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Star Trek: Axanar

Started by Proudhuff, 25 August, 2014, 06:31:27 PM

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Dandontdare

Quote from: Steve Green on 05 January, 2017, 11:41:26 AM
Loses fair use case and moves to jury trial

https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/05/star-trek-fan-film-loses-fair-use-case-moves-to-jury-trial/

that piece ends : "Here's hoping Peters' peers don't come down on him too hard for loving Star Trek too much."

Or ... here's hoping they come down on him like a ton of bricks before he ruins the fan-film industry for ebverybody

Steve Green

There's a resolution apparently - now 2x15 minute shorts + some other legal requirements, not sure what money is actually left to make it?

http://www.fangirlconfessions.com/2017/01/axanar-reaches-resolution-cbs-paramount-now-go/

JOE SOAP



Settled out of court mere days after CBS said they would make all the financials public - which of course would reveal there's no money left.

He'll have to curb crowdfunding his lifestyle down to $50,000 chunks.


Steve Green

Guessing all the pro actors are out as well, if it's abiding by Paramount's revised guidelines?

I'll be surprised if it's little more than what Prelude was.

Of course you've also got the backers who put money into it expecting a feature...

JOE SOAP


There's a donor who donated more than $15,000. Totally screwed.


Robin Low

A real shame for future fan films. I watched the Star Trek Phase Two episode Kitumba a while back, and despite some so-so acting it was, in many ways, as good as an original series episode.

Peters has clearly been the problem here, but at the same time fan films have been becoming so well executed that sooner or later some companies were bound to put their foot down. And despite whatever financial shenanigans Peters may have been up to, Prelude to Axenar and what it meant for Axenar itself appealed to many fans because it demonstrated a better understanding of the setting than the actual owners. Peters was the justification, and no doubt a legitimate one, but CBS was running scared.

Fifteen minutes seems calculated to make it harder to tell stories, which seems deliberately mean. That said, 2000AD has been telling good stories in six pages for decades. Maybe this time limit will create tighter scripts.


Regards,

Robin

The Legendary Shark

Quote from: Robin Low on 19 November, 2016, 04:01:06 PM

What annoys me, though, is not that the IP owners have asserted their rights. What annoys me is that they didn't do it during the whole year between the two crowdfunders, or at least at some point during the second one, rather than waiting until after fans had pledged another half million.



My cynical mind thinks the plan might have been to allow as many funders as possible to lose money so as to put them off any similar enterprises in the future.


Quote from: Robin Low on 21 January, 2017, 10:09:01 AM

Fifteen minutes seems calculated to make it harder to tell stories, which seems deliberately mean. That said, 2000AD has been telling good stories in six pages for decades. Maybe this time limit will create tighter scripts.


I like the idea that shorter stories might be better stories. Restrictions can lead to imaginative solutions, what with necessity being the mother of invention and all that.
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JOE SOAP

Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 21 January, 2017, 10:38:26 AMMy cynical mind thinks the plan might have been to allow as many funders as possible to lose money so as to put them off any similar enterprises in the future.


The exact same settlement offer was made to Axanar last March but it was Peters who pushed it this far down the line. It didn't matter anyway, he'd all ready pissed most of the money away and probably would've continued to do more crowdfunding to build his commercial studio had CBS/Paramount not stepped in.


The Legendary Shark

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Robin Low

Quote from: JOE SOAP on 21 January, 2017, 12:26:49 PM
Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 21 January, 2017, 10:38:26 AMMy cynical mind thinks the plan might have been to allow as many funders as possible to lose money so as to put them off any similar enterprises in the future.


The exact same settlement offer was made to Axanar last March ...

That's after the kickstarters, so Shark's point still stands. Cynical it may be, but it would go some way to explaining why CBS waited until two kickstarters were over, with a yearlong gap between them, before sending in the lawyers. I mean seriously, an entire year? And seven days after the second one, not during?

We can all agree that Peters is an arse and we can all agree the CBS/Paramount/whoever have the right to protect their IP. However, I still think there are questions worth asking regarding how slow they were to react and why they waited until after the money was taken when it was quite obvious how well the fundraising was going.

Regards,

Robin

Steve Green

The first kickstarter for prelude?

I guess at that stage, Peters wasn't trying to set up a studio, or sell unlicensed merchandise http://axamonitor.com/doku.php?id=merchandise

Maybe they thought it would implode before the second kickstarter was completed, or maybe they'd just had enough of him taking the piss.

Their IP, their call.

Professor Bear

There have been other Trek Kickstarters, with Star Trek Continues dubbing theirs "A Kirkstarter", but those productions - while technically just as illegal as Axanar - played nice and no-one profited from them - arguably the opposite is true, as the likes of Vic Mignogna (Kirk) and Todd Haberkorn (Spock) are prolific VO artists and convention regulars, and if anything, their fan movie work just takes them away from legions of fans in the anime and cosplaying communities to considerably smaller convention appearances on Trek panels.

I honestly don't think CBS give a shit about fan movies, and if they do it's in the same way Lucasfilm gives a shit: until someone starts selling merchandise, it's just free advertising and the only reason you should sue your fans for loving you too much is because they've broken into your house and wanked in your bed.

JOE SOAP

#57
Quote from: Robin Low on 21 January, 2017, 02:32:57 PM


That's after the kickstarters, so Shark's point still stands. Cynical it may be, but it would go some way to explaining why CBS waited until two kickstarters were over, with a yearlong gap between them, before sending in the lawyers. I mean seriously, an entire year? And seven days after the second one, not during?

We can all agree that Peters is an arse and we can all agree the CBS/Paramount/whoever have the right to protect their IP. However, I still think there are questions worth asking regarding how slow they were to react and why they waited until after the money was taken when it was quite obvious how well the fundraising was going.

Regards,

Robin


The settlement outcome doesn't really support that and CBS/Paramount have surprisingly been quite fair in that regard. If they really wanted to they could've crushed Peters and fan-films for good, they didn't, and they're still allowing Peters to make it according to the guidelines that apply to everyone. It was his actions that more or less forced their hand to create those guidelines. Peters doesn't even have to pay their legal bills and yet all he is left with are problems he created himself which is probably why Axanar will never happen - unless willing fans give him private donations without even the precarious protection of a crowdfunding service.


Robin Low

Quote from: Steve Green on 21 January, 2017, 02:45:58 PM
The first kickstarter for prelude?

I guess at that stage, Peters wasn't trying to set up a studio, or sell unlicensed merchandise http://axamonitor.com/doku.php?id=merchandise

Maybe they thought it would implode before the second kickstarter was completed, or maybe they'd just had enough of him taking the piss.

No, Prelude to Axanar had its own Kickstarter in 2014, and it openly stated that 'Prelude to Axanar will then allow us to launch into Axanar having proven our ability to deliver professional quality Star Trek.  There will be a subsequent Kickstarter for the feature-length "Axanar". The Axanar team is determined to make the first true independent Star Trek film.' And even this initial round of fundraising was offering t-shirts and uniform shoulder patches. The target was for $10,000 and made $100,100, and it delivered something outstanding.

It was after that  there was another Kickstarter for Axanar itself. They are quite open that this will not be the last fundraiser:

So we are breaking up our costs into discreet sections which should allow us to reach significant milestones, as we don't expect to raise the full amount all at once.  This first Kickstarter will be for the sound stage and set construction.  Anything over what we need for that will be applied to the feature production costs. Full details are below.'

Those full details include:

'We have two potential locations we are negotiating for to serve as our sound stage in Valencia, CA, just north of LA.  This will be the permanent home of Axanar Productions and allow us to do more than just Axanar, from other adventures in the Star Trek universe and beyond.'

There's no secret over Peters' intentions here.  The target is $100,000 and it makes $638,000. And there's the usual merchandise.

Whatever Peters' may have been doing privately with the money, he was quite open about his business intentions. CBS could quite legitimately have acted after this Kickstarter, but it didn't

Then a year or so later there was the second Axanar fundraiser on Indiegogo.


QuoteTheir IP, their call.

So, you wait until the completion of not one, not two, but three highly successful rounds of crowdfunding before acting? As I said in an earlier post, that's not how you protect IP.

Regards,

Robin

Robin Low

Quote from: JOE SOAP on 21 January, 2017, 03:33:43 PMIf they really wanted to they could've crushed Peters and fan-films for good, they didn't, and they're still allowing Peters to make it according to the guidelines that apply to everyone.

True, but at the same time they don't want to come out of this looking like the bad guys, either.

QuoteIt was his actions that more or less forced their hand to create those guidelines.

Again, I accept that. But I don't accept they couldn't have moved their hand a little faster.

Regards,

Robin