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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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I have to admit, at times I kind of wish Peters and some of his people were here to defend themselves. It kind of feels like we're all piling on them without giving themselves a chance to defend themselves. But then again, I don't think I've actually seen them try to defend themselves in a reasonable, intelligent manner. It seems like they can't do anything but insult or throw a temper tantrum when people question anything they've done.
I would love to see someone have a real honest conversation with Peters or one of his cohorts where they actually discussed this whole situation and why they have done the things they have done.

If Peters or anyone else associated with Axanar had an HONEST, no holds barred conversation with a news source where it wasn't their typical"Look at how great we are" and "Haters gonna hate" mentality, I probably would back off (although admittedly I have been a little more absent as of late... RL). That they ignore any real questions does not bode well for that conversation ever happening.
 
If it wasn't part of the record that the house was where his godkids lived, then he should have just kept his damn mouth shut if he didn't want people to know that.

That's the thing. I can't speak for anyone else, but I had no idea who lived there, nor did I care. All that mattered to me that it was the corporate address of a corporation I was interested in, and that it was owned by Alec Peters.

It's like I'm at your house, and say, "Hey, I'm going to set this book on your chest here," and you scream, "No! I have a body hidden in that chest!" It was totally useless that Peters revealed that information, except that it would distract from the real question being asked. And it was successful on Peters part. Because people are so hypersensitive about addresses, many people (including some here on this board) latched on to how much of a monster I was for "doxxing" Peters, when in fact, I did not.

Even in states where doxxing is illegal, it's ONLY in the context of threats or other stalking behavior. Someone doing research on a different topic and revealing information easily available in public documents would not come anywhere close to meeting that definition.

But then again if there's one thing that Peters and co. have proven during this whole thing, it's that they don't know when to keep their damn mouths shut. Imagine how much trouble they could have saved themselves if they did.

Agreed. While I don't think anyone cares who lives in the house, no one would even think about it or know about it if it weren't for Peters announcing it to the world.

I have to admit, at times I kind of wish Peters and some of his people were here to defend themselves. It kind of feels like we're all piling on them without giving themselves a chance to defend themselves. But then again, I don't think I've actually seen them try to defend themselves in a reasonable, intelligent manner. It seems like they can't do anything but insult or throw a temper tantrum when people question anything they've done.

That's the thing. On this particular question, for instance, instead of throwing insults and victim cries, Peters could have simply said, "The company is not what you might think it is. We did it to protect that real property, so that it was a corporate asset, not a personal asset."

And when I responded with, "Well, you didn't transfer the title," a good response would be, "Oh, we haven't? I thought that was done," or "We're supposed to do that? I'm not sure. Let me check with the lawyer to make sure we covered all those bases."

Without the anger, the need to attack, and the "I'm a victim" sideshow, I would've actually accepted that answer. It makes sense. I can't expect everyone understands real estate law at the same level as everyone else, and since Peters is not a real estate attorney, it is possible he did the initial motions to protect real property, but simply didn't finish it.

However, when you start all this sideshow mess, it only means that there's probably more smoke coming from somewhere than you realize.

But hey, maybe Peters just doesn't know how to respond without being defensive. I know I can be defensive sometimes, too. But usually if I am being defensive, and I'm called out on it, I re-evaluate and follow up.

I would love to see someone have a real honest conversation with Peters or one of his cohorts where they actually discussed this whole situation and why they have done the things they have done.

Read John Kirk's interview with him on 1701News. :D
 
That's the thing. I can't speak for anyone else, but I had no idea who lived there, nor did I care. All that mattered to me that it was the corporate address of a corporation I was interested in, and that it was owned by Alec Peters.

Agreed. While I don't think anyone cares who lives in the house, no one would even think about it or know about it if it weren't for Peters announcing it to the world.

But hey, maybe Peters just doesn't know how to respond without being defensive.


Likewise, Peters reacted nearly identically with someone else on the first "I Stand with CBS" group about something else. This person (I forget who) was locked in a private message war of words, at one point presenting Peters with an address, supposedly that of Propworx. Peters' immediate retort was both snide and included his own confirmation that it was also his home address.

As you say, Peters is probably just incapable of responding without responding defensively, but these so-called breaches of privacy -- the revelation of his godchildren's home address and of his own personal residence -- these bits of information were not doxxed, were not searched for intentionally, nor were they revealed with malicious intent. He revealed these things himself, kind of like how he revealed his illegal plans for Ares Studios and his illegal act of paying himself a salary.

Peters has no one to blame but himself.
 
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^^ Yeah, if Peters somehow scavenges a win out of this, there's no way the Mouse lets it go past that. All the studios would probably bring the thunder to Alec's doorstep and pulverize him, simply because its in their interests to do so.

In other news: I'm a little less disappointed in Sean Tourangeau today as he at least seems smart enough not to jump into the fray, and perhaps even recognizes what idiots Peters and his other cronies are being.

12791097_10208594700362610_4155146511968027359_n.jpg

"The Axanar Team" mainly doesn't participate at TrekBBS because their leadership acts up and gets banned - not for questions or a point of view but because they're insulting and abusive.

Exactly. And for fostering an us vs. them attitude when they were here — i.e. playing the victim card at every opportunity.

If the Axanar walled garden readers did get an idea that there was useful content here, finding >10k posts would put an end to investigating it. They need a FAQ, as in, "F**ing Answer these Questions". #1: Where is the written permission from CBS to take money raised by their IP and buy the equipment for a studio. NOT the handwavings of the Axanar management declaring what silence by CBS means, but the affirmative written permission from CBS.
 
But then again if there's one thing that Peters and co. have proven during this whole thing, it's that they don't know when to keep their damn mouths shut. Imagine how much trouble they could have saved themselves if they did.

I can't imagine this thread would exist without the personalities behind Axanar and their inability to stay quiet. Their over-the-top antics are what is keeping most people interested in this. That, and a fear for the rest of the fan films.
 
Alec Peters has gone from being the darling of the fan film world, hero to the masses who don't know any better for attempting to make a fan film that could be, in their minds, as good as any other major motion picture to now being the hated villain of the same fandom, trying to take control of everything and attacks anyone who tries to stop him.

Seriously, it's the prequels all over again.

Alec = Palpatine. Egomaniacal fanatic, dedicated to a worldview as warped as far as his eyes will bug out at any given moment and willing to do anything and sacrifice anyone to get what he wants. Also throws Mace Windu (Tony Todd) out the window the minute Mace calls Peters out on his shit over on Twitter.

Burnett = Anakin, a really talented guy who could become something great but instead loses his shit and can't keep his mouth shut and instead doubles down with the wrong crowd.

Diana and New Diana are Padme.

Christian Gossett is Obi-Wan because he managed to GTFO and, much like what Leon tells Larry he told Michael Richards about how to deal with his Groat's Disease, Gossett will survive this shit.

James Cawley would be Yoda, the wise, experienced fan film producer who works with our fearless zeroes and is eventually betrayed by them.

Finally, Terry is Count Dooku. Mainly because I think it would be hilarious if his nickname somehow morphed to "Fat Dooku."
 
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Alec Peters has gone from being the darling of the fan film world, hero to the masses who don't know any better for attempting to make a fan film that could be, in their minds, as good as any other major motion picture to now being the hated villain of the same fandom, trying to take control of everything and attacks anyone who tries to stop him.

Seriously, it's the prequels all over again.

Alec = Palpatine. Egomaniacal fanatic, dedicated to a worldview as warped as far as his eyes will bug out at any given moment and willing to do anything and sacrifice anyone to get what he wants.

Burnett = Anakin, a really talented guy who could become something great but instead loses his shit and can't keep his mouth shut and instead doubles down with the wrong crowd.

Diana and New Diana are Padme.

Christian Gossett is Obi-Wan because he managed to GTFO and, much like Leon tells Larry about Michael Richards and his Groat's Disease, Gossett will survive this shit.

James Cawley would be Yoda, the wise, experienced fan film producer who works with our fearless zeroes and is eventually betrayed by them.

Finally, Terry is Count Dooku. Mainly because I think it would be hilarious if his nickname somehow morphed to "Fat Dooku."

tumblr_lunocz3mMX1r24lq9o1_250.gif
 
Agreed. When you have the time, the money, the skill, and the law on your side, a fast settlement is a poor negotiating move.


Yes, they can be awarded attorneys' fees.

...

Possibly. It seems they were/are looking to expand the definition of 'waiver' as a defense, but the corporations are having none of it. It would be overly burdensome if corporate IP holders had to do the following:
  • Police every IP infringement they could find, and do it fast, fast, fast! Their Legal Departments would balloon in size, and they would hire people (or have a software solution developed) to scrape the Internet every hour of every day.
  • At the same time, they would also have to be more or less continuously pumping out content in order to show an IP was not 'abandoned'. You think the remake situation is bad now, imagine what it would be like then.
  • Sarbanes-Oxley requires the responsible management of companies, at its core. If a corporate IP holder had to be more or less constantly adding content in order to hold back a charge of 'abandonment', we would see awful scripts and premises as burned-out writers scraped the bottom of their own intellectual barrels. Ergo, the antithesis of what Sarbanes-Oxley demands.
See, because of the above (and I may be exaggerating but even 1% of that could get burdensome awfully quickly and put a lot of corporations out of business), I don't think any expansion of waiver is going to happen. Even if it wins the day in district court, it would be appealed right quick. You would see other large IP holders filing amicus curiae as such a decision would affect them rather directly.

Think this is bad, imagine an appeal joined by the likes of Marvel, DC, and Disney.

And how would this affect writers Jespah? Could someone take a work of written fiction and make a movie on it claiming abandonment since the writer had abandoned his or her work by not writing a sequal?
 
Alec Peters has gone from being the darling of the fan film world, hero to the masses who don't know any better for attempting to make a fan film that could be, in their minds, as good as any other major motion picture to now being the hated villain of the same fandom, trying to take control of everything and attacks anyone who tries to stop him.

Seriously, it's the prequels all over again.

Alec = Palpatine. Egomaniacal fanatic, dedicated to a worldview as warped as far as his eyes will bug out at any given moment and willing to do anything and sacrifice anyone to get what he wants.

Burnett = Anakin, a really talented guy who could become something great but instead loses his shit and can't keep his mouth shut and instead doubles down with the wrong crowd.

Diana and New Diana are Padme.

Christian Gossett is Obi-Wan because he managed to GTFO and, much like Leon tells Larry about Michael Richards and his Groat's Disease, Gossett will survive this shit.

James Cawley would be Yoda, the wise, experienced fan film producer who works with our fearless zeroes and is eventually betrayed by them.

Finally, Terry is Count Dooku. Mainly because I think it would be hilarious if his nickname somehow morphed to "Fat Dooku."
It also has nice flashy digital effects.

Neil
 
And how would this affect writers Jespah? Could someone take a work of written fiction and make a movie on it claiming abandonment since the writer had abandoned his or her work by not writing a sequal?

I would think so, if this "abandonment" idea came to pass. (though, it would be more like, they could make a movie using the characters from the first book.)

It would hurt people up and down the ladder. It's not going to happen. It would basically be the end of copyright.
 
And how would this affect writers Jespah? Could someone take a work of written fiction and make a movie on it claiming abandonment since the writer had abandoned his or her work by not writing a sequal?
It would get ugly, and I think @Professor Zoom is right, that it would gut copyright as we know it.

Copyright in the United States is as old as the hills; the first such law here (post-independence) dates back to 1790.

I don't honestly see this specific property right being tossed out with buggy whips.
 
And how would this affect writers Jespah? Could someone take a work of written fiction and make a movie on it claiming abandonment since the writer had abandoned his or her work by not writing a sequal?

I think the whole point of the great time extensions which were written into copyright some years ago was to make this effectively impossible.
 
In my line of work, I sometimes do a little background research on companies that seek to do business with my company. And yes, some states make it very easy to find information such as the addresses that the principals used when registering the corporation. And then you can look up those addresses in the county assessor's public records (which are also very easy to access) to see the assessed value of the property and who owns/owned the property.

I think a lot of people don't realize just how easy it is to get these public records in mere seconds through publicly viewable State and County websites.

So if you are starting a company and you are concerned about your privacy, then just don't use your home address. If you don't have a commercial address you can use, then rent a private box at some place like Mailboxes Etc. or at a virtual office or a virtual mailroom (some of them also provide registered agent service), and use that address. Doing so, you can even find prestigious-looking addresses in prominent commercial/financial districts in major cities. Then you look like a champ to anybody who gives a cursory glance to your company.

But I digress...

I agree with earlier comments that CBS and Paramount shouldn't be obligated to defend their IP by constantly making new productions. What if I decided that, since there haven't been any Perry Mason TV shows or made-for-TV movies in many years, I was going to go ahead and make an independent legal drama featuring Perry Mason as one of the main characters and make money from it (and publicly slam the official productions, to boot), without obtaining any permission through the proper channels? My reasoning wouldn't hold any water.

Kor

And that is why if need by IMHO every studio will come to the aid of CBS/Paramount if they needed to in this case. Because if they don't then they'll all suffer the ruling if it goes against CBS/P. They all may be competitors but you know they all have to be rooting for CBS/P in this fight.
 
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