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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar 2 - Electric Boogaloo-Fanboys gone WILD-too many hyphens

Do you enjoy pie?

  • Yes, sweet, please

    Votes: 79 40.9%

  • Yes, savory, please

    Votes: 42 21.8%

  • Yes, any kind

    Votes: 80 41.5%

  • No, I'm a heathen

    Votes: 37 19.2%
  • Total voters
    193
JD said:
I find it a bit sad that all of these people are wasting time and money on something that will never happen.
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True but in the aftermath of Axanar I'm trying really hard not to pass up any humor to be gleamed.
Meanwhile I'm staying busy neading my pizza dough. perhaps another attempt spinning out an Axanar star shape.
 
JD said:
I find it a bit sad that all of these people are wasting time and money on something that will never happen.
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Honestly, my sympathy for people voluntarily throwing money into a lost cause has been severely diminished watching Axalytes make multiple donations and moving AP's furniture for him. The donors that are being Shrouded by "Destiny" have to learn their lesson on their own.
 
jespah said:
Le sigh.

So, let's see if Star Wars guy hit all the marks:
  • "Calling card to the industry"
  • "It's not a fan film"
  • "We start; they finish"
  • "Give us $$"
No sushi, far as I can tell.

And here's why -- to add to what has been said before -- this will NOT work.
  • The rights holders have plans for the IP. The chances of this guy correctly figuring those out are vanishingly small. So already it's a strike even if everything else is awesome.
  • The rights holders won't change their plans unless they have a MAJOR incentive to do so. A fan film, no matter how excellent, will never meet that threshold. What would is SERIOUS $$. As in tens if not hundreds of millions in ADDITIONAL profit to be made with a course correction/change.
  • There are a ton of people who have been working their way up the hard way. It can be slow. Yes, yes, we all know about wunderkinds and child actors and whatnot. But most people in H'wood who are successful took a while to get there. Semi-randomly, here's Johnny Depp's bio on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000136/?ref_=nv_sr_1 How many things did he do before 21 Jump Street? According to that page, seven. This does not count (possibly) walk-on roles, nonspeaking parts, etc. It also doesn't include commercials. He didn't jump the queue.
  • Here's Jennifer Lawrence (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2225369/?ref_=nmls_hd) . It wasn't until her 5th role that she was asked back to a series. And she didn't really get a recurring role until her 9th.
  • Many people (although not all) in H'wood have educations in what they do. Sure, some/many of them decided to get them later. But those folks still went to Stella Adler or the New School in NYC or any one of a ton of other places, in an effort to hone their craft. Natural talent is fine for children (maybe). But for sustained work, it makes sense to go to school -- and to make connections there.
  • The rights holders won't pick up someone else's slack and finish it, no matter how wonderful it is. Why? Because one of the hallmarks of being a writer in particular is that you finish what you started. Yeah, yeah, George RR Martin, yadda yadda yadda. But GRRM has finished plenty of stuff that isn't Game of Thrones.
And once again, for the cheap seats!

If it's not a fan film, then it's clear competition with the rights holders -- and that helps it to fail the intellectual property fair use test. And if it is a fan film, then the rights holders will not take it seriously. And has been stated already, they will actively shun it because they know it's just a lawsuit waiting to happen.

This is a fantasy. Fantasies are nice. This is the fantasy where, with just the right equipment and lighting, life doesn't have to be the way it's been all along. That the brave Star Wars fan film guy can make it big, when every other indicator in his life is that he will be working a regular old 9-5 job, probably within 50 miles of his home town.

You know, just like most people.

When I was a kid -- very little -- I would fantasize about being the secret daughter of someone rich and famous. Lots of kids have that fantasy. It's another form of life shorthand, that if only -- if only! -- the right people notice, you'll be rescued from your life of drudgery.

It's a passive pie-in-the-sky fantasy.

You know what's an active fantasy?

Doing what you can to lead as extraordinary a life as you can. And that is whether you make art or money or you're an excellent parent or a great child to your folks or anything else. Bake awesome cookies. Win your age group in the local 5K. Be the best damned library volunteer ever.

Take charge of your life.
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You forgot to mention the BIG factor: It's now a Disney owned IP. You know Diney; it's the company that sued preschoolers over some murals painted by 5 year olds:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ons-cartoon-characters-disney-representatives

If anyone here thinks Paramount/CBS came in like a Bulldozer; Disney is WAY more reactive to anything they own being used in any way without their permission, and they've been that way for a LONG time.
 
Yeah, he might have stood a slightly better chance of not getting his ass sued when LFL was an independent company, but now that they're owned by Disney he's pretty much fucked.
 
Noname Given said:
You know Diney; it's the company that sued preschoolers over some murals painted by 5 year olds
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{sigh} Again, those are TRADEMARKED images, and the written law says that trademarks **M*U*S*T** be protected against every single infringement, or the IP-holder risks forfeiture of said trademark.
 
Sgt_G said:
{sigh} Again, those are TRADEMARKED images, and the written law says that trademarks **M*U*S*T** be protected against every single infringement, or the IP-holder risks forfeiture of said trademark.
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Did actually READ the linked article did you?

FROM the article:
HALLANDALE, FLA. — Appearing more like Ebenezer Scrooge than someone from Walt Disney Productions, a representative of the company has asked three day-care centers to remove cartoon figures from their walls.

Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy must come down or the centers could face legal action for infringing on copyrights of Walt Disney Productions.

Disney representatives said they must protect their copyright even though they are sympathetic to the children`s affection for the characters.
...
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pixel.gif
 
Yes, in fact I did read the article before posting my response. In the quote from the Disney rep, he says "trademark". Just because the reporter gets it wrong (surprise surprise) everywhere else doesn't mean they're talking about copyrights.
 
What can I say? These 5 year old have to be stopped or they'll grow up thinking everything they see was put there for their personal gratification. I mean what's next Mickey and minnie lemonade stands and Axanar Coffee?
On another note why aren't we teaching kid to think for themselves ? Polly and Pavel Possum, hell forget Micky and Minnie, we got Harry the hedgehog.
I'd like to think old Walt is looking down with a smile every time a child adores one of his creations. Walt's gone, Kids growing up with Disney characters being used to promote a school... YEAH sue them.
Let's stop telling our children they're not good enough to compete with the corporate giants but at the same time, these corporate images should never become worshiped as an some godly idol to our children.
 
motorhead said:
so star wars guy's kickstarter was successfully funded a week ago and there's still no update on the page. are we witnessing the birth of something special :) ?
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...iny-a-star-wars-long-tale-pilot-episo/updates
I'd do this the Star Citizen way. Sorry, no updates on the Kickstarter Page, but you can come to our Discord once a year or so :).
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I'm willing to give Star Wars Guy the benefit of the doubt and assume there's no news substantive enough to put in the update beyond "We got more money than we asked for! Woohoo!"
 
These aren't the donors you're looking for. He can go about his business.
Move along, move along.
 
Professor Zoom said:
I'm still honestly surprised that IP holders haven't gone after Kickstarter. Kickstarter takes a cut of each donation. They are profiting off of someone else's IP. In a very direct way. @jespah, any theories?
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I find it weird, too. And to me it makes little sense as the IP holders aren't getting anything out of KS, etc fundraisers and may even be actively losing $$. It might just be a matter of time to get larger IP holders riled up enough. I think they would do best together, where crowdfunding platforms would have to deal w/Disney, DC, Trek, James Bond, etc all at the same time.

If it was any other administration, I'd be suggesting Congressional hearings. Copyright, after all, is in the US constitution. There's an entire industry out there that facilitates infringement. Sure they'll whine that they can't enforce everything, but so what? Get more people on it and manage expectations by telling campaign runners it'll take longer to approve campaigns. I'm sure KS, etc can work out algorithms which show them which projects are more or less likely to be infringing on IP. E. g. an invention will be handled best in the courts if it's a patent infringement. But the making of art seems easier and better if it's cut off at the knees from the start.

But I think this Congress would do nothing. Partly because they do very little about anything else, but also because they are supposed to be rather actively anti-government.

I'd also add that, after the hearings for Mark Zuckerberg, there's a great swath of people in Congress who have no f'in' clue how the 'net works. They have no idea what a Wild West it is out here for IP holders.
 
@jespah - in addition to the points you made, regulating KS is a nitty-gritty, detailed, roll up the sleeves and smoke 400 cigars over 48 hours kind of legislative problem. Legislators don't have the stomach for or interest in solving those kind of problems anymore and the various interest groups who ghostwrite so much of the legislation that does get passed apparently aren't bothered by crowdfunding sites. Perhaps large entertainment corps are ok with the sites because they reduce the number of ridiculous unsolicited submissions they receive.
 
Jedi_Master said:
@jespah - in addition to the points you made, regulating KS is a nitty-gritty, detailed, roll up the sleeves and smoke 400 cigars over 48 hours kind of legislative problem. Legislators don't have the stomach for or interest in solving those kind of problems anymore and the various interest groups who ghostwrite so much of the legislation that does get passed apparently aren't bothered by crowdfunding sites. Perhaps large entertainment corps are ok with the sites because they reduce the number of ridiculous unsolicited submissions they receive.
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#Truth

And I think you may be right re the reduction in unsolicited submission volume. It could very well be one of the drivers.
 
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