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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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Criminal menacing is not free speech.

quoth the Wikipedia,

Menacing is the name of a criminal offense in many US states. The wording and degrees of the offense vary from state to state. It often consists of displaying a weapon to a person with the intention of threatening them with bodily harm from the said weapon, or of criminally threatening another, or otherwise putting them in fear of physical harm.

Technically true, but try to get passed pre trial and into trial saying, "You're honor, he menaced me!"
 
Can't speak from the knowledge of a prosecuting attorney, but the record is written in this case.

Doubt that on its own it would be pushed all the way to trial, but that's not my point. OWC is associating themselves with someone who put this in print, at the time that they did. This fact could bite them at any time someone chooses to press it as a shareholder or customer.

I would think the last thing OWC would want to do is call this post "freedom of speech", and the next to last thing, be called out for ignoring it.

It does not look like the manager of their donation-funded studio is going to recant and see the light. OWC can only be more hurt as time goes on if they do not take the opportunity to protect themselves while they can from this sort of "speech". It crosses the line into behaviors corporations cannot be associated with.
 
I guess it may come down to whether the post is explicitly inciting a third party to commit violence in the immediate future. That by itself might be a different sort of crime, and with/without gun could define degrees. But making the statement in a way that the target might reasonably be expected to hear it could be menacing atop that.

Even if it didn't fall under criminal law, many corporations these days have very low tolerance for associates (vendors, employees, etc.) who take actions on or off the job that would make customers or employees feel a culture of personal violence is tolerated by the company.
 
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Prelude to Axanar has been nominated in the category of best fan film in the 2017 Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest (November 17-18). I really do not think that after all this time and after everything that has happened with the lawsuit that they should even be considered for nomination. With all the filmmakers here does anyone have any connections with the Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest and can anything be done about this? :shrug:

Here is the list of the nominees:

Stalled Trek: Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are, USA, Mark R. Largent.
Chance Encounter - A Star Trek Fan Production, UK, Gary O'Brien.
Starship Republic - Serpent of Yesterday, A Star Trek Fan Production, USA, Ray Tesi.
Survivors: A Star Trek Fan Production, USA, Matthew Lee Blackburn.
Prelude to Axanar: A Star Trek Fan Production, USA, Christian Gossett.
Where No Jedi Has Gone Before, USA, Rena Yamamoto.
Tears In The Rain - Blade Runner, South Africa, Christopher Grant Harvey.
The Secret of Tatooine - Star Wars, France, Jordan Inconstant.
Dawn of Resistance - Star Wars, UK, Gareth Carr.
Bride of Frankie - Hammerhouse, USA, Devi Snively.
 
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A lot of entries, and I would imagine the voters would be sensitive to the fact that Prelude has been around for a while now.
 
Prelude to Axanar has been nominated in the category of best fan film in the 2017 Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest (November 17-18). I really do not think that after all this time and after everything that has happened with the lawsuit that they should even be considered for nomination. With all the filmmakers here does anyone have any connections with the Berlin Sci-Fi Filmfest and can anything be done about this? :shrug:

Here is the list of the other nominees:

Stalled Trek: Prelude to Ax'd-We-Are, USA, Mark R. Largent.
Chance Encounter - A Star Trek Fan Production, UK, Gary O'Brien.
Starship Republic - Serpent of Yesterday, A Star Trek Fan Production, USA, Ray Tesi.
Survivors: A Star Trek Fan Production, USA, Matthew Lee Blackburn.
Prelude to Axanar: A Star Trek Fan Production, USA, Christian Gossett.
Where No Jedi Has Gone Before, USA, Rena Yamamoto.
Tears In The Rain - Blade Runner, South Africa, Christopher Grant Harvey.
The Secret of Tatooine - Star Wars, France, Jordan Inconstant.
Dawn of Resistance - Star Wars, UK, Gareth Carr.
Bride of Frankie - Hammerhouse, USA, Devi Snively.

^At least Christian Gossett is named in the list of nominees and not Peters! :)
The Question I'd have for the Event Organizers (all the other stuff relating to the Axanar debacle aside): "How can a Fan Film made and released back in 2014 be a ciontender for a 2017 'Best Fanfilm' award?"
 
The Question I'd have for the Event Organizers (all the other stuff relating to the Axanar debacle aside): "How can a Fan Film made and released back in 2014 be a ciontender for a 2017 'Best Fanfilm' award?"

The festival rules don't mention that the production itself has to be from any particular date. https://filmfreeway.com/festival/BerlinScienceFictionFilmFestival

It appears that the owner of the product has to give permission to the festival to distribute promotional trailers etc, so the "nomination" looks like its a submission by the owner of the work. You also have to pay a fee to submit.

It could very well be this is just a festival that Axanar has not submitted itself to before.

Further, the festival says once you are accepted, you can't withdraw your work. So that suggests to me that the Festival is more like PR Newswire than a merit-based submission process, an arts event looking for content.

I would wonder who the voters are. If its a small club set up by the Festival, anything goes. But any influence I would think would start with somehow letting them know what's up. Their website identifies about 5 people as 'jurors', they are the staff, that may be it.
 
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Sadly, many of these Festivals have opted to move into a pay for play and at a higher rate. We used to submit a lot of our films for various film festivals for $10 here or there that I paid for out of my personal pocket. We've curtailed it to maybe one or two per year since the rates have more than quadrupled and quintupled. It's become a way for these festivals to make money rather than a place to exhibit your work.
 
Sadly, many of these Festivals have opted to move into a pay for play and at a higher rate. We used to submit a lot of our films for various film festivals for $10 here or there that I paid for out of my personal pocket. We've curtailed it to maybe one or two per year since the rates have more than quadrupled and quintupled. It's become a way for these festivals to make money rather than a place to exhibit your work.
Ahhhhhhhhhh so maybe LFIM has bought award #48!!!!!!!!!
 
In the past I always found the minimum submission fee for film fests was about $40. I can't speak to ones that would screen fanfilms.
 
It's amazing what a group of people with a focused vision can produce when they all work together toward a common goal. I'm talking about Star Trek Continues.

Lord Precious Pants could learn a lot from what STC has accomplished. For a shitload less money.

Now I'm waiting for the inevitable BS from Slow Lane, telling us how much better LLAP (Lifelong Loser Alec Peters) could have done it. :techman:
 
Yeah, it's ... teamwork. What a wild and wacky concept. It's why the baseball team that spends the most doesn't always get to the World Series or even to the playoffs. Money is nice and it does buy a lot of great stuff, but so far as I am aware, you cannot buy true chemistry between people yet.
 
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