CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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Even if every donor boycott Star Trek forever, it wouldn't be but a statical blip on the movies' box office and whatever series ratings.
Hell, inflation alone would more than cover any ticket decrease from Into Darkness.
CBS did the math. The outrage is irrelevant.
Well, no. But they could put out an eye.
You might not remember this, bit there was a television show called The Simpsons in the 90s.
When the internet became THE INTERNET, there wee hundreds of sites dedicated to this cartoon show for grownups. Wallpapers. Wavs. Scripts.
One day, Fox decided to clamp down and shut down all these sites. Soon The Simpsons went off the air and now the only place you can find it is in blackmarket VHS exchanges.
Comment of the day.
People need to get real. Yes, some people are going to be pissed, just like ALOT of people were pissed about the reboot.
The Star Trek still made hundreds of millions.
People were pissed about the Khan rehash.
Into Darkness made hundreds of millions.
People were pissed that the guy who "destroyed" Star Trek was going to direct Star Wars.
The Force Awakens has made just under two billion.
And if you thing Axanar is going to make a bigger stink than any of those - then you're delusional.
The Star Trek still made hundreds of millions.
People were pissed about the Khan rehash.
Into Darkness made hundreds of millions.
People were pissed that the guy who "destroyed" Star Trek was going to direct Star Wars.
The Force Awakens has made just under two billion.
And if you thing Axanar is going to make a bigger stink than any of those - then you're delusional.
I'd have to say that IP bullying wouldn't apply here. CBS has allowed fan films a lot of leeway. This has only become an issue when the Axanar people started selling products with CBS' IP on it and profiting from those sales.
It's important to note also that ID was not just successful, but -- even adjusted for inflation-- THE MOST SUCCESSFUL Star Trek movie EVER. Globally and domestically. Critically it was AMONG the best Trek films.
I've seen fans say that ID "killed the Trek brand, and will lead Beyond to be a failure". To use a 90's phrase... "As if."
Both of the last two films were big financial and critical hits by any measure.
Thanks for your input! I've been going through 30dozen articles, forgetting to bookmark lots of them & just making notes, then forgot to include 'any' reference links in my post, then editing the post to add some by grabbing a few I knew I read. I am finding this all quite interesting.
Screenrant reports the law firm announcing the case:
http://screenrant.com/star-trek-axanar-lawsuit-defense-paramount-cbs/
note, it says "has engaged". No indication about the pro bono part. The rest of the screenrant text qualifies as a rant.
press release text:
Valencia, CA-based Axanar Productions has engaged Winston & Strawn as legal counsel to help defend it against claims made by Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios, Inc.
Alec Peters, Executive Producer of AXANAR, a feature-length film financed through crowd funding and direct donations from fans, announced today that the company producing the film, Axanar Productions, has engaged Winston & Strawn, one of the leading IP practices in the country, to provide legal counsel in its lawsuit with CBS Studios, Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporation. Representing Axanar Productions and Peters will be attorneys Erin Ranahan and Andrew Jick from the firm’s Los Angeles office.
http://screenrant.com/star-trek-axanar-lawsuit-defense-paramount-cbs/
note, it says "has engaged". No indication about the pro bono part. The rest of the screenrant text qualifies as a rant.
press release text:
Valencia, CA-based Axanar Productions has engaged Winston & Strawn as legal counsel to help defend it against claims made by Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios, Inc.
Alec Peters, Executive Producer of AXANAR, a feature-length film financed through crowd funding and direct donations from fans, announced today that the company producing the film, Axanar Productions, has engaged Winston & Strawn, one of the leading IP practices in the country, to provide legal counsel in its lawsuit with CBS Studios, Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporation. Representing Axanar Productions and Peters will be attorneys Erin Ranahan and Andrew Jick from the firm’s Los Angeles office.
"They want the focus to be on their project instead of one that in all likelihood is getting stronger buzz than Beyond (if the teaser trailer is any indication)."
Prelude to Axanar: uploaded to YouTube in August, 2014 (17 months ago). 1,888,282 views
Star Trek Beyond (teaser): uploaded to YouTube in December, 2015 (1 month ago). 13,624,045 views
Any questions class?
Neil
Not to mention, since the website purge, Fox and Lucasfilm HAVE let what are technically significantly more infringing activities go on in the form of fanedits.
Once again, a major difference between Axanar and any other potential example is that the creators of the other examples did not pay themselves thousands of dollars after taking donations.
The significance is I'm apparently a space cadet. People send me things and I forgot I'd already posted. Mea culpa.
This is one of the main reasons that I now believe Peters to be either a con artist, or out of touch with reality.
How he thought he could pay himself from donor money to make a Trek film and get away with it is beyond me.
If cBS is in the right in suing and win (which I don't seriously doubt), then frankly I hope they remove every single nail, bit of wood, any construction materials of any kind, that went into making Ares studios. Because listening to posers here who say they hope the outcome is that AP could continue to make non Trek related materials with Ares Studios is missing a huge part of what is wrong with AP actions.
The idea that a dime that is raised for a fan film was geared to be used for future productions is utterly appalling.
The idea that a dime that is raised for a fan film was geared to be used for future productions is utterly appalling.
To be fair, I've probably watched the Beyond trailer 50,000 times myself.
No Problem, 75% of the clicks for Prelude probably is Peters himself masturbating over how great he is.
Being a not-for-profit fan film has been long-established as the "big rule" that these can't cross, and people like Photoman's suggestion that this is "no different than this or that" or that "they did nothing wrong" is just... well I guess I keep coming back to the word BAFFLING.
Even if we were to agree that Fox/Lucasfilm's attempted takedown was in principal not dissimilar (I can understand the superficial commonalities) they're really not the same at all, and there are VERY important key differences. The profit nature being #1, but #2, a fan-site does not create potential competition for a Star Wars FILM. Creating a Star Wars FILM would be the competition, and as we have seen Lucasfilm has taken a bit of a more liberal stance on this issue as well: they hold fan film festivals, for example (likely in an attempt to avoid BRAND CONFUSION or BRAND DILUTION). They have similar internal rules as well for their films, one of which I believe is that they must be SHORT.
While the run time and quality may not matter in a court of law (although perhaps Peters' attorney hopes to change that), enforcing this rule once again helps create an important distinction between REAL Star Wars films and FAN-MADE films to help avoid consumer conflation and confusion. They don't want there to be any mistake in the minds of viewers which is real and which is not.
One possible outcome of this ordeal that might be positive, and something I would probably push for if I was at CBS: the creation of a Fan-Film management team, someone who can work with the community to ensure proper adherence to guidelines. Maybe if they like these productions, favored ones get placement at official "Fan Film Festival Events" at Star Trek conventions. Maybe CBS/Paramount could even support them with free marketing: talking about them on social media, for example. This way, like Lucasfilm, the rights-holders themselves can control the conversation.
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