Activision Sues Star Trek Over Franchise Decay

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a press release announcing that Activision is suing Viacom for breach of contract over the Star Trek game license. The article summarizes Activion's complaints: "..through its actions and inactions, Viacom has let the once proud Star Trek franchise stagnate and decay", and furthermore that "..a continuing pipeline of movie and television production, and related marketing, is absolutely crucial to the success of video games based on a property such as Star Trek." Activision has terminated the contract agreement, and looks to recover damages and advances from Viacom - according to a Dow Jones story, "..the initial license agreement included $20 million in advance royalties and warrants, with additional payments to be based on game sales."

Comments

A very interesting development

[PhysicsGenius]

I think we can all agree that the very existence of the "merchandising pipeline" is what killed Star Trek in the first place, but that's not what I want to talk about. What I'd like to ask is, what if ActiVision had sued Star Trek even earlier, when real fans were saying it sucked while n00bs claimed it was great?[1] Can you sue an artist for producing terrible art when you have a contract with them? And could loyal TV viewers be said to have a social contract with TV content producers? If so, I have a great idea...

[1]I'm thinking here of the Wil Whitman character, though Lt Colonel Riker bears a lot of the blame as well.