CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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This isn't directly related per se, but Stephen Fender's Four Years War/Romulan War Tech Manual is up for download - the Ares is mentioned, but none of the other Axanar (Starfleet) designs are. (here).
Also, in browsing through the feed for the project's Facebook page, he made a post on Friday seeming to communicate his discomfort with the ongoing legal morass........(that said, I wouldn't expect to see an Axanar-specific tech manual at all, let alone any actual novels/novellas)
Also, in browsing through the feed for the project's Facebook page, he made a post on Friday seeming to communicate his discomfort with the ongoing legal morass........(that said, I wouldn't expect to see an Axanar-specific tech manual at all, let alone any actual novels/novellas)
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Seems many are reluctant to join the Axanar Family...
...perhaps the cost of Membership is too high?
Plus, the Premiums for membership, thus far, can only include a striped suit, shared accommodation, and only so much time in the yard with the bulls!
But, to make lemonade out of the lemons,; as I understand it, you get a unique identifying number in the caliboose...perhaps one of the Principals can request the number "7 of 9"?
...perhaps the cost of Membership is too high?
Plus, the Premiums for membership, thus far, can only include a striped suit, shared accommodation, and only so much time in the yard with the bulls!
But, to make lemonade out of the lemons,; as I understand it, you get a unique identifying number in the caliboose...perhaps one of the Principals can request the number "7 of 9"?
I don't know this person, Stephen Fender, but with novels and a tech manual, I assume the work was licensed with approval for Kickstarter funding. Yes? No? And even this person feels oppressed by the fallout. How does licensing and being legal not resolve such concerns?
This isn't directly related per se, but Stephen Fender's Four Years War/Romulan War Tech Manual is up for download - the Ares is mentioned, but none of the other Axanar (Starfleet) designs are. (here).
Also, in browsing through the feed for the project's Facebook page, he made a post on Friday seeming to communicate his discomfort with the ongoing legal morass........(that said, I wouldn't expect to see an Axanar-specific tech manual at all, let alone any actual novels/novellas)
I wonder if the editor was/is aware of the possible legal repercussions of editing fan fiction for pay? There's a good reason many professionals won't touch the stuff (aside from any ethical concerns and the general pointlessness of professionally editing a work that can't be professionally published).
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As best as I can tell, these works were not licensed or given approval to seek funding through Kickstarter. He's just another one of those bottom-feeding parasites. (I don't have a problem with writers using fan fiction to build an audience for original fiction. I have a big problem with them running KS campaigns to get that fan fiction professionally edited.)
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I'm not clear on the association between this author & Alec/Axanar. His own project seems completely un-related (or if not, then tangential at best), but it stands to reason that anything that ends up on Axanar's storefront would earn the contributor(s) a legal bullseye on their back.
When it comes to merchandising, I would think C/P would take aim on those who have work up on the storefront, if indeed they want to go that far at all. Going nuclear and taking aim at stuff like this, given the extremely spurious connection to the issue at hand would be illogical at the current juncture.
CBS/P still can kick it up a notch, all they have to do is officially name the Does. Once that happens, and the shit gets real, we will see everyone leaving Alex's side to deal with there own issues. I'm sure CBS/P would rather not deal with he hassle of naming Does, but they added that to the complaint as another possible weapon they can use if they feel they need to. I'm curious to see if it gets that far.
If C/P goes after this guy it won't be because he's loosely associated with Axanar. It will be because he's raising money off of Star Trek IP through Kickstarter. They've already C&D'ed one project doing the same.
If Fender just wanted to write fan fiction and throw it up on a website, there wouldn't be a problem. FF.net alone has thousands of Trek fics. Fender is going a step farther: he's running Kickstarters to pay for editing and limited print runs. That's indie publishing right there.
If I had to guess, leaving the barn doors open may just be a way of keeping attention on the case. The attorneys have said their goal is to argue fair use and expand the range of creative freedom of fan films. This probably means somehow forcing copyright claims to be very specific amalgams, and opening up space for small variants as not being covered. To get an audience for this you gotta keep the issue in the press.
At some point, someone is going to have to say it's done and admit defeat. It won't be Lord Axahat, because. But someone will have to do it and will probably have to put Alec in a strait jacket.
I've said before, CBS/P should offer Alec a "Morn" character who never has a reveal.
I think it might be more, see above.
Its really bored. Nebulas to be notable need to be light years across, most are way more. "Enter" at sublight and you don't enter a fog bank and navigate to the middle in 10 minutes. Space, edited for the minds of TV viewers.
Perhaps this is what Alec meant when he remarked somewhere recently that they were "mostly dealing with a few dozen 'haters' ". If their legal team has to take concrete actions to deal with things pointed out here or anywhere else, then they are concretely dealing with it.
If Trek fanfilms go the way of Disney 'contests', Alec will have greatly sped up the process. It seems like an inevitable progress as many others would have had the vision of the loophole, but he's the one who brought it upon Trek, and brought it perhaps years earlier than it had to happen.
It's sort of like the NFL. Everyone loves splashy free agent signings of a star running back or quarterback. But the best money you can spend is on your offensive line and your defensive backs.
What jumped out at me was that by "owning" all the rights in any film entered into the contest, very few of them would ever see the light of day. If you are a VP and worried about anything in a fan-film negatively impacting the brand -- even things that are otherwise allowed under the rules of the contest -- you now can stick that film in a dark hole, bury the hole, and dynamite a mountain of rubble over top it.
Personally? I think CBS is just going to ban all fan films. They'll take the PR hit now. It'll be mitigated after the new series launches and a whole new collection of fans join the universe, ones without real ties to Pre-2017 Trek.
I completely disagree. I think CBS is getting rid of one bad apple and is not going to take action against any other production unless or until they cross the line which has been well documented here.
If the current "Axanar" situation becomes more common with fan-films then CBS/P will take action to stop the whole mess; we are not at that stage yet.
If the current "Axanar" situation becomes more common with fan-films then CBS/P will take action to stop the whole mess; we are not at that stage yet.
I have a more cynical view of studio execs and their lawyers. My feeling is that "Renegades" was an almost-sue and Axanar became a must-sue, especially since experience shows that not every fan film that pledges to change or shut down should CBS ask will actually do so, even when lawsuits are filed.
I tend to think once the Axanar smoke clears. We will see an end to crowd funded fan films. CBS doesn't have to make a rule. Simply send 'Cease and Desists' to anyone crowd funding.
That's exactly why I never submitted a story I wrote to Strange New Worlds. I asked and was told that even if they didn't publish it, I could -NEVER- have it published anywhere else, nor could I even upload it to Fac-Fic dot-com or my own personal web page. That was a deal-breaker for me.
What CBS &Paramount are doing should put the brakes on any more such money grabs. Low or zero budget fanfilms should remain unaffected by their actions. These aren't the projects their looking for. 
What CBS &Paramount are doing should put the brakes on any more such money grabs. Low or zero budget fanfilms should remain unaffected by their actions. These aren't the projects their looking for.
As long as they aren't portraying things that could damage the license, I have a feeling the low budget films will be allowed to continue.
For those expressions otherwise covered under Fair Use, the entry terms to the Lucasfilm comp binds that up. If you made a doc for the competition, you probably could use it somewhere else after the competition. But so could Lucasfilm. They'd "own" the product and could do whatever they want with it, too.
That I found to be the most interesting part of the agreement.
What CBS &Paramount are doing should put the brakes on any more such money grabs. Low or zero budget fanfilms should remain unaffected by their actions. These aren't the projects their looking for.
Maybe. But I think it would just be easier for them to go "NO FAN FILM FOR YOU!" to everyone who tries to make one, be it for $1 or $1m dollars.
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