From the Axanar FB here's an excerpt from a thread in response to Axanar's posting of the latest Hollywood Reporter article on the suit. I wonder how long it will be before a couple of people are branded as "haters" and banned.
Eric C Fahrner Here's the problem: Axanar isn't about ancient Vulcans from mythology and United Nations flags. That's just clever dodging and sleight of hand.
Axanar is obviously Star Trek in every way - and unfortunately (for reasons of the lawsuit) Axanar is excellent and superb Star Trek. So there we are.
I still think that, with the way officials with the new official Star Trek are singing the praises of Axanar, (Roddenberry, et al), the parties are signaling a willingness to craft a win-win solution.
Like · Reply · 5 · 1 hr
John Armbruster Regardless of "Vulcans", Klingon, Starfleet logos...Axanar used characters from Star Trek. The main character in Prelude is Garth of Izar - a Star Trek character. Now, I don't know the nuances of copyright law, but I can quote this example from Memory-alpha about another character - "reasons for not simply bringing back the Locarno character have varied. It may have been because they would have had to pay royalties to the writers of "The First Duty" every episode...". To me it comes down to one thing, if Axanar makes a profit; then they owe the creators of the Star Trek characters they use royalties.
Like · Reply · 1 hr
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Jason Walker Sure but they are a non profit organization, by definition they do not make a profit.
Like · Reply · 2 · 1 hr
Lee Thomas Holstein So, what about Trek Continues...they use Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc...as well as EXACT replica's of the sets and costumes...
Or How bout Renegades (also crowd funded) where Walter Koenig revised his role as Chekov...so not only a CBS owned Character...but the original actor playing him...
Or in your view is it ONLY Axanar...because ya know, they used a character from one episode...that wasnt even a main character...
Like · Reply · 3 · 1 hr
Michael WC Ehlert Which is why they aren't going to "make a profit" they are distributing the finished film for FREE. And using characters is not a valid issue either because Fan films made by Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II focus entirely on being new episodes of star trek with the Enterprise & her crew including all the big & well known names like Kirk McCoy Spock and all the rest. They have even had George Takei and Walter Koenig reprise their roles. Neither CBS nor Paramount are suing them for infringement so it is an in-equal application of the law. They can't let one production company do exactly the same thing but prosecute another.
Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr
John Armbruster No, my point was that if this production earned a profit, that this profit was made off the specific intellectual property of others, regardless of the vague terms of "Vulcan" or pointy ears. And the debate seems to be whether or not Axanar's kickstarter involved making a profit.
Like · Reply · 1 hr
John Armbruster Lee Thomas Holstein it has nothing to do with whether the character was a "main character"...Lacarno only appeared in one episode, yet he is some writer's property
Like · Reply · 1 hr
John Armbruster Distributing the film for free doesn't not mean they didn't make a profit.
Like · Reply · 1 hr
Justin Roadcone Powell Fantitlement. There, I coined a term.
Like · Reply · 1 hr
Travis Wilbur Profit isn't even an issue.
Studios aren't even an issue.
Not even Alec Peters paying himself a salary is even an issue.
CBS isn't even pursuing any of that. The only thing that CBS/P is pursuing is JUST the copyright infringement. Which makes them hypocrites because they should also be pursuing Star Trek: Hidden Frontiers, Star Trek Continues, Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II, Star Trek: Phoenix, Star Trek: Intrepid, Star Trek: Renegades, and every other fan-made production out there.
So, to me, this just screams of CBS/P being butt-hurt that a fan-made production can produce a quality production capable of competing with CBS/P's monopoly on ideas and human creativity.
I don't think Gene Roddenbury would have approved of CBS/P's obviously monopolized tyranny of his creation. I think Roddenbury would have encouraged fan creativity. He might have allowed it to become a sandbox world, like Lucas did with Star Wars.
Eric C Fahrner Here's the problem: Axanar isn't about ancient Vulcans from mythology and United Nations flags. That's just clever dodging and sleight of hand.
Axanar is obviously Star Trek in every way - and unfortunately (for reasons of the lawsuit) Axanar is excellent and superb Star Trek. So there we are.
I still think that, with the way officials with the new official Star Trek are singing the praises of Axanar, (Roddenberry, et al), the parties are signaling a willingness to craft a win-win solution.
Like · Reply · 5 · 1 hr
John Armbruster Regardless of "Vulcans", Klingon, Starfleet logos...Axanar used characters from Star Trek. The main character in Prelude is Garth of Izar - a Star Trek character. Now, I don't know the nuances of copyright law, but I can quote this example from Memory-alpha about another character - "reasons for not simply bringing back the Locarno character have varied. It may have been because they would have had to pay royalties to the writers of "The First Duty" every episode...". To me it comes down to one thing, if Axanar makes a profit; then they owe the creators of the Star Trek characters they use royalties.
Like · Reply · 1 hr
Hide 11 Replies
Jason Walker Sure but they are a non profit organization, by definition they do not make a profit.
Like · Reply · 2 · 1 hr
Lee Thomas Holstein So, what about Trek Continues...they use Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc...as well as EXACT replica's of the sets and costumes...
Or How bout Renegades (also crowd funded) where Walter Koenig revised his role as Chekov...so not only a CBS owned Character...but the original actor playing him...
Or in your view is it ONLY Axanar...because ya know, they used a character from one episode...that wasnt even a main character...
Like · Reply · 3 · 1 hr
Michael WC Ehlert Which is why they aren't going to "make a profit" they are distributing the finished film for FREE. And using characters is not a valid issue either because Fan films made by Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II focus entirely on being new episodes of star trek with the Enterprise & her crew including all the big & well known names like Kirk McCoy Spock and all the rest. They have even had George Takei and Walter Koenig reprise their roles. Neither CBS nor Paramount are suing them for infringement so it is an in-equal application of the law. They can't let one production company do exactly the same thing but prosecute another.
Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr
John Armbruster No, my point was that if this production earned a profit, that this profit was made off the specific intellectual property of others, regardless of the vague terms of "Vulcan" or pointy ears. And the debate seems to be whether or not Axanar's kickstarter involved making a profit.
Like · Reply · 1 hr
John Armbruster Lee Thomas Holstein it has nothing to do with whether the character was a "main character"...Lacarno only appeared in one episode, yet he is some writer's property
Like · Reply · 1 hr
John Armbruster Distributing the film for free doesn't not mean they didn't make a profit.
Like · Reply · 1 hr
Justin Roadcone Powell Fantitlement. There, I coined a term.
Like · Reply · 1 hr
Travis Wilbur Profit isn't even an issue.
Studios aren't even an issue.
Not even Alec Peters paying himself a salary is even an issue.
CBS isn't even pursuing any of that. The only thing that CBS/P is pursuing is JUST the copyright infringement. Which makes them hypocrites because they should also be pursuing Star Trek: Hidden Frontiers, Star Trek Continues, Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II, Star Trek: Phoenix, Star Trek: Intrepid, Star Trek: Renegades, and every other fan-made production out there.
So, to me, this just screams of CBS/P being butt-hurt that a fan-made production can produce a quality production capable of competing with CBS/P's monopoly on ideas and human creativity.
I don't think Gene Roddenbury would have approved of CBS/P's obviously monopolized tyranny of his creation. I think Roddenbury would have encouraged fan creativity. He might have allowed it to become a sandbox world, like Lucas did with Star Wars.
Maybe someone should tell the Axanar folks unless you have an IRS recognized 501(c) (3) you are not a non profit. These folks sure love the cookies and Kool-aide over at Axanar.
