CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

[SeerSGB]

Guys.

Have no fear. If all else fails, Alec Peters can take on appropriating and profiting off of Starbucks' IP selling fine coffees.

http://www.axanarcoffee.com/

"It's real. All of it. The French Roast. The Sumatra..."

Holy fucking shit! This guy was just begging to be sued by CBS.

I mean... the model starship kits, the T-shirts, the patches, the posters, the soundtrack CDs, the novelization/anthology, and the Blu-Ray and DVD sets clearly weren't enough.

Wow, I didn't realize they were merchandising the shit out of this like that. No wonder they're getting sued.
I had been wondering why Axanar was getting sued when so many other high profile fan productions, like Phase II, Star Trek Continues, and Renegades didn't, the merchandising could definitely explain that.

That would do it. The press around Axanar probably hasn't help matters. Especially when the project head goes around trash talking the owners and product of the IP he's ripping off.

Holy Crap, Alec is going to do a new kickstarter! They're making it clear Ares Studios is a serpate for profit business seperate from the Axanar film.

Funded, I suspected, by a crap-ton of naive fans that believe Axanar still has a chance in hell getting made

How many times can Peters go back to that well though? I'm sure that the hammer coming down is going to siphon off some of that funding from people who don't want to donate to something that's even less likely to happen.

Then you're going to have to pay the crew even more in order to entice them to work for what's essentially a black-market production.

That's even if a judge would allow this to continue, which I doubt.

Please don't dash my hopes just yet.

I think they'll allow fan films to continue, they just won't allow anyone to use Kickstarter/Indiegogo or any other fund raising websites.

Or if they do set a limit so low that it wouldn't be a threat.

My memory is faulty, who was it that did a production and only asked for like home depot and lowes gift cards to get the sets built.

 

[Harvey]

If merchandising was the issue, Star Trek: Renegades should be worried.

On that page alone you can "donate" to receive the following unlicensed Star Trek products: DVDs, Blu-Rays, scripts, novels, model kits, signed photos, props, posters, patches, T-shirts, and soundtrack CDs.

 

[Squiggy]

Alec has done something that JJ never could. He's brought us all together.

Hallelujah!

 

[Kemaiku]

^Donation rewards are allowed.

Marketing and selling unrelated tie-in merchandise is a whole other world of hell no.

 

[Woulfe]

Just think if Trek was owned by THE MOUSE...

This whole matter would of been gone in no time at all...

Disney lawyers carry lightsabers nowadays after all

;-)

 

[BillJ]

If merchandising was the issue, Star Trek: Renegades should be worried.

On that page alone you can "donate" to receive the following unlicensed Star Trek products: DVDs, Blu-Rays, scripts, novels, model kits, signed photos, props, posters, patches, T-shirts, and soundtrack CDs.

They probably should be.

Though I'd imagine them packaging them as rewards for donations might buy them some leniency. The Axanar people are selling coffee straight up. Without even acknowledging the IP owner.

 

[SeerSGB]

If merchandising was the issue, Star Trek: Renegades should be worried.

On that page alone you can "donate" to receive the following unlicensed Star Trek products: DVDs, Blu-Rays, scripts, novels, model kits, signed photos, props, posters, patches, T-shirts, and soundtrack CDs.

Who says they shouldn't be? At this every fan-film out there needs to call a meeting and get their financials and their officials responses in order. Cause someone is going to come a knocking; might not be a sledgehammer like Axanar got, but there's going to be an accounting made.

 

[Kemaiku]

Just think if Trek was owned by THE MOUSE...

In 2063, when Disney owns 90% of the worlds governments, I doubt Star Trek will really the be the main thing on peoples minds.

 

[Harvey]

If merchandising was the issue, Star Trek: Renegades should be worried.

On that page alone you can "donate" to receive the following unlicensed Star Trek products: DVDs, Blu-Rays, scripts, novels, model kits, signed photos, props, posters, patches, T-shirts, and soundtrack CDs.

They probably should be.

Though I'd imagine them packaging them as rewards for donations might buy them some leniency. The Axanar people are selling coffee straight up. Without even acknowledging the IP owner.

This is true, although I doubt the defense that "they were rewards given to donors, not products sold to customers" would fly in court.

 

[BillJ]

Just think if Trek was owned by THE MOUSE...

This whole matter would of been gone in no time at all...

It would've never been an issue to begin with. The Mouse would have never allowed things to get this out of control.

 

[SeerSGB]

Just think if Trek was owned by THE MOUSE...

This whole matter would of been gone in no time at all...

Disney lawyers carry lightsabers nowadays after all

;-)

Yeah, but the interns are real emo cases and keep trashing the computers whenever they get told they can't take the afternoon off.

 

[BillJ]

If merchandising was the issue, Star Trek: Renegades should be worried.

On that page alone you can "donate" to receive the following unlicensed Star Trek products: DVDs, Blu-Rays, scripts, novels, model kits, signed photos, props, posters, patches, T-shirts, and soundtrack CDs.

They probably should be.

Though I'd imagine them packaging them as rewards for donations might buy them some leniency. The Axanar people are selling coffee straight up. Without even acknowledging the IP owner.

This is true, although I doubt the defense that "they were rewards given to donors, not products sold to customers" would fly in court.

I think part of it is that Renegades have already told CBS that they are done after making this film.

Though I do wonder what happens to funds that are collected beyond what is needed to make the film? Maybe Tom can speak to that?

 

[SeerSGB]

Just think if Trek was owned by THE MOUSE...

This whole matter would of been gone in no time at all...

It would've never been an issue to begin with. The Mouse would have never allowed things to get this out of control.

Yeup. Even some of the guys in the SW costuming community have been worrying about what the future holds. Remember, the mouse gives no fucks; they know you can't go anywhere else to get the fix, and you'll complain and you'll still pay the price of admission.

 

[KennyB]

They are coaching fans with "talking points" now.

 

[BillJ]

Just think if Trek was owned by THE MOUSE...

This whole matter would of been gone in no time at all...

It would've never been an issue to begin with. The Mouse would have never allowed things to get this out of control.

Yeup. Even some of the guys in the SW costuming community have been worrying about what the future holds. Remember, the mouse gives no fucks; they know you can't go anywhere else to get the fix, and you'll complain and you'll still pay the price of admission.

I appreciate that CBS, and Paramount before them, allowed fans to express themselves in a myriad of ways through their IP. But when crowdsourcing became a thing, CBS should have set up clearly defined rules of what was and wasn't acceptable.

 

[Khan 2.0]

Just had a look at that Axanar Indiegogo site. OMG I had no idea the extent of this thing. What are people who donated thousands going to do?! And what does it mean for all the other fan productions who do similar stuff like this (STC, Phase II, Renegades, Pike)??

OMG What a mess

 

[jespah]

FYI.

Another thing - the Axanar fandom is a drop in the bucket, or at least the known fans are.

Look at objective #s.

Axanar movie FB group - just under 68,000 fans
Axanar fan group on FB - just under 7,800 members
a few smaller Axanar fan groups, for STO or "I stand with Axanar" - 3,150 followers combined
Axanar kickstarter - just under 8,550 backers
Axanar indiegogo - 7,540 backers
--------------
TOTAL: 95,040
Subtract 10% (9,504) for people who are members of more than one group: 85,536

This is less than 1/4 of the # of people who tuned in, on average, every single week, for Enterprise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:...#Reception ) during its least popular season.
Star Trek Into Darkness earned about $29.9 Million (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_...#Reception ).

Yeah, Axanar fans? You are not as big as you think you are.

CBS/Paramount is lining its ducks up for the future - and also has serious beefs with Axanar using Trek IP to raise funds for a studio and sell merch unrelated to fundraiser fulfillments. Those are profits from the Trek IP. Period.

We're going to talk about this on Sunday at the G & T Show. Should be a fun discussion.

 

[BillJ]

TOTAL: 95,040
Subtract 10% (9,504) for people who are members of more than one group: 85,536

This is less than 1/4 of the # of people who tuned in, on average, every single week, for Enterprise

Enterprise was averaging around two million viewers a week when cancelled. So it is less than 1/20th.

 

[Jedi_Master]

^ I'm going to guess that the individual quoted by Ryan Thomas Riddle doesn't hold the copyright on... well anything.

 

[Woulfe]

Just had a look at that Axanar Indiegogo site. OMG I had no idea the extent of this thing. What are people who donated thousands going to do?! And what does it mean for all the other fan productions who do similar stuff like this (STC, Phase II, Renegades, Pike)??

OMG What a mess

Who will end up cleaning up this mess too ?