CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

Any link? I'd love to see some of the comments.

 

What, with the mushroom clouds and all?

I 'spose.

 

I prefer a bucket of hot water, which would sting them and make them smarten the frack up.

 

I'm not sure which is worse. All the crazy #standing or the schadenfreude. All things in moderation.

 

Are we sure Mr Peters's real name is not Harcourt Fenton Mudd...?

I remember asking Alec some time ago about why it was taking so long to make the film and basically flamed me off the fan group for asking, what I thought, sensible questions about the Axanar production. I seem to remember that it was originally called Star Trek: Axanar but had to remove it at the request of CBS lawyers, so that alone might indicate that things were not all that rosy...

I was surprised by the fact Tony Todd had left as I thought he made Prelude what it was - on the plus side of him leaving, he now follows me on twitter. I was somewhat surprised to see some of my tweets to him pictured here (I am @PhilsStalkers).

I didn't know that Wang had left - can somebody explain more about that please

 

Thanks... Mr Todd does seem to be a great man. I'm really amazed at how many people now follow me on twitter which, at a quick glance, includes a couple of actors, police officers and several girls from the bunny and sagebrush ranches in Nevada!

One of my tweets to him that seems to get a lot of likes is

 

In spite of their behaviour of some of their more... extreme elements, I feel sorry for the fans that were really excited for this. They had so much faith in it, and some had invested so much in it. If Peters is a con artist, he hooked 'em good. If he's just somone who fell for his own hype, then they're the collateral damage.

 

Soval (a recent real character... possibly still in Canon) + 2017 series + CBS quite serious about its online venture + legitimate franchise fatigue concerns + New CBS bureaucrats justifying their jobs + Axanar's "studios" + Free vs Pay for CBS owned online content + Streamline universe.

Notice the headline- Someone is considering this a real attempt at a prequel, and, going by the article in Rolling Stone CBS folks consider this effort a professional one.

"Star Trek: Crowdfunded Prequel to Film Series Facing Copyright Infringement Lawsuit, Report Says"

From a fan/support perspective -

(Oh and Garth became a mass murderer(I admit only a concern to me)) Does anyone want to see the young adventures of anyone who went mad later attacked an entire race? ... really? The Axanar team could have picked anyone else... literally ANYONE else from the Universe.

An aside- high production values and stunt casting do not obviate the need for a great story/ premise.

Speaking of friendly fire- New Voyages filmed a segment with Peters- as an ersatz blessing/launch of sorts- and I thought NV had a great relationship with CBS. Surprised no one from that team was aware or saw this coming.

Finally, I thought it was a di&k move of Peters to single out only Star Trek Continues and Renegades as his justification- clearly his production/methods/poor hollywood relationships struck a nerve somewhere.

 

I hope CBS doesn't end up going for all the fan made works as Star Trek: Aurora is a good little series/production.

I am not that knowledgeable in legal matters in the US, but can CBS use the previous use of their logos and the Star Trek name by the Axanar team in their case against them even if that matter was cleared up?

 

Absolutely. They'll argue that it's evidence that Axanar admitted that they were using CBS/Paramount IP.

 

Does anyone know what the salaries listed for Alec Peters and Diane Kingsbury in their annual report were?

 

That was my first thought but then wondered if it wouldn't count based on the fact that had been dealt with

Somebody mentioned a figure of 38k USD

 

Ditto. There is a minor satisfaction to being proven right after all these months of pointing out the obvious only to be shouted down at by the Axanar mob, even if it is unfortunate that so many fans are caught in the crossfire of it all.

 

To add my 2 cents... maybe 4 cents...

The "John Doe" defendants include all of the people producing, directing, working... its a long list. At the studios' discretion it includes the Director, Alec's (lovely) girl friend Diana, all of the people getting "salaries"... they're all conceivably about to get added. You have to assume that the decision to not name them - and only name Axanar and Alec - is a way for the studios to focus on who they want to stop. The bigger threat is that everyone senior associated with the production, conceivably including Takei, will get dragged into this mess.

I don't think the timing is an accident. I understand they're just about to "start shooting" so money is where it is, and the sets are ready. The studios certainly do not want shooting to begin as then the product, even if incomplete or just a few scenes (like the Vulcan scene) will likely get out. That forces a corporation's timing.

I work with large companies all the time. You can also assume this is not out of the blue, and that any large corporation would rather negotiate than sue. There's most history here than "they sued"... there's likely a series of conversations where they kept disagreeing.

Given the obvious reality that the studios own the characters and trademarks... I would think that all involved in this, other than Alec, would just walk away. Its not worth their professional reputations or the possibility of litigation. Let's go through some of the key people...

Robert Meyer Burnett - works with studios, would have no interest in being the object of a lawsuit.
Mike DeMeritt - works with studios, same
Tobias Richter - "Ships of the Line", same
Michael Spatola - same

So IMHO it will be impossible for Axanar to recover.

AND of course - this tells you something about CBS and Paramount's view of the "STAR TREK" auctions.


BTW if you want a laugh, check out Kickstarter's rules on IP. You can't raise money if you don't own the IP!! Except they did.

HNY to all.

 

Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits has been heavily involved with Axanar, and has said that both Peters and CBS had long conversations together before and during production about what Axanar could and couldn't do in order for the project to go ahead, and Hunt had given the impression that CBS had been OK with what had so far been done. It now seems that CBS have decided to pull the rug out from underneath Peters despite having given the project the all clear.


Of course Axanar was going to be 100 times better than the shit Paramount was going to force feed the fans on Trek's 50th, and Paramount and CBS new this, so they've put a stop to it.


It's all very sad, but entirely predicatable behaviour. We all know CBS simply can't be trusted.


Screw Star Trek Beyond. Screw the new TV show. Screw CBS.

 

Alec's as listed as 38K

Diane was listed as Deferred....

 

Something like that.....
More drama than a Mediterranian vendetta!

 

Except, that this past August, Peters, on the Axanar website released a statement, that CBS Specifically stated that they COULD NOT tell Axanar what they could, and could not do.
http://www.axanarproductions.com/axanar-and-cbs/