Axanar - Crowdfunded 'Star Trek' Movie Draws Lawsuit from Paramount, CBS

Especially when the folks sitting at the defendants' table are making a better product. Can't have that...

Honestly, though, that doesn't matter. There are trademarks to defend here, in addition to the copyright issues. If you sleep on a trademark infringement, you can end up losing the trademark altogether. At worst, if you sleep on a copyright infringement, you run the risk of being required to allow that instance of infringement to continue, but it's not as if you give away your copyright entirely.
 
This makes no sense to me unless it is about the money and how it is spent more than the intellectual property. Star Trek : Continues and Star Trek New Voyages would be an infringement if that is the case of using the Intellectual property such as Vulcans, klingons and the Enterprise.
 
Especially when the folks sitting at the defendants' table are making a better product. Can't have that...

Agreed. Now if Les and the boys are so feared that someone else may take their place (which in my opinion would only increase interest in the license) , Why let your hired producers but out such crap as ST 2009 and on.???
 
Honestly, though, that doesn't matter. There are trademarks to defend here, in addition to the copyright issues. If you sleep on a trademark infringement, you can end up losing the trademark altogether. At worst, if you sleep on a copyright infringement, you run the risk of being required to allow that instance of infringement to continue, but it's not as if you give away your copyright entirely.

I agree, but Paramount has apparently given a pass to ST New Voyages, ST Continues, Of Gods and Men, Renegades... some of which were funded by Kickstarter campaigns. Not to mention that New Voyages used some unproduced scripts written for TOS and TNG.

Other than (IMO) the quality of the production, what's different now?

Edit: in other words, what Mobius said... ;)
 
This makes no sense to me unless it is about the money and how it is spent more than the intellectual property. Star Trek : Continues and Star Trek New Voyages would be an infringement if that is the case of using the Intellectual property such as Vulcans, klingons and the Enterprise.

Basically, all fan-made projects are infringement in a technical sense. A lot of times, the rights holder doesn't really care enough to push the point and sue them, or issue a cease and desist letter even, if they don't think it'll get off the ground, or think there's a creditable "fair use" argument that could be raised as a defense. I haven't followed this project, really, so I don't know what the story is or how well it's doing with fans and such, or what kind of success they've had with kickstarter. Might be that the old kickstarter projects were so small and underfunded that Paramount didn't care enough to want to shut it down. Might be they thought it was garbage, so who cared. Might Paramount had ignored the other nibblings at its trademark and decided to enforce so as to shore up their ability to make a claim. I dunno.

The thing is, it's all infringement if they don't have licenses to produce this stuff. Whether Paramount chooses to enforce is the real question.
 
Oh wow... I thought Paramount was aware of the project and were okay with it...?

Actually, not the case. As late as August, Paramount/CBS was only saying this (see http://www.thewrap.com/how-1-1-million-star-trek-fan-movie-has-escaped-studio-shutdown-so-far/:

"“CBS has not authorized, sanctioned or licensed this project in any way, and this has been communicated to those involved,” a representative from the network told TheWrap. “We continue to object to professional commercial ventures trading off our property rights and are considering further options to protect these rights.” (Paramount did not return TheWrap’s request for comment.)"

In that same article, it seems Alec was taking their silence as approval, at his own peril.

"Peters said he and his team met with CBS last week but the network didn’t offer any specific guidelines concerning what his crew can and cannot do — the network simply told him that they can’t make money off the project . . . “CBS has a long history of accepting fan films,” Peters said. “I think ‘Axanar’ has become so popular that CBS realizes that we’re just making their brand that much better.”

Solo4114 has (as usual) stated the law pretty accurately here. Yes, rights-holders have some discretion as to whether to prosecute an infringer, but failing to prosecute the most high-profile ones can do the most prejudice to their ability to protect their rights in other instances. And, according to that article, Axanar generated at least 3 times more money than Of Gods and Men and perhaps 10 times more than ST:Continues.

So the money is probably the most motivating factor in the instance case. And Axanar flouted it and perhaps made their situation worse by proclaiming their film as the first "professional" Star Trek film not made by Paramount. "Fan made labors of love" are one thing, but Paramount/CBS don't want - and can't have - a seeming competitor in the "professional Star Trek film" category as they (and audiences likely) view "professional Star Trek films" as the province of a "professional movie and TV studio" to distinguish it from the "fan-made" works (regardless of what any of us might think of how Paramount is handling the franchise).

M
 
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Ya I kept wondering how long that would go before it got stopped...they raised a LOT of money and were paying actors.....thats a REAL production
and crossed the line beyond what a fan film is.

Well, I'm not going to get personal about this by bashing Alec - but I have to say their response is a more than a bit tone-deaf given that their whole goal was to have a project that Paramount didn't object to.

From their Facebook page:

"Well, it appears CBS knows that Axanar is exactly what fans want, because they are trying to shut us down! While Team Axanar will have a response shortly, know this DOES NOT deter us from what we are doing! Delivering to fans exactly what you want.
Goliath, meet David (and his thousands of screaming fans)!
‪#‎IstandwithAxanar‬"
 
From their Facebook page:

"Well, it appears CBS knows that Axanar is exactly what fans want, because they are trying to shut us down! While Team Axanar will have a response shortly, know this DOES NOT deter us from what we are doing! Delivering to fans exactly what you want.
Goliath, meet David (and his thousands of screaming fans)!
‪#‎IstandwithAxanar‬"

Sounds like they are calling the studio out and throwing down the gauntlet. Sometimes it is not smart to post your goal of moving forward via social media and acting like you are in the right......basically poking the studio to see what they do next.
 
:lol ...and off he goes :lol

This will certainly be interesting that s for sure


Well, I'm not going to get personal about this by bashing Alec - but I have to say their response is a more than a bit tone-deaf given that their whole goal was to have a project that Paramount didn't object to.

From their Facebook page:

"Well, it appears CBS knows that Axanar is exactly what fans want, because they are trying to shut us down! While Team Axanar will have a response shortly, know this DOES NOT deter us from what we are doing! Delivering to fans exactly what you want.
Goliath, meet David (and his thousands of screaming fans)!
‪#‎IstandwithAxanar‬"
 
Sounds like they are calling the studio out and throwing down the gauntlet. Sometimes it is not smart to post your goal of moving forward via social media and acting like you are in the right......basically poking the studio to see what they do next.

Yup. And, to boot, to add that CBS is taking action because "CBS knows that Axanar is exactly what fans want" - thereby implying that CBS's own product is junk. Again, regardless of what any of us think about CBS' product, this is not a smart strategy from a legal perspective. The reasons for CBS wanting to shut them down have no bearing whatsoever on whether Axanar is liable for infringement, and a judge won't even give it a second thought. And Axanar's chances of a "fair use" defense are slim-to-none.

Instead, Axanar is trying to "shame" the studio into capitulating - but this is definitely a case where you attract more flies with honey rather than vinegar, and trashing the studio in front of the fans is most definitely "vinegar".

M
 
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