Cushman's New Book

I vacillated between posting here, or in the Treklit forum, but since most of the discussion on Cushman's other three books was here, I decided this was the right place for it.

Cushman announced some time back that he was writing a multi-volume series on "Star Trek in the '70's". Volume 1 of what is apparently a 2-book series came out over the weekend (Volume 2 is promised for the summer). Here's the link to his publisher: http://www.jacobsbrownmediagroup.co...e-roddenberry-and-star-trek-in-the-1970s.html

I first saw it on Amazon. No Kindle edition, so I can't read it (I'm out of room for dead tree books...)

Anyone had a chance to read it yet? Any thoughts?

 

Why would anyone bother?

 

The problem being Cash's poor track record of accuracy.

 

The cover is the stuff of nightmares on several levels.

 

As I've noted elsewhere, respected Trek figures somehow endorse his books. This volume has a forward by D.C. Fontana -- while that does not mean everything (or anything) within is accurate, her position with TOS, TAS and beyond lends a sort of cachet to the work.

 

No thanks. I think I would get more gratification by simply flushing my money down the toilet.

 

Good lord, is that the Captain Kirk mask they used for Michael Myers in the Halloween movies? Why would anyone want to see that on a cover of a Star Trek book?

 

Public domain image?

 

Did someone say, "Cash"?



Neil

 

Send him to Luminus like his uncle Ralph!
JB

 

I want to know how Cash Markman gets away with this while good people like Phil Farrand had to stop publishing their books because of copyright concerns.

 

Farrand's publisher caved, apparently. Cash's "publisher" Jacobs Brown is actually he himself and he's small potatoes. And honestly Cash is just relating production details (as erroneous as he gets them) and not anything much that a copyright claim could be leveled against.

 

The worst sin as far as books go is the expansive making of TMP book (Return to Tomorrow) that for whatever reason couldn't load itself up with photos (despite the fact pretty much every TMP behind the scenes photo is floating around online somewhere). At some point writing about old pop culture has to be deemed history and hence fair-use.

 

No, that Roddenberry portrait was published in the liner notes of vinyl LP Inside Star Trek (1976).

Halloween came out in 1978, and used a Shatner Halloween mask turned inside out to make their prop mask.

 

Fair use is nebulous, but a nonfiction book writing about the history behind a tv production would be pretty safe. If it is reportorial and educating the public, you 're generally good, and may in fact refer to the show by name, its characters, etc.

Images are specifically protected by copyright and must be licensed (the cover image of my epic tome linked below) or truly in the public domain (the few interior images I used). It is laughable to see how many ppl use images illegally and say "assumed to be in the public domain" just because they are illegally passed around so much. Like my avatar, over there, haha. Like if you're doing 105 mph but have a sticker on your car that says "I assume it's legal to go 105." Nope.

Their self-publishing entity had a legal "console" at one point, so I assume they cleared that Michael Myers imaage as p.d. Such images are rare, so you're stuck with slim, ugly pickins when you need a cheap legal cover. Or you could be cool and pay someone a fair price to license a photo. Though the dude in Nyc I licensed my Louis photo from was real surprised, it was so easy to rip off if one wanted to. But my parents raised me right. AND if you lose a copyright battle, you can owe the winner your gross, not your profits!

 

That photograph as well as others in the same setting were taken in 1976, and Roddenberry first used them to promote his "World of Star Trek" tour. They showed up all over the place back then including in flyers, newspapers, etc. It's likely that Roddenberry was the one who paid for them.

 

Another book to not add to my collection.

Kor

 

It would depend on the arr. back then, whether photog kept rights or GR got them. Usu the photog owns rights to use of the image. To be public domain they have to be crazy old now (to protect Disney, the laws wer e changed cuz the mouse was gonna go pd after 56 years) or specifically intentionally released to the public.

I licensed my Louis cover image cor $400 and the photogs widow still gets some of that. Good. He invested in equipment and train ing.

 

Regarding the Kirk and Spock effigies, I think we're looking at artifacts that were left over from creating the Movieland Wax Museum dummies in the early-70s.

 

https://archive.org/details/Famous_Monsters_of_Filmland_142_c2c_scanEdit_by_sproutshake_S/page/n85