While I don't doubt that Axanar is not necessarily the only action we see from Paramount/CBS, I won't adopt a "sky is falling" view until I actually see more action. As I suspected in an earlier post, Axanar really brought this on themselves by positioning their product as direct competition to "professional" Star Trek films produced by the studio. CBS confirmed this in a statement they gave to the Hollywood Reporter after HR's original article was published:
""Star Trek is a treasured franchise in which CBS and Paramount continue to produce new original content for its large universe of fans. The producers of Axanar are making a Star Trek picture they describe themselves as a fully professional independent Star Trek film. Their activity clearly violates our Star Trek copyrights, which, of course, we will continue to vigorously protect."
In addition, Axanar/Ares Studios' own statements that the Axanar film was intended to lead to a larger operation of offering non-Star Trek content didn't help, as it seemed to be a public statement that they were appropriating Paramount's IP in order to further their own larger business interests. Though I have no personal knowledge to confirm it, I've seen various other reports on the Web stating that this was in fact Ares Studios' plan - to eventually grow into more of a "real" studio. I've also seen reports that the crowdfunded amounts were used to start up Ares Studios and pay salaries, which (again, if true), also looks like appropriation of Paramount IP for income/profit and to launch a larger business endeavor. So I can see why, if all that is the case, Paramount felt the need to step in here - or, at least, to make Axanar the first target.
And let's look at one other thing here - the statement "The producers of Axanar are making a Star Trek picture they describe themselves as a fully professional independent Star Trek film". A lot of folk are stating this should be okay because, as fans, Axanar shouldn't need a license. What if we take that exact same sentence and replace "the producers of Axanar" with "Sony" or "Universal". Would anyone here be saying Sony or Universal doesn't need Paramount's permission - or that Paramount has no right to object - if they read the sentence "Sony are making a Star Trek picture they describe themselves as a fully professional independent Star Trek film". True fan films may be one thing - but when you claim to be a functional studio (with future expansion plans) professing to make a "fully professional independent film" based on IP owned by another studio, you are crossing the line (IMHO) and infringing (IMLO). You can't play both sides of the fence - you can't be a "professional studio" project when you're trying to promote and raise cash for your film, then claim to be a mere "poor little fan labor of love getting squashed by the Man" when you get dinged for it.
M