Extra content for CBS Internet-only content doesn't sound like a bad idea.
If I could speak to the folks at Axanar--I'd say that they need to drop the counter-claim--apologize for the controversy--and shoot film or shut up.
Guess that goes for resin kits and blueprints. I never wanted to pester the poor actors.
I haven't read anything like a fraction of this thread--but I'd love to see the best posts distilled into a book on fandom.
Your best bet is to go read AxaMonitor.com to catch up. Some of the raw unearthing of the circumstances is in this thread, but the precis is there.
As for your suggested advice, it is probably way way too late for Axanar to get a satisfactory result with this strategy.
Axanar, at least IMHO, didn't just create a simple controversy that can be apologized for. They stand accused in court of widespread copyright violations and, for the sake of how serious the damages should be, a variety of profiteering acts out of those violations.
They have mounted a questioning of the charges that in effect completely dismisses CBS/Paramount's copyright claims on Trek by techniques such as saying Axanar didn't copy Vulcans because you can't copyright each detail of Vulcans (a ludicrous argument, the copyright is on the aggregate, not the details). They say their core defense will be "fair use", and their podcasts posited last year (as I recall) that fair use is valid because the studios "weren't using Trek anymore" (totally irrelevant to copyright law, and not true, either), and because Axanar is the only group making "true" Trek so they should have the right to do what they want [
]. Their attorneys may have a more sophisticated way to make this argument, but things just keep coming up that make the situation more of a mess day by day.
In short, Axanar has poked the bear multiple times while acting to create a situation where Axanar would seem in effect to end up free to use Trek IP in any way it wishes and build a studio and pay professional salaries off it, make more Trek in the future, and sell unlicensed Trek-IP based goods to boot. If you agree with this premise, you can see how the studios cannot allow this precedent to be set.
As for the wider significance of it all, aside from the donors perhaps only seeing a for-profit studio built out of their money, a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that what Axanar has done may result in a crackdown not just on Trek fan films, but on many fan activities of any sort (writing, cosplay, etc.), and not just for Trek but for any property across the studios. The trespass may be so severe that the industry has to draw a new, serious line. This is still up in the air, but *something* (guidelines) is happening, and there is a lot at stake if the studios just let any fan activity invite itself into the tent like Axanar did.
Thus, you will see various degrees of dismay (and humor) here about how Axanar keeps trying to have its way, and by the way, how they abusively throw under the bus any donors, volunteer supporters, and former staff who in any way question what has been going on. And by how they keep phasering themselves in the foot.
Go over to
http://www.gandtshow.com/category/blog/ for detailed analyses of the lawsuit filings.
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