the end', basically. Registering it is extremely helpful if you need to prove it exists, but it's not necessary.
The American Bar Association and Copyright.gov are both good resources re intellectual property law (nolo is good, too). See: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/y..._practice_series/elements_of_a_copyright.html
That guy from scifiexpo is an Axanar donor and Alec Peters sympathizer. He's making stuff up about STC to try and put them in a negative spotlight (I wouldn't be shocked to find out that Alec is encouraging him). He only started this because STC didn't write him back. The only attention he should be getting should be by a mental health professional.
Hah, I always forget that part. Much like Team Axanar forgets the delivering-patches-to-paying-donors-part. And I'm not beating up on @anotherdemon, people can like whatever they choose to like, but I'm wary and thus sarcastic towards any sentiment that suggests all this is a shame "for everyone". For people who may have ended up donating more of their own money for something that the receivers arguably will never be able to deliver I think this is a very good thing.
Alec has been using his surrogates to attack actual fan productions for a few months now. Any comments made by Axanar supporters about STC or NV or any of the others have to be taken with a rather large grain of salt.
.......followed by a generous shot of tequila.
Probably you are right about his connection to Axanar and i do not doubt that he his trying to deflect from the obvious log in one eye by pointing out the splinters in others. Unfortunately though, the basic facts are not made up, those wallpapers were offered (see: http://web.archive.org/web/20160604001039/http://www.startrekcontinues.com/donate.html) and i can see, how the "desired" responses to questions could be achieved by asking in an certain way and by timing with known high stress times.
The real problem i see is that he tries to get law enforcement and other agencies to investigate, i believe, if allegations of fraud and hate crimes are raised, they are required to look into it - which may just put enough sand into STC's gears, that they can not continue at their planned scedule (if there is some understanding with CBS there might be a time window in play).
Ha ok.........you have an opinion and it's valid for you. I however do not share it. While it may have had potential, it was talking heads and a green screen with a VFX reel for Tobias spliced in.
Jonathan Lane continues to be a fair and balanced, strictly neutral observer of the Axanar lawsuit. Yes indeedy, he isn't biased AT ALL and certainly isn't a mouthpiece for Alec OR a way for Alec to leak carefully crafted rumors so as to keep churning his shrinking pool of potential donors.
http://fff.trekbloggers.com/2016/09/06/axanar-enters-discovery-part-1/
http://fff.trekbloggers.com/2016/09/06/axanar-enters-discovery-part-1/
Remember: by creating a fan script you are creating a derivative work of something you don't own. I don't know why you would expect the same rights and protections you would get of something you wholly created.
That article was a whole LOT of words to say "you heard it here first, the annoyance cost to CBS of fighting W&S might result in a settlement during discovery".
Yes, the thought never occurred to me. Thanks for that insightful analysis.
Oh and there is a part 2 to explain the conclusion further? Dazzle.
Well, Prelude did get released...but if you're hoping that the actual Axanar is going to be anything like Prelude, I wouldn't hold your breath. The only person involved in both at this point in Alec Peters. Everyone else has either jumped ship or is staying quiet.
It's just what I've been taught by those that went before me and I've grown to respect it, it has become my comfort zone. When i got back into writing I asked for advice from a few people and basically got the same answer, "Protect your work before passing it around". Fortunately I've never been given cause to distrust anyone I've dealt with, including original works.
Yes I've always understood that working in some others universe does not grant you ownership of the IP holders complete works, unlike LFIM I don't expect to derive an income or build a personal profit center within it.
It is possible that some owners of intellectual property could encourage derivative work and grant copyright assignment. Someone else might know if the Star Trek franchise ever withdrew the right of assignment in the past, I don't know their full history. From my non professional research you have copyright assignment until it is withdrawn.
Once the guidelines came out, rule # 9 concerned me greatly it is not a "Guideline" because an IP holder can either grant copyright assignment or they don't. If they expressly forbid assignment there is no copyright and hence no ownership to your derivative work.
Perhaps you could consider the framers of the guidelines didn't even consider the ramifications this would have on script writers, perhaps it was meant for something else. Maybe I have it all wrong but that's what it says and it exceeds my knowledge at that point.
I hope that clears up my concerns for you.
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