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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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Come on...the most obvious of the many variables here is manpower.

How many people work full time on building the sets? What are the most people working together at any one time on the effort?

those Ares Studios floor plans showed a bunch of walled off offices on 2 floors. Did they inherit all that? I don't want to suggest any use of donor funds or staff to literally build the office space instead of sets, but this makes me curious. Perhaps someone read the background on this?
 
those Ares Studios floor plans showed a bunch of walled off offices on 2 floors. Did they inherit all that? I don't want to suggest any use of donor funds or staff to literally build the office space instead of sets, but this makes me curious. Perhaps someone read the background on this?

Pretty sure they said they were building offices back when they first rented the warehouse.
 
When is the deadline for Alec/Axanar to respond to CBS by the way? It's this week, isn't it?

Axanar tomorrow.
Alec Thursday.
Still no word on representation.

The thing about it is, if they were smart, they could utilize their in-house counsel to file an answer and once they obtained their "top 20 IP firm" pro bono attorney, they could file for a substitution of counsel. At this point, I'm just in awe that it appears they're not taking this seriously enough.
 
I'm not all caught up on the discussion, but I'd like to throw out my prediction.
After the loss to CBS, Axanar Productions and Alec Peters personally will declare bankruptcy. They will pay nothing to CBS. Miraculously, just a bit down the road, Propworx will reappear and look!, it's a miracle! Propworx has lots of assets to sell. Or something along those lines.
:devil:
 
Maybe Alec could pick up a hammer instead of going to Vegas for the weekend.

Half joking.

Yes, everyone on the show certainly could. That's the way fan and independent films get done, and that speaks to the mind-set here.

My guess is that a lot of the studio build-out was done by other than Axanar crew (as the carpeting of the offices was).
 
The sad part about all of this is that if they had done what they originally said they were going to do. Prelude as a sort of 'teaser' then the movie Kickstarter, then it probably would have been done, or well on the way to being done by now. But the movie Kickstarter somehow became the 'studio' Kickstarter and the scope of it all expanded and it kept getting pushed back while they drew more funds out of their fanbase/donors like cash vampires needing a fix.

Then the shady business with the coffee, which I still can't get over. I think that was the moment my sympathy for Axanar was destroyed. The D6 used on the coffee might not be directly from Trek, but it uses D5 and D7 parts. The Ares is essentially a reconfiguration of the Enterprise (in basic look at least) with Trek nacelles and saucer.

I don't see how they thought they could possibly get away with it. And now they're still at it. CBS/Paramount have one of the easiest cases in history. The Axanar Podcast catalogs all the violations in nice neat packages with it coming out of the proverbial horses mouth. I just hope TrekFM doesn't suffer because of this. I don't listen to any of their podcasts, but I still don't want anyone else brought down because of Axanar's idiocy.
 
Axanar tomorrow.
Alec Thursday.
Still no word on representation.

The thing about it is, if they were smart, they could utilize their in-house counsel to file an answer and once they obtained their "top 20 IP firm" pro bono attorney, they could file for a substitution of counsel. At this point, I'm just in awe that it appears they're not taking this seriously enough.

This is probably what they're doing.
 
So they posted this around 11:15 PM Eastern last night (give or take)
Wouldn't delaying a month due to the lawsuit be a change? This is either accidental incompetence by not telling the social media person a very important detail or lying to keep the money rolling in.
tX82O8R.png


^ Thats my favourite reply.

Surely Peter's has dumped enough at their door.

So as a backer, and someone like the backer previously who also recommend the project to friends, I find the whole thing quite sad more than anything else. My money is likely up in smoke, and I accept that as a potential pitfall of backing these projects. As others have said, fan films of any type exist at the whim of the rights holders. Whether you're backing Axanar, New Voyages, Continues or any of the other projects I've thrown a few quid at, all it takes is the nod from CBS and its gone. I may not like it, but I accept that.

To me thats one of the more important parts of the whole thing - might not be a universal view, but Peters/Axanar courted fans for money to make this project and they had a responsibility to use it wisely. How they've conducted themselves - both through ego as well as how they've spoken down to 'low priority' donators is irresponsable and reckless. It's almost as if they've jumped up and down daring someone to sue them.

Pretty sure that's not kosher. You can't declare bankruptcy as a get out of jail free card.
bankruptcy.jpg


Give it time.

I'm sure it's legal-ish, isn't it? I'm sure someone high profile has done it once or twice in the US. Might have been Trump but I'm drawing a blank. (Edit: Thinking of it, isn't that pretty much what happened with Propworx?)
 
The thing is, donor money doesn't have to be "up in smoke." If even one donor decided to file suit, I wonder how many other would join up-- or is the prevailing thought going to just be "meh, i knew this was a risk, so I guess my money is gone"?

Also, I don't even know why he needs offices. If it's a 3-month shoot, why not do all the administrative stuff from home? Of course, a back room for this and that is one thing, but 2 floors of offices?
 
Also, I don't even know why he needs offices. If it's a 3-month shoot, why not do all the administrative stuff from home? Of course, a back room for this and that is one thing, but 2 floors of offices?

They don't "Need" offices for this shoot... and they are taking time and resources towards that, that is detracting from the film....
 
I'm not all caught up on the discussion, but I'd like to throw out my prediction.
After the loss to CBS, Axanar Productions and Alec Peters personally will declare bankruptcy. They will pay nothing to CBS. Miraculously, just a bit down the road, Propworx will reappear and look!, it's a miracle! Propworx has lots of assets to sell. Or something along those lines.
:devil:

if they had any sense, they'd try to get out of this with the Ares Studio asset intact, and a subset of their donors who are ok with their donation being for an independent SF studio. But the chances any trek fan film would choose to do their production at Ares I would think would be nil. And the chances that tptb on the project would give up their dream of being the true Trek standard bearers seems small.
 
From Facebook, FYI
Lyn Wright shared Propworx's photo.
January 4 at 12:51pm ·
MGM lost over $300,000 in Propworx bankruptcy. Do some investigating before trusting Propworx. He just posted this yesterday.

Propworx
January 3 at 11:30am ·
Coming March 26th, 2016!

Propworx
Yes after MGM declared a $2 BILLION bankruptcy. That is the way business is. Donald Trump has had 4 bankruptcies, and he is running for president. What is the deal Lyn? You have an issue with me after years of me treating you like a friend?

Like · January 4 at 6:42pm
Lyn Wright
January 5 at 5:46pm · Rockford ·
Just got a message from a friend re the Star Trek Props Costumes and Auctions Forum (owned by Alec Peters):

"I see you are persona non grata, banned from Alec’s forum. What an honor! He’s whining the usual whine and saying you must have gone off the deep end."

And this is why I never said anything until now. (Member since 2007, admin since 2008). But you know what, he's a rat so it's OK to be off his ship, even though most of the passengers are cool.

Lyn Wright
January 6 at 10:46am · Rockford ·
Someone sent me the post on the Star Trek Props and Costumes Forum where Alec announces I'm banned. I knew this would happen. This is how Alec has always been. I was an admin since 2008 and pretty much ran the board while he played auctioneer. In Alec's words yesterday:

"I hate to do it, but Lyn has gone off the deep end, posting lies about me all over Facebook and attacking Propworx (now the main source of income for Jarrod Hunt). She has sunk to Don Hildebrand levels of blind hatred. And you know what? I haven't spoken to her in years!"

"You know, Star Trek collecting used to be fun, but people like Don and Lyn, by their repugnant actions, taken the fun out of it. What is it with you people? Why do you insist on trying to make other people's lives miserable?"

Don Hillenbrand was speaking truth. Alec misspelled the name but that's one of Alec's many "enemies". I didn't have any enemies till I told the truth here. <end of Facebook quotes>

One way or another, although it seems like the end to us, Alec will hide assets, find a way to keep the building, and continue on without a care. He has been posting on his prop blog a lot lately. I think his Hollywood Producer days are over, but Prop King is baaaaaaaaack.
 
Also, I don't even know why he needs offices. If it's a 3-month shoot, why not do all the administrative stuff from home? Of course, a back room for this and that is one thing, but 2 floors of offices?
When you're going to be starting a for-profit studio initially funded by money raised using Star Trek's IP...you gotta have a place for all the staff you're going to take on.

Continuing to build out the offices with this suit hanging over them has to be one of the most mindnumbingly stupid things ever to happen in the history of Star Trek.

That includes Spocks Brain, Sub Rosa, Profit and Lace, Threshold, and A Night in Sickbay.
 
Also, I don't even know why he needs offices. If it's a 3-month shoot, why not do all the administrative stuff from home? Of course, a back room for this and that is one thing, but 2 floors of offices?

Well, wouldn't that be the logical move?
Or, ya know, shooting on someone else's sets?
Or, maybe, actually funding a modest shoot himself (or a modest crowdfunding campaign to handle certain issues)?
Or, perhaps, not trying to create a for-profit enterprise?
Or, I don't know, not paying himself a salary and doing an amateur fan production out of love?!?

But I digress...
 
Of course.

But what I mean is, the use of all those offices is pretty good evidence that there's more going on than a single fan-film. He doesn't need things like 2 levels of interior offices, carpeting, convention appearances, fancy meals, transportation, etc. I could argue that anything unnecessary that was purchased is considered profit. It's an extreme example, but if he raised 1MM, spent 700,000 on the actual film (legitimately necessary stuff) and then spent the rest on a house that he claimed he used to film some scenes, and board the cast and crew-- but kept afterwards-- that's profit, or at least embezzlement or improper use of funds of some kind.

I saw a post on facebook somewhere where a supporter of Axanar defended them because their financial report "accounted for every dollar" but didn't bother to question why and where they were spending those dollars

SMH.
 
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