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

Axanar fought hard against a plaintiffs motion to have their unredacted financial statements made public. Earlier this week, Axanar lost that motion, meaning that all of the details of how they spent donor funds would become public knowledge. Three days later they quickly settle the case for the exact same deal that was being offered by the studios last March.


You do the math – no pun intended.

M
 
You have to wonder if anyone but him had tried making this if the studio would have been as annoyed? Generally they ignore fan films it seems but between him aiming so high and his...aggressive personality you kinda have to wonder if they went the extra mile just because he ticked them off. This is a good lesson for anyone doing a kickstarter even if it's their own IP on what not to do and how to handle things that may come up.
 
Axanar fought hard against a plaintiffs motion to have their unredacted financial statements made public. Earlier this week, Axanar lost that motion, meaning that all of the details of how they spent donor funds would become public knowledge. Three days later they quickly settle the case for the exact same deal that was being offered by the studios last March.


You do the math – no pun intended.

M

Bingo.

The donors really need to go after this guy.
 
Well, there we go; can someone say precedent? I can say it! Next time I do a Trek fan film, I'll send a copy to Paramount/CBS just to make sure:rolleyes
 
Many of us who knew of Peters from the collecting community saw this train wreck coming. It was inevitable given his ego. And none of us are really surprised that he got off relatively easy. He might be a snake-oil salesman, but he's also a survivor that will say or do anything to further his agenda.

Had anyone Googled his name prior to donating they could have easily discovered that his Propworx company had just gone bankrupt. They trusted their hard-earned dollars to a guy who couldn't keep a real business going. It sounds like he treated the Axanar donor money the same way he treated MGM's – he wiped his butt with it and bailed.

D
 
Well, there we go; can someone say precedent? I can say it! Next time I do a Trek fan film, I'll send a copy to Paramount/CBS just to make sure:rolleyes

Technically, the precedent is limited here. You have the summary judgment opinion, but that's about it. The only other precedent is practical precedent, rather than legal precedent, in that fan films know now to be really freakin' careful about how they handle CBS/Paramount's properties.
 
Technically, the precedent is limited here. You have the summary judgment opinion, but that's about it. The only other precedent is practical precedent, rather than legal precedent, in that fan films know now to be really freakin' careful about how they handle CBS/Paramount's properties.
Yeah, and the opinion doesn't really break any new ground. It cites the case from two years ago that really nailed down character copyright analysis in the Ninth Circuit, the DC Comics Batmobile case, and uses it to buttress Garth of Izar being protected under the overall Trek copyright. Legally speaking, the opinion is a paint-by-numbers project. Great for learning various technical aspects of copyright law in one place, but not exactly Brown v. Board of Education.

Also, does every single judicial opinion just copy and paste the summary judgment section from the last case they did? Blah blah, Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, blah. :p
 
Technically, the precedent is limited here. You have the summary judgment opinion, but that's about it. The only other precedent is practical precedent, rather than legal precedent, in that fan films know now to be really freakin' careful about how they handle CBS/Paramount's properties.

I understand that concept, that's why each fan film should be submitted to the copyrighted parties for approval:D I kid of course, but as you said: freakin' careful will be in everybody's mind next time they post something on YouTube.
 
I understand that concept, that's why each fan film should be submitted to the copyrighted parties for approval:D I kid of course, but as you said: freakin' careful will be in everybody's mind next time they post something on YouTube.
Kinda... The studios tied themselves down a little bit by announcing the guidelines, and now they've doubled down on that by letting Axanar skate if it hews to them. It reads very much like a safe harbor (without, of course, the studios calling it such). I think the studios are saying, pretty clearly, that if you stay within those guardrails, they'll leave you alone.

You can play hopscotch on the sidewalk, but stay the hell off their lawn.

And fer cryin' out loud, egging their house WHILE you're playing on their lawn, pulling up the flowerbed, and drinking from the garden hose is RIGHT OUT. :p
 
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Hey as long as I can occasionally rummage through their trash I'm a happy camper! ;)


And fer cryin' out loud, egging their house WHILE you're playing on their lawn, pulling up the flowerbed, and drinking from the garden house is RIGHT OUT. :p
 
Peters isn't out of the woods yet. He'll still have to address any kickstarter backers who get pissed at him keeping their money and them no getting the product tehy wanted. Sure, he can point to Paramount, but if the terms are "I pay you X, and you give me Y," then you give me my damn money back when you have to give me "Z" instead of the "Y" I paid you for.
 
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