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CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

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mos6507 said:
JJ did not intervene and ask the audience to cheer this peacemaking just to see CBS/P send AP through a meat-grinder on the way to settlement. The only difference I see between "dropped" and "settle" is a veritable slap on the wrist. Everyone's free to speculate, but the kind of punishment some people are still pining away for is unlikely.
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Based on what? what JJ Said? Research law suit settlements. You will see that they are not necessarily a slap on the wrist. I think you are the one expecting too much. I have no expectations, I'm just trying to clear up what seems to be a misconception
 
If you're not seeing it, you need to open your eyes.

"Drop" means nothing will happen to Axanar at all, and they can keep doing what they were doing.

"Settle" can mean anything from "buy a standard license at a minimum cost and carry on" to "if this goes to trial, we'll likely take you to the cleaners for five million dollars, so just pay us one million and cancel any future plans for Axanar".

Serious, dude, you are beginning to sound like a shill for Alec Peters / Axanar.
 
JJ never said "drop". JJ said "going away". Drop was manufactured by the media.

So I'm not even expecting the case to be "dropped" because there's too much offending behavior from AP to allow him to just go on selling coffee, doing Ares Studio, publishing books, making models, etc... The "going away" process is settlement, which will take a few weeks and involve a slap on the wrist. Anything more punitive and AP would never be able to "continue with their project", as JJ said. For the "settlement" to entail hundreds of thousands in damages would ruin AP. JJ did not intervene just to have the project destroyed in the process of settlement. To me, the slap on the wrist scenario is pure common-sense.
 
mos6507 said:
JJ never said "drop". JJ said "going away". Drop was manufactured by the media.

So I'm not even expecting the case to be "dropped" because there's too much offending behavior from AP to allow him to just go on selling coffee, doing Ares Studio, publishing books, making models, etc... The "going away" process is settlement, which will take a few weeks and involve a slap on the wrist. Anything more punitive and AP would never be able to "continue with their project", as JJ said. For the "settlement" to entail hundreds of thousands in damages would ruin AP. JJ did not intervene just to have the project destroyed in the process of settlement. To me, the slap on the wrist scenario is pure common-sense.
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Perhaps "letting the fans" get on with making films won't include AP. He is the most egregious violator of the IP. Perhaps JJ was referring to others getting on with making films. A settlement doesn't meant a slap on the wrist. It doesn't mean it won't be. I have no way of knowing what the outcome will be. Nor do you.

It's not realistic to make any assumptions based on what JJ said, as he's not on either legal team. I'm just gonna wait and see.
 
You know, Abrams / Lin aren't lawyers (unlike AP) nor are they public relations specialists, so to think that J.J. carefully constructed and rehearsed his statements is fairly wishful on many readers' part. I would not try to parse that announcement out word-by-word and split hairs to determine the real truth of what happened at the meeting with "the studio". It was little more than an off-the-cuff bragging by someone who had a rumor to share.
 
Sgt_G said:
You know, Abrams / Lin aren't lawyers (unlike AP) nor are they public relations specialists, so to think that J.J. carefully constructed and rehearsed his statements is fairly wishful on many readers' part. I would not try to parse that announcement out word-by-word and split hairs to determine the real truth of what happened at the meeting with "the studio". It was little more than an off-the-cuff bragging by someone who had a rumor to share.
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What he said
 
mos6507 said:
JJ did not intervene and ask the audience to cheer this peacemaking just to see CBS/P send AP through a meat-grinder on the way to settlement. The only difference I see between "dropped" and "settle" is a veritable slap on the wrist. Everyone's free to speculate, but the kind of punishment some people are still pining away for is unlikely.
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Hi, I'd like to offer a thought I've put into this discussion a few times which I think is pertinent to settlement and to your current take on it.

Technology for video and computer-based cinema (avatar scripting, video production), as well as technology to distribute video and sell it, is allowing small groups to compete in these matters with studios more and more each day.

Studios who write scripted series depend on creating a "hook" of characters, situation, backstory which will keep viewers coming back over years, and buying into spinoffs, too. Witness NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles, NCIS New Orleans.

Now imagine if the CBS/P fan film settlement says fans of a show can produce what they want around the hook, just as long as they dont use crowdfunding and limit it to 45 minutes.

Do you think CBS would welcome fan-produced NCIS San Francisco, NCIS Chicago, NCIS Dallas, and on and on and on that could arise from it? Or "next season now" versions of Hawaii 5-0? Would movie studios welcome a hundred fan film version of the Marvel universe? Because no matter what controls studios try to place on moneymaking distribution channels for such content, ways will be found around them unless the non-studio producers are legally blocked from using the shows "hooks" to produce clone content to start with.

And financially, this case is a big precedent. Can studios afford to let a precedent be established of a 'fan' project that sells itself as a protected IP and rakes in a half million into a business asset like a studio, and just issue a 'slap on the wrist', without insisting on material legal consequences to the persons committing that act?

The problem is that critical mass is approaching on this issue of cloning studio IP. Alec through his 'ambition' may very well have accelerated this issue by a few years, to the point that a pair of major studios have to get ahead of the incoming tsunami with aggressive, if not panicky barriers.

Back to Axanar: nothing JJ said speaks to this framing issue. And the issue could very well affect what sort of settlement happens, regardless what JJ wants. Its just too big an issue to be pushed aside by the desires of a creative staff member on behalf of just one product line. And nothing about this assessment touts a desire to trash Alec specifically, either. Again, its bigger than just the bear-poker.

I just don't see the studios walking away from Alec's incursion without getting serious on this issue.
 
One thing that seems to be missing in this discussion is that (Quality notwithstanding) by making a "professional and independent" movie, and setting up his studio to do it, AP has set himself up as competition for CBS/P using their own property. Don't believe it? Go back and review his comments about how dismisses the current state of Star Trek and will make the best Star Trek ever.

Legally, he can't do it, and the IP holders are entitled to go after him.
 
mos6507 said:
JJ did not intervene and ask the audience to cheer this peacemaking just to see CBS/P send AP through a meat-grinder on the way to settlement. The only difference I see between "dropped" and "settle" is a veritable slap on the wrist. Everyone's free to speculate, but the kind of punishment some people are still pining away for is unlikely.
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We'll see. I say they let him make the film but no salaries and he can't keep the studio.
 
mos6507 said:
People seem to be mentally editing JJ's statement and interpreting it however they see fit.

JJ said it would be over in a few weeks.

If some people seriously think that JJ would get up at a fan event, on camera, and tell everyone the suit was going to be over, without making damn sure that it's actually going to be over, then fine. Personally, I think the idea that he quote spoke out of turn unquote is remote.
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You also have mentally edited JJ Abrams statement yourself inferring that his 'fans will be able to continue their project" as meaning 'Axanar' here:
mos6507 said:
JJ said the "fans would be able to continue their project" (meaning Axanar). I doubt he said that thinking that Axanar would wind up being constrained to a 5 minute short. Even Prelude was longer than that. So either the pending rules will not put time-limit constraints on or Axanar will be grandfathered in. I
suspect the former.
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So I guess it's okay to mentally edit JJ's statement if it can be spun in a 100% positive light for Axanar, eh? Hell, Alec Peters was mentally editing JJ's statement when he posted the "JJ Abrams said they're dropping the case..." comments - but that's not what JJ Abrams said either.

As to what JJ Abrams was thinking or what he had personally confirmed before making it - the ONLY person who can clarify further is JJ Abrams himself; OR the people at Paramount or CBS that he spoke to (if he in fact spoke to anyone.)
 
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