Love your post. The ignorance or disdain of copyright by many on the internet just baffles me. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who thinks that way would quickly change their tune if they created something.

Going forward, I imagine we’re going to see a lot more of this. It used to be that fan films were obviously that — nonexistent production values, bad (if earnest) acting, short running times. But if a group of dedicated fans with money and resources can put together a fan production that looks and feels like the real…

Agreed, they need to get shut down.

“CBS/Paramount for decades turned a blind eye to fan made Trek films.”

CBS/Paramount for decades turned a blind eye to fan made Trek films. Some of them are really well done and a lot of fun with Trek actors in them.

Exactly -while I hate to defend Paramount, trying paint the proper rights holder as the evil oppressor and the Anaxar guys as innocent victims is bullshit. They were trying to make money - blatantly and openly make money - when they shouldn’t be and the production should be shut down.

Yup. Really people need to stop calling it a fan film. It stopped being one when they went on kickstarter, offered merchandise with the Star Trek brand on it, and built a studio.

More than that—when Abrams talked about “fan film guidelines”, Axanar immediately drafter a set, sent it around for comments to other prominent fan productions, and then before getting back responses announced that they had a whole set of terms that had achieved broad approval and was being sent to Paramount.

Correct, and Paramount’s got nothing but time with this thing. They have the money and resources to fight it for as long and as vigorously as they want. Axanar basically told them to put up or shut up with their actions, and well, Paramount put up and sued. Not exactly rocket science, lol

The thing is Paramont/CBS will drag them through court for as long as it takes because if they lose this case it’s sets a precedent that diminishes their control over the franchise. P/CBS has no choice but to fight this. What makes me angry about this whole thing is that this could kill the entire fan film/works…

Or not. Why should CBS even be interested in going thru the hassel of dealing with fan films?

I think the very slim hope they have to stand on is that if they can prove either that they didn’t infringe on Paramount’s copyright (which, as I understand current copyright law, they totally did), or that Paramount has not previously defended their copyright with regard to other pre-existing works, and thus…

As a trekkie my sympathy for the Axanar guys on this is limited. They fucked up when they decided to pay themselves with the KS money. I don’t even understand why they’re fighting this. They basically don’t have a leg to stand on.

I know fans gonna rage but seriously Anaxar used the star trek name to create a full studio and has been very clear that they plan to build a buisness off of other projects. They are not in the right here.