CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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Because despite what Alec says, we all know its not about quality. Its ultimately about money. Paragraph 64 of the Complaint reads:
Whether that mean the $1.2 million they've raised, how they're spending that money, Alec's $38k salary, or the coffee, "perks", donor store, or whatever, the key point is, when it comes down to it, CBS and Paramount could potentially lose money from Axanar.
Its baffling to me that Peters, an Attorney, misses that point.
ETA: Or maybe he's not missing it. Maybe he's trying to push blame elsewhere so he can save face for his fanbase in whatever his next endeavor may be.
This is why he has a serious "ticking clock" issue. Propworx will likely never be able to pay the rent for the studio space on it's own, so unless they can get Ares Digital or studio rentals or for profit making films up to speed very quickly, they will go tits up on the rent expense alone, not to mention utilities and insurance.
He's a trained lawyer. How could the dude miss it?
Bingo!
I know it's not nice, but Peters is a slimy piece of shit and if he had an ounce of morals, he would give the donors their money back.
In their legal complaint CBS/P calls his current project "the Axanar Works." #irony
I'm sure he knew exactly what he was doing - he was just hoping to get away with it or he was hoping to stay just under CBS's radar.
But he drank some of his own kool-aide and believed he really was Gene 2.0 and thought he could get away with it while being ON the radar. He self-promoted too much.
And any one with a passing familiarity of law, the entertainment industry, or just basic ethics knows he's in the wrong. He just can't survive without his fans stroking his ego. He's gotten used to it over the past couple of years and now he requires it.
If he admits defeat or admits (and sticks to it) that he did all the things, then his loses his chorus and he goes back to being some nobody once tangentially associated with Star Trek.
His bio says "an attorney by training."
because the quality is being measured in the head of the creator of Axanar
so the owner of Ares will evict the owner of Propworx rather than make a concessionary repayment plan? They are the same person. or perhaps you meant propworx is covering for the studio rent? I thought the donations were doing that.
He does not have most of it to give back. If he started to give money back to some of the donors but not all of them, that would create a big shitstorm as well. Morally he should give it back, even if he divides up what is in the account, by the total number of donors, and gives them all back even a portion of what they donated that gesture would go a long way. Thing is he is not going to do that. He may give some back to the ones that are persistent about it, but those that say nothing he will just keep.
Of course there is. There's no evidence in the studios' legal complaint or recent actions that they have a problem with fan films in general, just Axanar in particular, which they characterized as a "professional commercial venture trading off our property."
Other fan films have always acknowledged CBS' right to shut them down at any time. If CBS/P had problems with fan films you'd have seen C&Ds flying about already.
The greatest damage Axanar may end up inflicting on fan productions may be the end of crowdfunding, however, and that will doom or scale back many productions. That may depend on whether Axanar's brazen crowdfunding overreach is viewed as endemic to fan productions or an anomaly. If the studios view crowdfunding as a problem requiring accounting oversight then they may end it simply because they're never going to take on that kind of administrative burden. Not to mention that the crowdfunding platforms themselves, flouting their own terms of service, make money off fan films' fundraising. So, yeah, that aspect will pose a problem going forward.
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Look to that possibility being something CBS demands in a settlement: We'll forego damages if you give all the remaining money you raised from Kickstarter, Indiegogo and your own direct fundraising back to donors.
Win/win: You avoid damages you could never hope to pay and we demonstrate our magnanimity to fans.
I'm not sure why, because it would seem to be the logical thing to do, but I'm just not sure Alec would go for that.
in such a regulatory environment a small business would need to exist to take care of all these administrivia for a flourishing industry of ultra low budget productions. the business could even get into production and distribution. ironic(?) if Axanar creates backlash that requires Ares to exist in order to move forward.
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