@RedForman Well played sir. I was thinking more John Oliver but I think you nailed it!
This guy and his cronies need to rot. I hope the courts grant C/P's judgement request and clean him out.
CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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This guy and his cronies need to rot. I hope the courts grant C/P's judgement request and clean him out.
My first thought when seeing all of the excerpts this morning was, this is like Alec being stuck on the bridge of a ship in a self-destruct countdown, without transporters or escape pods, and that clock is at 0:03. He's utterly screwed, and I can't see a summary judgment favoring him in the slightest.
Outside of a few things such as the Netflix/Amazon meetings, the bit in the "redacted" documents about Peters' salary actually being $65k as opposed to $37k and paying for stuff like Peters' TSA Precheck (Seriously, Alec? Its only $85!), there isn't too much new in the Plaintiff's documents. And really, the defense is still just using the same old argument again and again and again. It reads more like trying to sway public opinion than actually trying to win a lawsuit. Not that there's any surprise there. Alec Peters, "lawyer by training" (which too may be referenced in the legal document), has no legal leg to stand on here.
Well, that wont be happening anytime soon...
Ha! I just downloaded a metric f*ckton of documents. And I do have other things to do.
Haircut. Work. Write novel.
I will get to this, I swear, but it will take a while. Either way, though, yeah, the Lane declaration has got to give anyone who thinks FFF is unbiased some serious pause.
Off to get my locks snipped. I will return but this is a mess and it is huge. (Yuge!)
/builds a wall around the documents/
-- and yes -- this is why you buy the licensed (yes!) copy of Adobe. I'd like to thank Quinnipiac University for more or less requiring this.
Haircut. Work. Write novel.
I will get to this, I swear, but it will take a while. Either way, though, yeah, the Lane declaration has got to give anyone who thinks FFF is unbiased some serious pause.
Off to get my locks snipped. I will return but this is a mess and it is huge. (Yuge!)
/builds a wall around the documents/
-- and yes -- this is why you buy the licensed (yes!) copy of Adobe. I'd like to thank Quinnipiac University for more or less requiring this.
Probably just an error on the part of whoever produced the document. I'm no expert on the software myself. Personally I tend to create my documents in Word and then convert them into PDF after any alterations have been made. *shrug*
I am slightly concerned at the ethical nature of revealing the redactions and distributing them online.
Just a reminder, you can find all the AxaDocs in these three zip files on FB:
CBS Motion for Partial Judgement:
Axaarchive.zip
Axanar's Response:https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Ax...viMbI_cYbGqngch28Agfl0Og3bIhDBv9GybXGd6ZP5YrM
AxaResponse.zip
Axanar's Motion for Summary Judgement, filed under seal:https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Ax...kOKN5hSFJnxPkYkYG8Wya3DELClzcbjJu-kl1PRIe2ygQ
AxaSealRequest.zip
I still haven't read half of it. It was way too late when I finished the uploads. But the information is all there. Feel free to repost the zips wherever else you want.
CBS Motion for Partial Judgement:
Axaarchive.zip
Axanar's Response:https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Ax...viMbI_cYbGqngch28Agfl0Og3bIhDBv9GybXGd6ZP5YrM
AxaResponse.zip
Axanar's Motion for Summary Judgement, filed under seal:https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Ax...kOKN5hSFJnxPkYkYG8Wya3DELClzcbjJu-kl1PRIe2ygQ
AxaSealRequest.zip
I still haven't read half of it. It was way too late when I finished the uploads. But the information is all there. Feel free to repost the zips wherever else you want.
From what I have read, it's just amazing that Axanar didn't settle. Perhaps there's something in the expert testimony that's convincing fan films are "criticism." But the paying of himself, the heading to Netflix to try to get a series, and the attempt to copyright Axanar are pretty damn damning. That's arrogance and, in my opinion, mens rea.
All of this evidence is pretty damning and it goes to say everything we've all been saying for almost a year now. Like you, Jody, it shocks me they weren't willing to reach a realistic settlement. I'd like to believe (as I have this obnoxious belief that everyone is generally good) that Alec actually did have good intentions from the start, but every bit of testimony I've read seems to suggest otherwise. In the end, Alec Peters comes off as a child. "I want to do this." "I want to do that." Well, as a "lawyer by training," he should know a lot better than all of that. He wasn't just testing the fences. He took an effing bulldozer to it, rammed it, jumped on a motorcycle and went as quickly and brazenly as he could, shouting, "You can't catch me!" the whole way.
And that's enough half-assed metaphors for one morning.
And that's enough half-assed metaphors for one morning.
Just speed reading through the main pleadings now (when I should be working!). I have to say that the extent to which Peters was trying to drum up funds for his own use goes far beyond what I knew before, and what I have read of the latest evidence so far is pretty damning. Personally I think Peters is f*****d, if you'll excuse the language. I've said many times over this year that the spirit of IP law, at least in England anyhow, can really be boiled down to what is obvious to the naked eye. Is it obvious to anyone that Axanar was trading off of the Trek brand name. It had all the hallmarks. It even used the name. Peters even tried to get it licensed, so there can be no question that he didn't think he needed permission from the IP owner. The Defendants have now conceded that CBS/P own the brand. The oral evidence, which of course is given under oath, is an absolutely damning accouint of a man who got too big for his boots and thought he could do what he wanted - and it shows unquestionably, even the evidence from his own allies like Burnett, that Peters thought he could get away with anything to enrich himself just because other fan films were supposedly being tolerated. The arrogance is astonishing, but that aside, in my opinion this is a prima facie case of a commercial enterprise (no pun intended) deliberately using an established brand name and I can't possible see how one can spin a fair use defence with that in mind. The work was never meant to be a transformative work. It was meant to be a new instalment of Star Trek, stuck right in the middle of the canon. I suspect that Peters is going to lose some of his followers over the next few days when the extent of the use of their funds becomes clear.
I'll caveat this by say I haven't read the Defendants' submissions yet and will do so with interest to see what sort of spin they're going to put on it all. But I think they're going to have to rely on some sort of novel legal argument to get Peters out of this unscathed.
I'll caveat this by say I haven't read the Defendants' submissions yet and will do so with interest to see what sort of spin they're going to put on it all. But I think they're going to have to rely on some sort of novel legal argument to get Peters out of this unscathed.
So...
does the defense have a case to throw out the whole thing because the studios did not take proper steps to avoid a known fault in pdf redaction? Haven't the studios in effect violated the seal agreement bigtime and thereby compromised defense's right to a fair trial? Who did the redaction? Who created the actual posted files?
Edit: hm. axamonitor says *defense* redacted the files... if so, its like subspace is the repository for all the irony of the universe, and Spaceballs was right. Ludicrous Speed, Now!!!
does the defense have a case to throw out the whole thing because the studios did not take proper steps to avoid a known fault in pdf redaction? Haven't the studios in effect violated the seal agreement bigtime and thereby compromised defense's right to a fair trial? Who did the redaction? Who created the actual posted files?
Edit: hm. axamonitor says *defense* redacted the files... if so, its like subspace is the repository for all the irony of the universe, and Spaceballs was right. Ludicrous Speed, Now!!!
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I get the impression that all of what we saw with the money shenanigans wasn't due to mission creep, but a greedy creep in charge of the mission.
For me, not a lot of surprises in the documents - other than I was surprised how many times the Defendant's counsel tried to bend the facts to fit some imaginary precedent or standard. Ranahan is really trying to create legislation out of wholecloth here.
In any case:
1) Peters had a few minor successes as a "web-based" entrepreneur, but what he wanted was to be a big shot - and to get there he figured he would "wow" CBS with some awesome stuff and then he could pass GO, collect his $200 million and live the life of a big Hollywood exec.
2) To "wow" CBS he decided to kluge a bunch of disparate stuff - all predicated on him playing Garth of Izar - and make a short, and then when the short was super successful (primarily thanks to his friends) he decided to take his copypasta creation and shop it around and at the same time leverage its popularity to create Icarus Studios and become the heart of "independent" Trek production.
3) In the meantime, he used donor funds to finance his lifestyle, and broadly interpreted the term "business expense" to include anything used by the principal (him) in the service of the business (including travel costs, car costs, phone costs, etc.)
4) He ignored every single warning he received about the error of his overall business plans, his film plans, and even his spending choices, and attempted to pretend he was transparent while simultaneously concealing as much as possible from the donors, and eventually the Plaintiffs.
5) When sued, he began an almost year long process of denial, faux outrage, misrepresentation of facts, censorship, obfuscation, and alleged he was the victim. He attempted to use various proxies and PR releases to shape public opinion, worked hard to attack critics and those who reported the facts, and tried to paint a sunny picture for his rapidly dwindling group of fans. He was also quick to silence - by any means necessary - those who spoke out against him or questioned him in an embarrassing manner.
I could go on, but in short Alec is an arrogant charlatan who has done significant damage to the fan film community and who I hope is drained completely dry by the Plaintiffs and banished from the fan community.
In any case:
1) Peters had a few minor successes as a "web-based" entrepreneur, but what he wanted was to be a big shot - and to get there he figured he would "wow" CBS with some awesome stuff and then he could pass GO, collect his $200 million and live the life of a big Hollywood exec.
2) To "wow" CBS he decided to kluge a bunch of disparate stuff - all predicated on him playing Garth of Izar - and make a short, and then when the short was super successful (primarily thanks to his friends) he decided to take his copypasta creation and shop it around and at the same time leverage its popularity to create Icarus Studios and become the heart of "independent" Trek production.
3) In the meantime, he used donor funds to finance his lifestyle, and broadly interpreted the term "business expense" to include anything used by the principal (him) in the service of the business (including travel costs, car costs, phone costs, etc.)
4) He ignored every single warning he received about the error of his overall business plans, his film plans, and even his spending choices, and attempted to pretend he was transparent while simultaneously concealing as much as possible from the donors, and eventually the Plaintiffs.
5) When sued, he began an almost year long process of denial, faux outrage, misrepresentation of facts, censorship, obfuscation, and alleged he was the victim. He attempted to use various proxies and PR releases to shape public opinion, worked hard to attack critics and those who reported the facts, and tried to paint a sunny picture for his rapidly dwindling group of fans. He was also quick to silence - by any means necessary - those who spoke out against him or questioned him in an embarrassing manner.
I could go on, but in short Alec is an arrogant charlatan who has done significant damage to the fan film community and who I hope is drained completely dry by the Plaintiffs and banished from the fan community.
This sounds all like good evidence for fraud, no? Especially using donor money to buy gas?
Definitely room in my opinion for a class action lawsuit.
And therein lay my own conundrum
EDIT: Also being discussed as to yes/no/partially, also that AxaMonitor had not said defense personally redacted the L&L filed copies
And what effect if any does something like this have on the person(s) doing this and/or the legal proceedings?
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Up until now there was enough ambiguity that you could understand why some Axanar fans still had faith. But anyone who read Peters' self admitted plans to extract money from the likes of Netflix and become a Hollywood big shot - all off the back of their own donations - and still argues in favour of him can only be described as a gullible and extremely naive buffoon.
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