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

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If you've been following the fan-made Star Trek: Axanar for any length of time you probably saw this coming. Thanks to BYUSinger84 for the heads up.

Paramount and CBS, represented by attorneys at Loeb & Loeb, are now demanding an injunction as well as damages for direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. Although the plaintiffs have allowed ample cosplaying over the years and even permitted other derivatives like amateur Star Trek shows to circulate, the lawsuit illustrates that there is a place where no man has gone before, where the entertainment studios are not willing to let be occupied: crowdfunded, professional-quality films that use copyrighted "elements" like Vulcans and Klingons, Federation starships, phasers and stuff like the "look and feel of the planet, the characters’ costumes, their pointy ears and their distinctive hairstyle."
 
Well paramount is preventing their Star Trek brand from being destroyed...oh wait JJ already did that.
 
I think a fan made Star Trek could be both awful or awesome, or awfully awesome, but how did they not know this would happen?
 
I have donated to Axanar. You should check out the 20 minute short film they released. VERY PROFESSIONALLY DONE!!!! CBS/Paramount is afraid of what a REAL Star Trek production would look like.
 
The Cobra said:
I have donated to Axanar. You should check out the 20 minute short film they released. VERY PROFESSIONALLY DONE!!!! CBS/Paramount is afraid of what a REAL Star Trek production would look like.
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It simply doesn't matter. CBS owns the rights and has a legal obligation to protect it.
 
fdiaz78 said:
It simply doesn't matter. CBS owns the rights and has a legal obligation to protect it.
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There's got to be more to it than that. What about Star Trek Renegades and Star Trek Continues? They've each done Kickstarters and even had actual cast members playing their original characters for their fan projects.
 
fdiaz78 said:
It simply doesn't matter. CBS owns the rights and has a legal obligation to protect it.
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The article states that the fan film creator have actually met with CBS and they obtained CBS' consent as long as they do not profit from the project. Had this been about IP rights, CBS would have shut them down then. They knew about the project. And this isn't the only fan fiction project involving CBS' IP.
 
fdiaz78 said:
It simply doesn't matter. CBS owns the rights and has a legal obligation to protect it.
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You can't own an idea, no matter what your statist papers might say.

Sounds like some shysters need to be taken out back and shot.
 
fdiaz78 said:
It simply doesn't matter. CBS owns the rights and has a legal obligation to protect it.
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There have been Star Trek fan films and series for years and they allow those. I'd like to know why this one is different.
 
bigdogchris said:
There have been Star Trek fan films and series for years and they allow those. I'd like to know why this one is different.
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It was going to be good?... How can they claim damages so early? Nothing been released as it?
 
damicatz said:
You can't own an idea, no matter what your statist papers might say.

Sounds like some shysters need to be taken out back and shot.
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You can own proper names and identities though. This group could always make a movie devoid of any Star Trek references......but then they wouldn't be able to play off the crowd base.
 
Paramount and CBS should look up the Streisand Effect. This is going to backfire on them horribly.
 
Where there's money, there will be lawyers. Nobody should be terribly surprised.
 
poison123 said:
Its called raising a mil+ on crowdfunding is what made them different.
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Bingo! Anyone is free to make fan films,but the minute they do something that even hints at making any kind of profit off it the studios are going to come down on them like a ton of bricks.
 
damicatz said:
You can't own an idea, no matter what your statist papers might say.

Sounds like some shysters need to be taken out back and shot.
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Holy crap were in agreement....somewhat. Basically Star Trek, and a ton of other crap should have been apart of the public domain by now. Their IP is sustained by new people with their own ideas that the original creators didn't create. It's as much theirs as the original creators at this point.
 
kac77 said:
Holy crap were in agreement....somewhat. Basically Star Trek, and a ton of other crap should have been apart of the public domain by now. Their IP is sustained by new people with their own ideas that the original creators didn't create. It's as much theirs as the original creators at this point.
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I don't believe in any kind of imaginary property. But even the constitution says that copyright is for :

A.Literary works (of which a film is not)
B.For a *limited* time.

Gene Roddenberry has been dead for 25 years. The only ones benefiting from this imaginary property are the large corporations and their IP shysters. Certainly, no one who as ever done anything creative related to Star Trek is benefiting from it.
 
Stoly said:
legal right not legal obligation
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Nope you have that backwards buddy. It was correct the other way. If you have a trademark you have to defend it otherwise you will lose it. That is why you see those see all those lawsuits over names. Now some are way overkill, but something like Bethesda suing Mojang over making a game called Scrolls due to the Elder Scrolls series was something they had to do if they want to keep the trademark for The Elder Scrolls. As soon as you let 1 person get away with misusing your trademark you open the door for everyone to do so as you have shown legal precedent that you don't care if people us it.

Janic said:
There's got to be more to it than that. What about Star Trek Renegades and Star Trek Continues? They've each done Kickstarters and even had actual cast members playing their original characters for their fan projects.
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It is one thing to do it with permission and no profit and another to do without permission and /or for profit. Small things are what matter in this area
 
Exavior said:
Nope you have that backwards buddy. It was correct the other way. If you have a trademark you have to defend it otherwise you will lose it. That is why you see those see all those lawsuits over names. Now some are way overkill, but something like Bethesda suing Mojang over making a game called Scrolls due to the Elder Scrolls series was something they had to do if they want to keep the trademark for The Elder Scrolls. As soon as you let 1 person get away with misusing your trademark you open the door for everyone to do so as you have shown legal precedent that you don't care if people us it.



It is one thing to do it with permission and no profit and another to do without permission and /or for profit. Small things are what matter in this area
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Except that Renegades has raised $750,000 so far and they were more over the top using the Star Trek name and also by calling themselves a pilot.
 
damicatz said:
I don't believe in any kind of imaginary property. But even the constitution says that copyright is for :

A.Literary works (of which a film is not)
B.For a *limited* time.

Gene Roddenberry has been dead for 25 years. The only ones benefiting from this imaginary property are the large corporations and their IP shysters. Certainly, no one who as ever done anything creative related to Star Trek is benefiting from it.
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As much as I wish you were right, this is what copy right law says:

"Copyright protection is for a limited term. For works created after January 1, 1978, copyrights last for 70 years after the death of the author. For works "made for hire" (covering the usual type of work owned by a small business), the copyright lasts for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first. For more detailed explanation of copyright terms, visit the Copyright Office webpage or consult this guide on Duration of Copyright (link is external) provided by the Copyright Office."
 
I can't edit my above post, but basically that's for stuff created after 1978, I'm not sure what that means for Star Trek since it was created in the 60s.
 
(Sigh) This lawsuit is a pure greed money shakedown. If seven digits of capital were NOT involved in this project, CBS/Paramount would be indifferent. It seems rather apparent that CBS/Paramount see's this lawsuit as little more than "easy" money to be made after consulting their legal team and don't give a damn about their fans beyond their willingness to open their wallets to support their "intellectual property".

The ONLY way I see them backing off is if this lawsuit gets enough mainstream "bad PR" press that the brass at CBS/Paramount feel it will negatively impact "future" profits beyond what they feel can be extracted from the Axanar production. Corporations might have the "legal" status of being people, but in truth, "most" are so singularly obsessed with profits to such a degree that would make even the Ferengi recoil in disgust!
 
I donated to Axanar. I hope this bullshit doesn't end it. If its non-profit, I don't think that Paramount has a right to stop it.

Dressing up as a klingon, is that somehow "copyprotected" too? Because it's not too far from getting together cosplaying, then recording it, to what Axanar is doing. It's new characters, cosplaying and making a movie out of it.

The lawsuit should be dismissed as frivolous and as hostile.
 
byusinger84 said:
As much as I wish you were right, this is what copy right law says:

"Copyright protection is for a limited term. For works created after January 1, 1978, copyrights last for 70 years after the death of the author. For works "made for hire" (covering the usual type of work owned by a small business), the copyright lasts for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first. For more detailed explanation of copyright terms, visit the Copyright Office webpage or consult this guide on Duration of Copyright (link is external) provided by the Copyright Office."
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The constitution does not say the federal government can create an indefinite copyright and no amount of sophistry or judicial trickery changes that, regardless of how many times Disney bribes politicians to extend copyright.
 
bigdogchris said:
There have been Star Trek fan films and series for years and they allow those. I'd like to know why this one is different.
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Because Richard Hatch is directly involved in making this a good production. They are, and rightly so, afraid of this man because he proved (after going broke TWICE using his own money) that he could revive BSG and make it even better than the original. He devoted his life and every waking moment after 1979 to doing just that. All the studios and execs thought he was nuts and would not support him. He made them ALL look like idiots and fools.

From what I have seen, this production has the potential to succeed where CBS/Paramount has been failing, and failing MISERABLY.
 
GoodBoy said:
I donated to Axanar. I hope this bullshit doesn't end it. If its non-profit, I don't think that Paramount has a right to stop it.

Dressing up as a klingon, is that somehow "copyprotected" too? Because it's not too far from getting together cosplaying, then recording it, to what Axanar is doing. It's new characters, cosplaying and making a movie out of it.

The lawsuit should be dismissed as frivolous and as hostile.
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non-profit status actually doesn't protect them at all it just gives cbs/paramount less of a business reason to stop it.

Also doesn't matter if they cosplaying and characters are new, if they use the words star trek, klingon etc all those are under such copyrights. Copyrights to visual media tend to be lose enough that even if they never used such words if it's similar enough that could be enough to warrant a copyright all they'd have to prove is that they used star trek as source material.

In general most studios don't go after small fan productions just because it's not worth it unless it's a popular fan product that can change the brand. For such products studios usually secure the rights for profitable distribution in order to make sure they have the IP still legally secured.
damicatz said:
The constitution does not say the federal government can create an indefinite copyright and no amount of sophistry or judicial trickery changes that, regardless of how many times Disney bribes politicians to extend copyright.
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You know what else the constitution doesn't outline? Murder.
 
damicatz said:
I don't believe in any kind of imaginary property. But even the constitution says that copyright is for :

A.Literary works (of which a film is not)
B.For a *limited* time.

Gene Roddenberry has been dead for 25 years. The only ones benefiting from this imaginary property are the large corporations and their IP shysters. Certainly, no one who as ever done anything creative related to Star Trek is benefiting from it.
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Article I said:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries
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Nothing about literary in there, and nothing about how many years to limit those exclusive rights. So 95 years is still a limited time. (BTW "Science" = knowledge and "useful Arts" = skills and techniques used to create things).
 
Semantics said:
non-profit status actually doesn't protect them at all it just gives cbs/paramount less of a business reason to stop it.

Also doesn't matter if they cosplaying and characters are new, if they use the words star trek, klingon etc all those are under such copyrights. Copyrights to visual media tend to be lose enough that even if they never used such words if it's similar enough that could be enough to warrant a copyright all they'd have to prove is that they used star trek as source material.

In general most studios don't go after small fan productions just because it's not worth it unless it's a popular fan product that can change the brand. For such products studios usually secure the rights for profitable distribution in order to make sure they have the IP still legally secured.

You know what else the constitution doesn't outline? Murder.
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No but it does allow the federal government to prosecute crimes in federal territories under the property clause.

Murders that occur outside of federal territory are purely the jurisdiction of the state (regardless of any Wickard v. Filburn sophistry).
 
ryan_975 said:
Nothing about literary in there, and nothing about how many years to limit those exclusive rights. So 95 years is still a limited time. (BTW "Science" = knowledge and "useful Arts" = skills and techniques used to create things).
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A video isn't a writing. 95 years is not a limited time when it gets extended retroactively ad infinitum every time Disney gives a senator a blowjob. Stop engaging in statist sophistry.
 
damicatz said:
A video isn't a writing. 95 years is not a limited time when it gets extended retroactively ad infinitum every time Disney gives a senator a blowjob. Stop engaging in statist sophistry.
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Video isn't necessarily writing (I could record my cat chasing birds), but science fiction movies do require writing (I can't just record the happenings of the USS Enterprise; the story and characters need to be written and performed).

95 years is a limited time no matter what you say. Your assumption about future legislative activities does not change the definition of limited time.
 
I want my Star Trek dark..disturbing...foreboding. I want that Alien "feel" to it. No more campy/jolly "here we go on a space adventure folly". No heroic music themes. If Star Trek is going to progress, it needs to change its persona. Make it serious. The Borg episodes came the closest.

Combine the Start Trek theme with a Quake/Doom theme but don't make it too silly gory. Feed in the fear. I want to leave an episode with that heavy dark foreboding feel.
 
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