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

Its a shame but the sheer excellence of those visual effects and the high end quality finish these fan films are now achieving makes the Paramount action inevitable. And it won't only be Paramount but many other studios as well.
They are simply protecting their brands , investments and future productions. Whilst I appreciate the commitment and talent the Axanar group have shown in crafting their vision of ST , its so professionally done that it cannot be regarded as an "amatuer" enterprise any longer.
By raising the amount of capital they have it allows them to achieve industry standard production levels that are truely astonishing . This could not have been achieved just a few years ago. And the excellently produced trailers make that unfortunately rather evident, I would easily have accepted that this was a studio made movie, had I not been aware otherwise.
And as the software and equipment to make these kind of vfxs films continues to become more accessable to general public budgets, and its inevitable people will want to try and make their own versions of the universes they so love, then there is bound to be conflict between those that own the IP and those that want to use it without consent.
Thats not to say its wrong to do so, its just that the quality achieved by them will be eventually be difficult for most people to tell apart. When "fan made" looks fan made I don't think it would be a problem for the studios at all. Infact I imagine they may actively try and recruit talented people that make them into the industry.
But Axanar represents a raising of the bar thats simply way beyond the acceptable limits. Let this one slip past and it will open the flood gates to dozens of other productions.
Lucasfilm has taken the one of the best ways to deal with fan made films with their competition.And the three recent "Thunderbirds" videos produced using the old techniques and with the agreement of all parties is a great success. Some parties could have learned from these approaches.

This is an interesting read from a guest comment on the Axanar site:


(Please note this blog is the opinion of Jonathan Lane, editor of Fan Film Factor, and not that of Axanar Productions.)
Remember this scene?
I was having a discussion a couple of days ago with one of the many Trekkers who is furious about these new Star Trek fan film guidelines from CBS. "It's obvious that they just wanted to destroy all fan films forever!" he said with anger and disgust.
"I'm not sure that's true," I responded. "I think they sincerely wanted to help fan films by making these guidelines."
He was shocked...especially since I've gone so far as to set up the SMALL ACCESSprotest. He couldn't believe I was being serious! But I was.
My wife is an attorney, and I used to work closely for many years with the Star Treklicensing department (back when they were still Viacom Consumer Products). Granted, I wasn't in the conference room at CBS when these guidelines were written up, but I still think I know what happened and why it happened...and it was all because the wrong people were in the room.
Let me 'splain...
I know from seeing my spouse in action that the first duty of an attorney is to protect their client at all costs. And a lawyer doesn't simply guard against the obvious; he or she must think of every little possible thing that can go wrong. Many years ago, I had to sign a contract to work on a project for Disney--that document was as thick as a Dostoevsky novel! Lawyers do their job when they're thorough.
I know from working with the licensing folks that their first duty is to protect their licensees, who are essentially clients of CBS paying for the right to make a licensed Star Trekproduct.
Now, think back to that scorpion story. In order for the scorpion (CBS and Paramount) and the fox (the fan filmmakers) to both make it across the river, the scorpion has to fight its nature and NOT sting the fox.
The wrong people were in the room.
I imagine that the lawyers and the licensing people had a large whiteboard and they put up everything they could think of that needed protecting about Star Trek intellectual property. Their goal for the meeting(s) was straightforward: find a way for fan films to be made in a small way that would keep them from being perceived as any kind of "real" (studio-produced) Star Trek--hence, the 15-minute rule--and also to protect the licensees--hence making fan films use store-bought uniforms and props. Almost every guideline was, I believe, a sincere attempt to find a way to make fan films acceptable to allow to exist while still performing the lawyers' and licensers' first duty: protection.
They were just doing their jobs. It's their "nature."
Now, perhaps I shouldn't have said "the wrong people were in the room" as much as "the right people didn't show up" (maybe they were busy; maybe they weren't invited). And who are these "right people"?
The marketing the public relations department!
From that first letter-writing campaign back in 1968, Star Trek fans have been the poster child of an ultra-loyal, nearly-obsessed, activist base of support for a media franchise. Other Hollywood studios would kill to have fans as loyal and involved as Trekkies and Trekkers! We've endured, grown, strengthened, and supported this one franchise for fifty years!
In that time, other sci-fi series have built their own followings--Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, Stargate, Farscape, Firefly, etc.--but none except Star Wars has even come close to the size and unstoppable enthusiasm of Trek fans.
Trekkers have kept this franchise alive through multiple cancellations and have helped it thrive into a multi-billion dollar franchise. And how did we do that? We published fanzines. We designed new starships. We created artwork. We started fan clubs. We wrote fan fiction. We went to conventions. We sewed our own costumes and put on our own pointed ears and bumpy foreheads and blue antennae.
And most recently, we made fan films.
Those fan films weren't always blockbuster quality. In fact, most were the fan equivalent of high school musicals where the kid singing "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" has his voice crack during the finale of the song (yeah, that was me). But they had heart! You could tell that these were labors of love. And the best thing about them was that they were getting better and better and better.
Were these improving fan films ever going to be a threat to the studios producing the "real" Star Trek? Of course not! As good as the sets look for Star Trek Continues or New Voyages, no fan is going to watch an episode and then NOT go and see Star Trek Beyondor NOT tune into the new series.
Just the opposite, in fact!
Fan films build excitement and enthusiasm for the media property...especially during those down times when the studios aren't spending millions marketing the next movie or the 50th anniversary or the new TV series.
It's been three years since the last media blitz for Star Trek from the studios for Into Darkness. And it was four years before that since the previous blitz. And what kept Trekkers excited during those lean years when the marketing dollars weren't being spent? That's right: fan films (among other things).
And the bigger and better that Star Trek fan films got, the more coverage they gained in the press. There was a great article in the New York Times that came out shortly after the release of Star Trek: Of Gods and Men. And once Prelude to Axanar was released, media coverage exploded (long before the lawsuit).
All that press coverage was FREE ADVERTISING for Star Trek...especially during the multi-year "hibernation" period between film releases.
And that's why I say the right people weren't in the room. While the legal and licensing scorpions were doing their jobs trying to make sure fan films stayed as small as possible--no fund raising above $50,000, no use of anyone who ever worked on any Star Trekseries or movie, no ongoing series--there was likely (I don't know for certain) no one in the room saying, "Hey, wait a second, guys!"
There was no one saying how important it is in today's world of a million online distractions a minute to have something that gets the attention of your fan base. And moreover, something that does that and doesn't cost your studio a penny.
With Star Trek fan films watered down to 15-minute, inexpensive, non-continuing vignettes, "bigger and better" is now completely off the table. Sure, some fans will still make videos, and some will still watch them. But the days of a million YouTube views in a week for Star Trek: Horizon and the days of coverage in Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal...those days are now gone. The fox has been stung by the scorpion, and now they both lose.
And the sad thing is, it didn't have to be this way! A collective cheer and sigh of relief went up throughout Star Trek fandom after J.J. Abrams' May 20th announcement that the lawsuit was "going away" and that "...the fans will be able to [continue] their productions." It'd been months (pre-lawsuit) since I'd seen fandom so...well...happy.
And now I can't remember a time when I've seen Star Trek fandom so miserable...not even when Enterprise was canceled just as it was getting good! Whether fans are blasting the new guidelines or blaming Alec Peters and Axanar or simply trying to tiptoe carefully through what is now a legal minefield so they can still try to find a quiet and humble way to continue making their once-proud fan series...the mood of fandom is undeniably sour and morose and defeated.
Happy 50th anniversary, Star Trek.
The timing couldn't have been worse. But the scorpions were true to their nature, and the fox has been poisoned so close to the opposite shore of the river.
Will Star Trek die because of this? Will there be a mass "Trexit"? It's hard to say. Maybe it'll all blow over. But Star Trek fandom will never be the same as it was going into December of 2015, when fans were all excited and looking forward to the amazing golden anniversary of Star Trek: the new movie, the new TV series, and yes, the new fan films, too.
And the saddest part is, I don't think the scorpion even realizes what it just did. And that's the reason I'm trying to tell them...through Project: SMALL ACCESS. If you agree, please help spread the word.


Jonathan Lane | June 26, 2016 at 2:24 pm | Tags: CBS, Fan Film Guidelines, Paramount | Categories:Blog, fan films | URL: http://wp.me/p5Bemq-2i1

I hope there's a chance to renegotiate the rules 1, 4, 5, 6.5 and 6.6 that allows fan flims to thrieve, instead of being choked to death.

I just read the guidlines.

It's so obvious paramount is scared that people will like the fan productions more than the general public nu trek they are producing.
And they finally had an excuse to act with axanar.


you'd think they'd learn that the general star trek fans want star trek. not fast and furious in space.
wonder what it'll take to make 'em realize it.

If the studio really wanted to squash the fan film community (or micro-manage their content) then they wouldn't have spent 50 years giving fans free reign up to now.

These new rules didn't come out of thin air. Paramount was reacting to getting sucker-punched by a fan project.

Having read the list, I'd say it was designed by exactly the right people for the goal it appears to be advancing: specifically, protecting Para/CBS' IP. Lawyers helped write this, I guarantee you. People with knowledge of who their respective licensees are helped write this.

Also, this list is a classic example of what can be considered "safe harbor" regulations. If you do exactly what's on the list, you're guaranteed to be safe. If you step outside those (admittedly pretty restrictive) boundaries, you're incurring risk. How much is basically unknown without any pattern of enforcement to judge by. Might be that CBS/Para won't care if your short runs 20 min and you have 3 of 'em in a story. Might be they won't care if you sew your own costumes and cobble together your own props (rather than buy them from folks here, or people who aren't Anovos). Might be they won't care if you raise $60,000. But you're taking a risk in doing so. Might also be that the first production to raise $50,000.01 gets shut down. We'll have to see.

People need to consider the legal impact of a list like this, however. Essentially, CBS/Para published a document that anyone can rely on to defend themselves IF they stick to EXACTLY what's on the list. So, let's say you don't earn more than $50,000. Everyone in the production is basically an amateur who never worked on a Star Trek gig. All props are homemade or official products. The short runs 10 min long and uses completely original material about completely original characters (albeit set in the ST universe). For all intents and purposes, you follow the guidelines to a T.

Then CBS/Para sues you.

You can, in all likelihood, admit to having done exactly what they claim (namely copyright infringement), and point to this document while claiming to have relied upon this list as a kind of waiver by CBS/Para. I would expect that a judge would tend to side with the defense in such matters, at least the first few times this happened. So, if you're gonna publish a list that people can point to in court and use to effectively stop you from enforcing your copyrights, of course you're gonna tailor it to be as narrowly written as possible, to accomplish only that which you will explicitly permit.

So, sure, the fan community is cheesed off about how restrictive the list is, but....duh. What'd you expect? I'd also point out that anything beyond this list courts disaster. Higher budgets, permitting professional involvement, etc. is all just waiting for a guy like Peters to come along and push the envelope to the point where they're basically putting out professional-grade competitive material in violation of your copyrights.

Meanwhile, CBS/Para can still choose to enforce the list however they please, allowing some more expansive and expensive productions to continue, while shutting down others.

In truth, all this does is create the most basic, explicit carve-out which -- in fact -- expands upon fair use concepts to include productions that might not otherwise be truly fair use. Beyond that, in practical terms, nothing has changed. You're dealing with the exact same situation as before this list came out, where people were basically counting on CBS/Para to let them fly under the radar, and otherwise hoping for the best. The simple truth is you never had any right to make these films in the first place, and you were always running the risk of the 800lb gorilla deciding to smack you around. That's what happens when you decide you want to play in his enclosure. Maybe he's a generally friendly gorilla who mostly just sleeps and ignores you, but the chance has always existed that he'd charge you and kill you.

Solo4114 said:

Having read the list, I'd say it was designed by exactly the right people for the goal it appears to be advancing: specifically, protecting Para/CBS' IP. Lawyers helped write this, I guarantee you. People with knowledge of who their respective licensees are helped write this.

Also, this list is a classic example of what can be considered "safe harbor" regulations. If you do exactly what's on the list, you're guaranteed to be safe. If you step outside those (admittedly pretty restrictive) boundaries, you're incurring risk. How much is basically unknown without any pattern of enforcement to judge by. Might be that CBS/Para won't care if your short runs 20 min and you have 3 of 'em in a story. Might be they won't care if you sew your own costumes and cobble together your own props (rather than buy them from folks here, or people who aren't Anovos). Might be they won't care if you raise $60,000. But you're taking a risk in doing so. Might also be that the first production to raise $50,000.01 gets shut down. We'll have to see.

People need to consider the legal impact of a list like this, however. Essentially, CBS/Para published a document that anyone can rely on to defend themselves IF they stick to EXACTLY what's on the list. So, let's say you don't earn more than $50,000. Everyone in the production is basically an amateur who never worked on a Star Trek gig. All props are homemade or official products. The short runs 10 min long and uses completely original material about completely original characters (albeit set in the ST universe). For all intents and purposes, you follow the guidelines to a T.

Then CBS/Para sues you.

You can, in all likelihood, admit to having done exactly what they claim (namely copyright infringement), and point to this document while claiming to have relied upon this list as a kind of waiver by CBS/Para. I would expect that a judge would tend to side with the defense in such matters, at least the first few times this happened. So, if you're gonna publish a list that people can point to in court and use to effectively stop you from enforcing your copyrights, of course you're gonna tailor it to be as narrowly written as possible, to accomplish only that which you will explicitly permit.

So, sure, the fan community is cheesed off about how restrictive the list is, but....duh. What'd you expect? I'd also point out that anything beyond this list courts disaster. Higher budgets, permitting professional involvement, etc. is all just waiting for a guy like Peters to come along and push the envelope to the point where they're basically putting out professional-grade competitive material in violation of your copyrights.

Meanwhile, CBS/Para can still choose to enforce the list however they please, allowing some more expansive and expensive productions to continue, while shutting down others.

In truth, all this does is create the most basic, explicit carve-out which -- in fact -- expands upon fair use concepts to include productions that might not otherwise be truly fair use. Beyond that, in practical terms, nothing has changed. You're dealing with the exact same situation as before this list came out, where people were basically counting on CBS/Para to let them fly under the radar, and otherwise hoping for the best. The simple truth is you never had any right to make these films in the first place, and you were always running the risk of the 800lb gorilla deciding to smack you around. That's what happens when you decide you want to play in his enclosure. Maybe he's a generally friendly gorilla who mostly just sleeps and ignores you, but the chance has always existed that he'd charge you and kill you.

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Yup. Couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, I didn't.

I don't think they were looking to shut down fan productions, but to give them a way to still be made without being a liability to the studios and licensees. Think of how much worse the PR would have been if they'd simply prohibited any fan films whatsoever. They would have been well within their rights to do so, but they didn't. And creative people will find ways to make good fan films within the rules. I think we'll survive this.

Seems to me though, they went massively overboard. I mean, how long are the continues episodes? And there's lots more than 2.

If i was doing one, i'd be doing my own episodes, and if it came out well enough, more episodes. All shows (except the cartoon) have been one hour episodes. Granted, when you cut out the commercials the show runs 44 minutes, but that's still basically 2/3 of the alotted time they're giving.

And, what happens if you're more than capable of producing hollywood level fx? I'm not in the industry, but i'm capable of it. Am I going to be targeted because i'm too good? I mean it's not far-fetched that I could have a friend who's a contractor and another who's into video. So, we'd be capable of top level sets, fx, and filming ability. As a group, are we asking to be shut down because we can do it well? It sounds like it.

I get the concept. They don't want this stuff competing with theirs.Frankly, i'm not sure how anyone could short of being rich enough to spend 10M or so of your own money to self finance it. Can't see that happening with no ability of recouping that investment. In the Axanar case, that's why gofundme or whatever instead of paying himself. And it was done in order to pay talent which is a big no-no in these things.

I tend to agree much more with the article Yen posted. Seems the right people weren't in the meeting. There seems to have been little thought given to those wanting to do these things and for what reasons. It's all legalese to protect the owner and licensee's. And, yeah, that's the point of the lawyers. However, the point of running the company/marketing/PR is to balance that so it doesn't come out as all fan films have to now basically suck and not make the IP owner look bad in any way. Make anything as good or better than us, and the boot is coming. Poor message to send.

The message could have been sent and the rules set up so as not to come off as so draconian.

Can everyone stop saying paramount/cbs is evil for doing this? Axanar pissed in the pool, tried to run their fan film as a profit making stepping stone to funding their own studio and paid themselves wages. This goes well beyond what other fan films have done. "How come X, Y, or Z got away with it?" because they were non profit, respectful, and didn't REPEATEDLY say "we're better than official Trek, They're just jealous, no-one likes them"
In short, they poked the bear, the bear said stop, they carried on and got bit, now they blame everyone except themselves and want to be seen as plucky rebels standing up to an evil empire (to borrow from the other universe).
They are not noble, they are not true fans, they were greedy, and we all pay the price.

cboath said:

Seems to me though, they went massively overboard. I mean, how long are the continues episodes? And there's lots more than 2.

If i was doing one, i'd be doing my own episodes, and if it came out well enough, more episodes. All shows (except the cartoon) have been one hour episodes. Granted, when you cut out the commercials the show runs 44 minutes, but that's still basically 2/3 of the alotted time they're giving.

And, what happens if you're more than capable of producing hollywood level fx? I'm not in the industry, but i'm capable of it. Am I going to be targeted because i'm too good? I mean it's not far-fetched that I could have a friend who's a contractor and another who's into video. So, we'd be capable of top level sets, fx, and filming ability. As a group, are we asking to be shut down because we can do it well? It sounds like it.

I get the concept. They don't want this stuff competing with theirs.Frankly, i'm not sure how anyone could short of being rich enough to spend 10M or so of your own money to self finance it. Can't see that happening with no ability of recouping that investment. In the Axanar case, that's why gofundme or whatever instead of paying himself. And it was done in order to pay talent which is a big no-no in these things.

I tend to agree much more with the article Yen posted. Seems the right people weren't in the meeting. There seems to have been little thought given to those wanting to do these things and for what reasons. It's all legalese to protect the owner and licensee's. And, yeah, that's the point of the lawyers. However, the point of running the company/marketing/PR is to balance that so it doesn't come out as all fan films have to now basically suck and not make the IP owner look bad in any way. Make anything as good or better than us, and the boot is coming. Poor message to send.

The message could have been sent and the rules set up so as not to come off as so draconian.

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Here's the thing:

It's not about the fans.

For all the lip service paid to being friendly towards fans and such, this is absolutely NOT about helping fans out. It's about protecting CBS/Paramount's IP and that's it, really. I don't think the wrong people were in the room. I think the only way one believes that is if one already has a vested interest in being able to infringe copyrights without fear of repercussions.

This isn't a PR nightmare, either. What, you really think that fans are gonna not go see new material from Star Trek just because some fan films can't be made now?

I rather doubt it.

The loss of goodwill that would be generated by this is miniscule. As a cold, hard business reality, these fans, the hardest of the hardcore, don't really matter. Or rather, to the extent that they matter, they have taught CBS/Paramount over many, many, many years and many, many, many Star Trek products that they are not in the slightest bit discerning as a mass of people. Individually, this or that fan might love XYZ product and hate ABC product, but the end result is that these fans gobble up everything that CBS/Paramount or their licensees put out.

To the extent that this is a PR move, it's one for people who aren't closely involved in the fan film community. It's for people who'd probably look at this and say "Yeah, that seems reasonable."


And, again, you have, let's be clear, always been at risk of being sued and shut down. The fact that CBS/Paramount chose to sit on their rights does not mean that you somehow get, like, squatters' rights to their IP. You aren't allowed to make derivative works, like fan films or fan fiction, under the law. Most of the time, IP owners don't really care because fan fiction sucks and fan films are low budget stuff.

And, to be honest, these issues have gone on for years where XYZ ginormo company sues someone who is clearly infringing their IP rights, and the defense is "Oh, I suppose now we're gonna stop kids from pretending to play [characters/setting] on the playground?" And, of course, no we aren't. That's absurd, and not at all what's at issue here.

You wanna be safe? Stay within the guidelines. You wanna laugh in the face of danger? Make what you like. Just don't think you can do so without risking CBS/Paramount's wrath. This, however, has always been the case.


Here's how I see it.

It's kinda like CBS/Paramount own a forest. It's a forest in which many deer and other woodland creatures roam. CBS/Paramount has largely turned a blind eye towards poachers over the years. They never fenced off the forest, they never really posted guards or rangers throughout it. It was just generally understood that, if you were gonna hunt in the forest, you'd better only pick off the odd rabbit or pheasant, and generally leave the deer alone. Over time, people got a bit bolder, and occasionally shot a scrawny deer here or there. No prize winning bucks or does. Even so, it was generally just one or two hunters in the party, and the impact was pretty minimal.

Just this year, a particularly ambitious hunter organized a major expedition into the forest. This hunter bought state-of-the-art bows, lures, deer-blinds, etc. and set up a basecamp tent, hired a cook for the rest of the hunters in the party, and was preparing to advertise and sell the game meat that they'd catch. The hunter had talked with friends about how he planned to expand this into an outfitting business if this venture was successful.

CBS/Paramount sent the local sheriff to run the hunter off their land and tell him to stay the hell away from their deer. The hunter, though, said he had every right to be there, that CBS/Paramount didn't own the forest, that they didn't own the deer, etc. This, of course, was absurd. CBS/Paramount own the forest and everything in it. They own the deer, they own the trees, they own the leaves, the frogs, the squirrels, the dirt, everything.

Rather than fence off the forest and clap every hunter they see in irons, CBS/Paramount issued a proclamation, saying "If you want to be sure you won't be clapped in irons (like we're gonna do to this hunter), you should really only kill the occasional animal no bigger than a rabbit. Note: rabbits should be limited to no more than 8lbs."


And now, all of a sudden, people are getting fussy about this, and claiming that it's unfair, and that if CBS/Paramount were really reasonable, they'd have said it was ok to hunt smaller deer. Never mind the fact that it's their damn forest. They'd be well within their rights to shoot trespassers on sight. They're certainly within their rights to say "Stay out, and don't kill anything." They'd be within their rights to erect a wall and hire rangers to patrol the forest day and night. They aren't doing that.


If you don't like this stuff, buy your own forest. Raise your own deer. But don't expect to trespass and get away with whatever, even if you think what you want to do is perfectly reasonable and what was always allowed. It wasn't. It was just that CBS/Paramount didn't care to chase after you before. You never had a right to be in the forest anyway, unless they sold you a day pass or a hunting license. You're just a poacher, no matter how much you love and care for the forest and its deer. Loving and caring for it doesn't make it any less poaching.

What if I don't poach anything, but I just rape the deer a little?

Seems to me though, they went massively overboard. I mean, how long are the continues episodes? And there's lots more than 2.

Click to expand...

The message could have been sent and the rules set up so as not to come off as so draconian.

Click to expand...

It's draconian & overboard if they intend to follow through and shut down every fan movie that falls outside of their new guidelines. But so far they have shown no intent to do that.

Can everyone stop saying paramount/cbs is evil for doing this? Axanar pissed in the pool, tried to run their fan film as a profit making stepping stone to funding their own studio and paid themselves wages. This goes well beyond what other fan films have done. "How come X, Y, or Z got away with it?" because they were non profit, respectful, and didn't REPEATEDLY say "we're better than official Trek, They're just jealous, no-one likes them"
In short, they poked the bear, the bear said stop, they carried on and got bit, now they blame everyone except themselves and want to be seen as plucky rebels standing up to an evil empire (to borrow from the other universe).
They are not noble, they are not true fans, they were greedy, and we all pay the price.

Click to expand...

Exactly.

This whole mess is reminding me of something I like about how Japan culturally handles some of their bigger fandoms. The owners of the IP monitor everything fans put out there at conventions or on the internet (or, at least, they do their best to do so). For the most part they tolerate what's created -- but that's also because the fans, reciprocally, have a culturally-ingrained sense of how far they can go and don't stray over the line. And sometimes the IP owners see something the fans create and incorporate it into the official product.

LucasFilm has sort of tacitly done something similar, in encouraging the costuming groups and fan films to work with LFL. Fan film contests, with nice prizes, and invites to high-profile events are a very attractive carrot to encourage the vast majority playing in that sandbox to not step out of line.

Trek, now... There has been a pretty tempestuous relationship between the IP owners and the fans all the way back to the '60s. Near as I can see, the only ones on the corporate side of things who have come closest to "getting it" have been Ira Behr, Jeri Taylor, several of the TNG-era writers, and, to a degree, Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer. Even Gene, like Goerge Lucas, had his creation grow beyond him. The optimistic, humanistic vision of the future was only accidentally in TOS, for the most part, and got emphasized by the fans through the '70s while the show was in reruns. That reflected back on Gene, who not only internalized it, but sort of started seeing himself as the one true keeper of this vision. Paramount, and their various owners over the decades, on the other hand, have been a bit less in tune with the touchy-feely aspects of the '60s and '70s. It was commented earlier how Pramount lawyers would go into the vendors' halls at conventions and confiscate fanzines off the sellers' tables. They didn't care. After the battle of egos that was The Motion Picture, Paramount "promoted" Gene to "Executive Consultant" and made the rest of the Star Trek films without him. When the studio decided they wanted to do TNG, it was without Gene, and he and his lawyer worked really hard to change that. We also almost got something very much like JJ-Trek back in 1990 -- Harve Bennett wanted to save money by doing a story with new actors of a young Kirk and young Spock meeting at Starfleet Academy.

So, no, the studio has never cared about the "spirit" of Star Trek (not since it was still with Desilu and Lucille Ball was still running it), only what has the best cost/benefit ratio for studio revenues. Back when Gene was alive, he encouraged fans to do all that creative stuff, in no small part because it fed his ego as the Great Bird of the Galaxy. But that should never be confused with Paramount's stance. I'll be honest, more and more I wish it were remotely feasible to have a Kickstarter or Gofundme to raise sufficient cash for Rod (Eugene Wesley Roddenberry, Jr.) to buy the rights and figure out the best creative way forward for Star Trek, damn the profitability.

--Jonah

I'm not particularly bothered by the technical limitations and all, but the restrictions on content are really a double standard - how many many times have they referenced Romulan ale? I think every episode and film had something "threatening." Spock's forcing Valeris to mind-meld (ST6) would probably be the Vulcan equivalent of rape. ST4 had fun with "colorful metaphors." the list goes on...

batguy said:

It's draconian & overboard if they intend to follow through and shut down every fan movie that falls outside of their new guidelines. But so far they have shown no intent to do that.



Exactly.

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There's no doubt one tool brought all this on and if he hadn't pushed it so far, this would never have come to pass.

Who they go after next will be what tells the tale IMO. If they go after someone because their clip is 16 minutes long, well, that clearly shows they're not guidelines but rules set in stone to the extreme. I have no doubt whatsoever that if someone tried the same stunt but using star wars, that LFL would go after them as well.

Yes, the lawyers are all about protecting the IP - i said that myself. Regardless, the guidelines are overkill. Though i think some terms are being misinterpreted. By threatening, I don't think they mean a villain threatening to destroy earth, but rather threatening a specific real world person or group. As noted, it's lawyers protecting IP - they don't want anyone painting the IP in a bad light.

That said, hard to imagine anyone thinks all the guildelines are fair and proper. I'd wager everyone thinks they went overboard. And that isn't speaking to their right to do so, which they do have that right, just whether that was what was necessary to protect things.

Really, if you limit it to can't have worked on a trek property in the past and no one can make money off it, it pretty much takes care of axanar handily or anyone trying to do that type of thing again. Maybe toss in the kickstarter.

I'm glad I'm more of a Star Wars fan and I can watch all the SW fan stuff I want.

Obviously, they have a right to protect their IP BUT IMO, fan made stuff whets the fans appetite for the big ticket movies and shows. If they wanted to continue to allow fan made stuff they probably could have made the list one item long stating something about money. The list as it stands makes it almost impossible to create a fan film. Paraphrasing here but no violence, don't use Star Trek sounds, don't use our timelines or history, etc.

Everyone nodding their heads in total support of Paramount is agreeing that Star Trek fan films shouldn't be made at all. I think there can be a MIDDLE GROUND in the future where the IP is protected but fans can still do what they love. If you totally agree with Paramount we should just shut down the Project Runs forum, stat.

Everyone nodding their heads in total support of Paramount is agreeing that Star Trek fan films shouldn't be made at all. I think there can be a MIDDLE GROUND in the future where the IP is protected but fans can still do what they love.

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But that's just it - how do you know that "fans can't still do what they love" right now?

I agree the list didn't need to be as extensive as it is. But in practical terms I don't think Paramount's actions will result in any big change in what fan stuff gets made. And once the dust settles, I don't think most fan filmmakers will be living in fear of it happening either. Just my opinion.

Well, we CAN continue to 'do what (we) love' right now, just as we've been doing for years, just now we have something definitive that says 'If you do this in this manner, you might get shut down, sued or more' even though it's how we've been doing it for years without them taking issue.

I'd love to trade the fundraising part for longer episodes/films. Most of us never did fundraising and do it on whatever budget we can scrape together and we're happy doing it that way.

karmajay said:

Everyone nodding their heads in total support of Paramount is agreeing that Star Trek fan films shouldn't be made at all.

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This is not true.
Did Paramount over-react? Maybe, but can you blame them? After everything Axanar did, if they'd just 'given in' or ignored it then it would have set a dangerous precedent that could have allowed 'cart blanche' for fan-films to go big-budget, mass-marketing, money-making, thereby diluting and/or tarnishing the franchise.

I want fan-films to be made, I love them. It's the only way I'll get to see new stories in any of the TV eras (TOS, TNG, etc) But they must be done respectfully. After all, it's Paramount's sandbox we're playing in.

None of this is draconian. What it is, is basically denying folks what they want. Or at least saying "Don't do what you want, if you want to be safe."

Folks need to understand the concept of the "safe harbor" as opposed to the "exception."

In legal terms, a "safe harbor" means "If you do these things, we promise we'll leave you alone. You will be guaranteed to be safe." However, you may still be safe if you step outside the "safe harbor." There's simply no guarantee......which is exactly the state of affairs before this list was published. Nobody ever knew for sure whether their 5 minute, $5, shot-on-my-neighbor's-1992-era-camcorder fan film would be nailed or left alone. Nobody knew if their semi-pro production using commercially available consumer-grade tools and purchased official props and costumes would be nailed or left alone. Some people did more professional-looking, longer projects, others wrapped aluminum foil around paper towel tubes for props and wore any old blue or yellow or red longsleeved shirt. Now there's guidance on what's guaranteed to be safe. What there isn't is any pronouncement on what is guaranteed to be prohibited.

By contrast, an "exception" is a legal concept where literally everything that is not the exception is explicitly prohibited. You can only do what's declared as safe, and once you step outside that realm, you are in violation.


The list that Paramount/CBS has put out reads to me like a "safe harbor." It's what's guaranteed to be safe, but you may still be safe (or at least ignored) if you otherwise fly under the radar. You just don't know. Just like you didn't know before. It's just that people counted on CBS/Paramount's history of lax enforcement to continue, and blithely assumed that they were safe if they just did what they were doing.

Right now, post-Axanar, we have no idea what CBS/Paramount will enforce against. All we know is what they won't enforce against and what is explicitly safe. If you want certainty, follow their guidelines. If you're willing to take a risk, though, feel free to try to push the envelope.

Harbor's are big things. This is more of safe Koi Pond