CBS/Paramount Sets Phasers To Kill On Star Trek Fan-Fiction With New Guidelines (audioholics.com)

Audiofan writes from a forum post on Audioholics: The Star Trek fan-fiction controversy that resulted in legal battles between CBS/Paramount and Axanar Productions concluded last week. However, CBS/Paramount have finally put forth its long-awaited guidelines intended to clarify acceptable fan-fiction so that it won't get the creative Star Trek fan sued for copyright infringement. But in doing so, it may have launched Star Trek fan-fiction's torpedo casket into space with a solemn salute. To be or not to be is the question which we ask about the future of Star Trek fan film. Some of the new guidelines for avoiding objections when making your own Star Trek movies and posting them to YouTube include: The fan production must be less than 15 minutes for a single self-contained story, or no more than 2 segments, episodes or parts, not to exceed 30 minutes total, with no additional seasons, episodes, parts, sequels or remakes. Part of the non-commercial requirements include: CBS and Paramount Pictures do not object to limited fundraising for the creation of a fan production, whether 1 or 2 segments and consistent with these guidelines, so long as the total amount does not exceed $50,000, including all platform fees, and when the $50,000 goal is reached, all fundraising must cease. The fan production cannot be distributed in a physical format such as DVD or Blu-ray. If the fan production uses commercially-available Star Trek uniforms, accessories, toys and props, these items must be official merchandise and not bootleg items or imitations of such commercially available products.

Comments

Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

See: All Sonic fanfiction, ever.

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

Sex scenes with Sonic and humans must be limited to two minutes, as Sonic must "go fast".

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

Who wants to fuck a fast food restaurant?

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

I'ma get me some o' that Wendy's redhead with a side of fries, yo!

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[davester666]

there's always someone into molesting children...

Re:Sega seen taking notes

[stealth_finger]

See: All Sonic fanfiction, ever.

I'd be surprised sonic has fans, let alone fanfiction.

Re:Sega seen taking notes

[The-Ixian]

you must be new to the interwebs...

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

Sonic is catnip for autists. If Sega comes down hard then the fandom will almost certainly shift their attentions to the true and honest Sonichu.

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Captain Splendid]

More like MILF. She's in her fifties now.

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

When the stores first opened in the late 70s, they were advertised as Wendy's Hot n Juicy.

http://www.weknowawesome.com/w...

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Coren22]

https://www.google.com/search?...

If you say so...last I checked she was hardly a child, and was very attractive, but I guess it is all a matter of perspective.

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

"Where's the beef?" Right here, bitch!

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh? Which one are you thinking of? This one is definitely not 50!

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Shirley Marquez]

I think Captain Splendid was thinking of the REAL Wendy - Melinda Lou "Wendy" Morse née Thomas, fourth child of Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's and the person the company was named for. She has been a spokesperson for Wendy's in ads since 2010. She also owns multiple Wendy's restaurants.

Re: Sega seen taking notes

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, THAT "Wendy's redhead."

No. Nope. Not even a little.

If we're allowed outside fast food commercials, though, I would like a "free trial" of AT&T's Milana Vayntrub. Yummy!

Zap!

[Anonymous Coward]

Set phasers on fun

Scifi fans are generally a little more creative..

[Anonymous Coward]

Just rewrite the dictionary and make whatever you like; If the story is good and all things being equal it will still be enjoyable.

Instead of Federation use Union, Collective, .. If Phaser is copyrighted use laser, pulse pistol.
Instead of Klingon use African American, and so on..

IMO we need new wider variety of scifi anyway.

And the guidelines are

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

And the guidelines are "1) don't do anything that takes away our precious money or actually competes with us, and 2) oh yeah, we're forcing you to buy all of our expensive prop junk, too."

 

Re:And the guidelines are

[MightyMartian]

It's more like "Don't do anything that shows up the absolute crap we've been producing on TV and film for the last 15 years."

Re:And the guidelines are

[tnk1]

The prop junk doesn't bother me as much as the rest. It may be a bit of a money grab, but it could be argued that they don't want your production costumes to look like shit.

Of course, if you have a costume designer that makes *better* stuff than their commercial stuff, which is certainly possible given what I have seen out there, then that's annoying.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Anonymous Coward]

2) oh yeah, we're forcing you to buy all of our expensive prop junk, too."

It says you can't buy bootleg stuff. Doesn't say anything about making your own. And I've seen fan-made stuff that looks better than the actual props used in the show. Ever see the real props they used? "Good enough for TV" doesn't have to be very good at all.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Anonymous Coward]

It only says that commercially available merchandise must be genuine. If you make it yourself and don't sell it, it's not commercially available, and therefore not a violation.

Re:And the guidelines are

[wbr1]

I made a chrome starfleet emblem. I don't sell it. There are commercial ones very similar... I think they would say it is a copy and the 'licensed' one should have been purchased.

Re:And the guidelines are

[R3d M3rcury]

No, that's not it.

The idea is that if you do buy a uniform, it must be officially-licensed. If you make your own, you're good.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Anonymous Coward]

And the guidelines are "1) don't do anything that takes away our precious money or actually competes with us,

It does neither. That's the infuriating thing. It adds value and interest to the original product (admittedly, not to "official" sequels which may suck and still be successful as long as they are all you can get). Just not under control and planning of the corporations.

These companies don't want to contribute to or start culture. Ever. They want to start franchises.

Re:And the guidelines are

[AmiMoJo]

This. Star Trek Continues is actually better than the original series. Go watch it on YouTube, it's superior in pretty much every way. The latest episode has a rubber suit monster and it's actually /good/.

If the fan series had money to Paramount they probably could. After years of saying it was fine and encouraging them to invest so much time, money and effort into fan series they can't just pull the rug now.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Half-pint HAL]

After years of saying it was fine and encouraging them to invest so much time, money and effort into fan series they can't just pull the rug now.

Yes they can. A contract's only good until it expires, and they worked under the terms they were given. They made their choice.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Half-pint HAL]

Nope. "Commercially available", not "commercially obtained". That means no copying official designs that are available to be bought.

Re:And the guidelines are

[wonkey_monkey]

Not the way I read it. If you use something which is comercially available, it must be official merchandise.

If what you're using isn't commercially available - e.g., you made it yourself - then it's fine.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Half-pint HAL]

Here's a hint when dealing with legalese: if it's your arse on the line, and they can afford better lawyers than you, stick with the most restrictive (reasonable) interpretation.

Re:And the guidelines are

[operagost]

The guidelines just say not to use bootleg merch as props or costumes. It doesn't say you can't make your own. Making your own isn't bootlegging if you don't sell it.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Sir_Eptishous]

This. Star Trek Continues is actually better than the original series.

Wrong
Nothing is better that TOS.

Re:And the guidelines are

[lgw]

Half the TOS episodes were really bad. Much like SF short stories of the day (and mostly written by the same crowd), it was very hit-or-miss. The good episodes hold up remarkably well after 50 years (wait, 50? fuck I'm old), since they were never technology-focused. But the average show quality isn't good, because again half of em were garbage.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Grishnakh]

And I've seen fan-made stuff that looks better than the actual props used in the show. Ever see the real props they used? "Good enough for TV" doesn't have to be very good at all.

While TOS was actually filmed in real film, it was then broadcast with the very poor-quality and low-resolution NTSC TV of the day, so they had a lot of leeway: people weren't going to be able to tell the difference on the crappy little TV screens they had back then. Now that they're dug up the original film footage and digitized it, you can see the flaws much better, and this of course necessitated redoing the effects, which were all done for NTSC and came nowhere close to the 35mm film the live action scenes were shot on.

Another fun fact: notice how in TOS the ship has all kinds of psychedelic colors, even just for the paint schemes in the rooms? That wasn't just because it was the 60s; they did that because color TV was new, and they were trying to encourage people to buy color TV sets.

Re:And the guidelines are

[david_thornley]

Same with "good enough for the movies". I had a friend who worked in the Lucas empire, and he took us to lunch on Skywalker Ranch once. I've seen Luke's lightsaber and the Scarab of Ra. Compared to anything someone would try to merchandise, they were sloppily made.

Re:And the guidelines are

[Anonymous Coward]

This is just sad. And it shows how utterly incompetent Paramount is as a business. A smart business looks at the success and passion of the fan production and puts them all on the payroll for a couple of 13 episode seasons. Put it up for bid between Netflix, Prime, Hulu and the networks. Make truckloads of cash for minimum effort. Rinse and repeat.

Re:And the guidelines are

[SvnLyrBrto]

In fairness, half the episodes of ANY well-regarded TV series from the 1960s are crap. And half of the episodes that are left will usually just be well-done repetitions of a reliable formula. And those are the shows that are still remembered for being good. There are dozens more that were so bloody awful that they have long since faded into well-deserved obscurity.

Even such exalted genius such as The Twilight Zone were as much miss as they were hit. We just remember the good ones because they're SO good.

Re:And the guidelines are

[MightyMartian]

Half the episodes of most well regarded TV shows anywhere are bad. The Brits can produce somewhat better results, because they don't have to produce 20-22 scripts per season. About the only show that I can think of that really had a majority of good to great episodes is Breaking Bad, where I only remember one actually crappy episode.

TOS's quality control up to the third season was rather good for TV. Yes, there were some stinkers. There are episodes I just cannot ever imagine myself watching. But there are other episodes, like Doomsday machine, City on the Edge of Tomorrow, and the Changeling which are not just great TV, but fantastic SF, and really do held up incredibly well.

And, so far as I'm concerned, Star Trek Continues is the true heir of TOS. Excellent scripts, better acting than you'll find in the reboots. They just work so damned well, and it's unfortunate it looks like that kind of project is dead in the water now.

Re:Goofy Dorks.

[LunaticTippy]

Life is an illusion. Everything earthlings do is pointless. Your pathetic claim that hobos or garbage are more important than fan fiction says more about you than so-called reality.

Re:Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Should the Clean up begin under Bridges?

How about Shakespeare, A waste of time?
All Movies and TV?
All Video Games?
Books?
Trolling on Slashdot?

Them, them, fuck them

[kheldan]

I wasn't too thrilled with any of their 'star trek-flavored' movies anyway, and now they've guaranteed that I will never go see one for any reason or recommend them to anyone else for any reason, either. What a bunch of assholes.

Re:Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed, they butchered the series with that shitty JJ Abrams movie. and now they're attacking fan fiction that's actually good and actually worth watching for actual star trek fans. FUCK EM

just another franchise bastardized to make crap tacular summer action blockbusters.

and a big fuck you to the people of america for flocking to those in droves and making this happen.

Re:Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

Good luck with that crusade. Those movies are absurdly popular and profitable.

Re: Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

So what. The new Trek movies are more popular than anything the franchise has ever produced. :) The new series will also be made to appeal to everybody while throwing away all the geeky stuff nobody cares about, except losers like you. :) Go sulk in a corner, butthurt nerd. :)

Re: Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

Butthurt much, weirdo nerdo? Face it, things are cool when cool people like it. They stopped pandering to aging social misfits and wisely aimed the reboots at the relevant audience. And since they're making more money than ever, you'll be left outside in the cold where you belong. :) Another win for the Cool Kids, losers.

Re:Them, them, fuck them

[The-Ixian]

I tend to agree. I am not a huge fan of the new 'lens flare' Abrams movies either.

They are ok... but I would never watch any of them in the theater (redbox ftw!)

Re: Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

You call that a "win"?

All right, enjoy your shallow mass-market pap. You get what you deserve.

Re:Them, them, fuck them

[JackieBrown]

and a big fuck you to the people of america for flocking to those in droves and making this happen.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Star-Trek#tab=summary
Not sure why you threw that in there. Even if not a single person of America saw it, the last two still made almost triple their budget.

Re: Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

Lol. I laugh at your fatsos in pajamas with their cheapo props and laughable SFX hamming up after a preachy storyline. :)

Re:Them, them, fuck them

[Grishnakh]

I saw the first JJTrek in the theater. I wasn't impressed. I wouldn't waste my $1.xx on renting any of them at Redbox, nor would I waste my time. I have better things to do with my time than that, such as re-watching old TOS or TNG episodes, or even watching campy old 70s sci-fi movies.

Re: Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

'Popular' is never an acceptable substitute for 'good'.
Drive-thru fast-food is 'popular', for instance -- but it is far from 'good', in fact it's rather 'bad'.

Likewise, liking something just because it's 'popular' doesn't make you 'cool', it makes you a lemming, and 'liking popular things' does not equate to 'having good taste', in fact it's more often than not indicative of the exact opposite of 'good taste'.
Since I'm likely talking WAY over your head at this point, I'll spell it out for you in nice, simple words that your 12-year-old mind can easily understand: You wouldn't know the difference between the shitty things you like, and things that are actually quality, even if someone grabbed your head, and rubbed your face in something that's actually good, simultaneously with repeating in a loud voice "THIS IS SOMETHING GOOD", like you'd do training a dog.
But that's OK. Call it 'evolotion in action': You won't ever get laid, being so low-brow and unintelligent as you are, therefore you will never have the opportunity to pass on your obviously low-grade genes to another generation. I suppose there's always the possibility of rape, though; that's about the only way you're getting any pussy, ever.

Re: Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

Seeing as how his post has been modded up and yours is not, I'd have to say that the 'cool kids', whoever they are, have spoken: He's right, you're nobody and nothing, he wins, you lose. Now bugger off and go masturbate to your waifu, or whatever it is you escapees from 4chan do, when you're not being rude and annoying when the adults are having a conversation.

Re:Them, them, fuck them

[kheldan]

Good luck with that crusade. Those movies are absurdly popular and profitable.

Popular and profitable do not equate to being any good. They're 'Star Trek-flavored' movies at best, and it's an entirely artificial flavoring that has only a superficial resemblance to that which it is being substituted for. Axanar would have used 100% Natural Ingredients, comparatively speaking. It's like we're in a Bizzarro Universe, where everything is upside down and inside out: CBS/Paramount is making the shitty 'fanfic' movies, and the real movies are being doused with gasoline and set on fire before they're ever made.

They won't make a penny off me. I won't even see any of it for free.

Re:Them, them, fuck them

[david_thornley]

The casting ranges from decent to just plain bad. Part of Scotty's character was his physical presence, which the guy playing Scotty in the new movies completely lacks. Benedict Cumberbatch, for all of his excellent qualities as an actor, doesn't look like a eugenic superman and isn't very convincing in that role. Walter Koenig managed to make the original Chekhov work, and now we can appreciate that it wasn't easy.

Re: Them, them, fuck them

[Anonymous Coward]

Lolololololol butthurt nerd. Your trek is dead. Over with. Buried. Not cool. The new Trek is popular and cool so it will keep being produced while you butthurt nerds are left out in the cold. :)

A great way to piss off your audience

[cmeans]

The restrictions are just way too limiting. It's a big universe, and CBS/Paramount should "make" space for proper fan fiction, not beam-it-out in wide-dispersal mode.
I for one, will think twice before spending any money on any new Star Trek ventures going forward. Very, very disappointed.

Re:A great way to piss off your audience

[Z00L00K]

If anything it might be time for the people that want to do their own movies to look into starting on some fresh perspective - or scan through the Science Fiction literature for stories that can be used for movies. There's a huge pile to dig into, like E.E. Smiths Lensman series, Jack Vances Demon Princes, Heinlein, Asimov and so on...

Don't let the opinion that controls one franchise limit you - be creative with something completely different. I wouldn't mind a Sci Fi movie where you have a man with a kilt showing up. (Some of you may get the reference)

Re:A great way to piss off your audience

[tlhIngan]

The restrictions are just way too limiting. It's a big universe, and CBS/Paramount should "make" space for proper fan fiction, not beam-it-out in wide-dispersal mode.
I for one, will think twice before spending any money on any new Star Trek ventures going forward. Very, very disappointed.

They are not restrictions They are guidelines.

Also, the only reason to follow them is to eliminate any risk of getting sued. That's it. If you follow the narrow path it lays out, your production will not raise the ire of CBS.

Nothing says you must, but you run the risk of what the Araxar guys are facing. Of course, if you're at this point, it might be wise to not just talk to a lawyer, but talk to CBS for a licensing opportunity.

Because once your "amateur" production starts becoming professional, it might be time to actually license the work. And once licensed, you're free to do whatever the license lets you.

Of course, it costs money - about $50K to enter in licensing talks. But if you want to put in a big flashy production with top names in production companies and such, you might just have the money to actually negotiate a license.

For the rest of us, these guidelines ensure that your kids acting out Star Trek and posting it on YouTube is a safe thing to do.

Re:A great way to piss off your audience

[Anonymous Coward]

Axanar originally had the blessing of CBS/Paramount.

Re:A great way to piss off your audience

[oldmac31310]

Yes. These things are possible. Dark Matter S01 was surprisingly good.

Re:A great way to piss off your audience

[Nethemas the Great]

Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth saga has a rather large, creative, diverse universe that could be seed for an incredible amount of fan films.

Well That settles it...

[bobbied]

If yucking it up over some 1960's barely acceptable at the time TV series and the host of less than endearing follow on properties including 5 TV series and even more full length movies is going to be controlled by these rules, sell me some tribbles...

Gee, it's sooo nice that you will now let me make a video using your concept I think I'm going to willingly follow your rules... NOT...

Best Paramount can hope for is to keep tossing out the DCMA letters and suing folks who violate their copyrights, nobody is going to follow these rules unless they want too. Can you imagine? Sir, prove that Tri-Corder in your parody "Enterprise's last emission" that Kirk is using it to ogle that female yeoman in his quarters is really licensed merchandise..... Do you have a receipt to prove where you got it?

Re:Well That settles it...

[tnk1]

Some of the stuff that has been made is pretty professional, though. We're not talking about some cheap short video. These aren't full-on productions, but they spend decent amounts of money. A suit against their production would shut them down. It definitely feels like they only want short items that can't actually tell a complete story or compete with them in any meaningful way.

It's pretty shitty and all about money and control, but what did you expect from Paramount?

Re:Well That settles it...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think Paramount got nervous when some of the fan productions started becoming really popular and generating more major fundraising on kickstarter, etc.

And yeah, a major lawsuit would kill it. We're not talking about six guys in their basement making a youtube video; take a look at some of the Star Trek Continues episodes, and watch some of the production videos on what they've added to their permanent sets, etc. since their last batch of fundraising. They are operating on a shoestring, but it's a robust shoestring... they have production assets to go after, some people involved whose history may have given them some modestly deep pockets (Scotty's son from the original cast; Grant Imahara from Mythbusters, etc. etc.)

Re:Well That settles it...

[Obfuscant]

nobody is going to follow these rules unless they want too.

Nobody follows any rules unless they want to. It's the punishments that, in some cases, are the only reason some people want to. And some people don't want to follow the rules just because there are rules.

Do you have a receipt to prove where you got it?

I have no doubt that the "use officially licensed props" clause was put into the restrictions by the lawyers, as a nod to the officially licensed sources of props -- who pay money for the privilege of being able to sell officially licensed props. I think it is reasonably fair if someone is going to produce Star Trek fiction based on "official" permission, that they be expected to respect the other "official" limitations. And I don't think "show me your receipt" is going to be the way CBS attacks a bit of fanfic. I doubt that someone who ignores one part of the restrictions is going to bother with the others, and "show me your receipt" is going to be the least of the problems.

Re:Well That settles it...

[Z00L00K]

Instead of seeing it as competition - see it as supplementary stories. If some fan stuff is good enough, then endorse it instead.

Re:Well That settles it...

[Half-pint HAL]

Instead of seeing it as competition - see it as supplementary stories. If some fan stuff is good enough, then endorse it instead.

Why? What does Paramount get out of it?

Re:Well That settles it...

[Nethemas the Great]

It definitely feels like they only want short items that can't actually tell a complete story or compete with them in any meaningful way

I'm confused, they both want fan films to compete and yet not compete?

Re:Well That settles it...

[Nethemas the Great]

Popularity.

Re:Well That settles it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead of seeing it as competition - see it as supplementary stories. If some fan stuff is good enough, then endorse it instead.

Why? What does Paramount get out of it?

More Star Trek fans.

Humans are strict believers in "justice" and will cut off their own nose to spite those who they see as unjust. Just read the comments from some ex-fans on this thread (moi inclus).

Re:Well That settles it...

[Half-pint HAL]

Popularity.

One of the largest entertainment media companies in the world. I don't really think they need much by way of additional exposure.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Truly. For one thing, there's a remarkable absence of sexist, racist trolls like you.

Poisoning the well with 1980's IPR policy

[Bruce Perens]

Unfortunately, film and recording studios are still extremely naive about what intellectual property policy should be to maximize income. Obviously, the Star Trek fans are what has kept this franchise going for 40 years. You can count on them as an audience, which means a film is going to be a much safer investment than it would be otherwise.

To keep the fan base alive, holding intellectual property this close is simply the wrong policy. Coming to some sort of resolution with fan fiction producers would both preserve the fan base and increase profit (you can license them and allow them to make some money, as well as you).

To think, in the U.S. we just gained the right to sing "Happy Birthday" without intellectual property restrictions. That's how the non-sharing side of the ecology is going. On the sharing side, we have a very healthy Open Source community that has produced software everyone uses (even if they don't know) and that could not be built via the conventional economic paradigm because it can't necessarily be monetized directly. And we have things like Wikipedia that would just be impossible in the conventional paradigm.

Studios need to catch up. So far, they seem to be incredibly resistant to learning.

Re:Poisoning the well with 1980's IPR policy

[nebular]

Really they need to come up with a very reasonable non-commercial licencing fee and let the content creators have fun with it.
Add some clauses that allows them to veto if the content is pornographic or too violent or what not, but otherwise let them go.

They'll be making easy money after that.

Re:Poisoning the well with 1980's IPR policy

[Anonymous Coward]

I rage against the studios as much as the next guy, but in fairness, if they do not protect their IP, then under the current laws, that "non protecting" opens up the possibility for others (as in other studios) to use your IP.

Re:Poisoning the well with 1980's IPR policy

[Bruce Perens]

if they do not protect their IP, then under the current laws, that "non protecting" opens up the possibility for others (as in other studios) to use your IP.

This is treated as common knowledge by most people who are not copyright and trademark experts, but isn't really true. It's related to two concepts in law: the concept of trademarks becoming generic, and the doctrine of Laches, which are both a lot more complicated than "if you don't enforce, you lose it". In truth, the studios could allow fan fiction all they want without losing the right to enforce copyrights and trademarks. They would indeed be safer if they licensed the fan fiction outlets.

Re:Poisoning the well with 1980's IPR policy

[Anonymous Coward]

Only in very specific trademark conditions. Everything else has a perfectly viable grey area that fanworks fit into just fine.

Re:Poisoning the well with 1980's IPR policy

[coofercat]

+1

No amount of home-made youtube (even expensively made) is going to stop a fan wanting to see actual, official films (so long as said films are half way decent). One could argue that parodies and even fan fiction actually increase the pool of potential film watchers, but, if that's too tenuous for the suits, then just make good films and the fans will go see them.

Keep making crap films with thin plot, too much CGI and that look very similar to the other films in the series or genre, and well, maybe they won't sell quite so well. Again, no amount of fan-fiction (or lack thereof) is going to change that. It's not like we all have a quota of hours of Trek we must see each year and just "fill up" on youtube and so decide not to bother with the official stuff.

Re:Poisoning the well with 1980's IPR policy

[Anonymous Coward]

True, but the non-policing of the mark (including unlicensed use) is enough of an issue itself, right? It's hard to imagine how fan fiction impairs the copyright going forward, but there's no doubt that once STAR TREK no longer serves as an indication of CBS/Paramount source, affiliation, etc, that's a lot of enterprise value lost. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say a corporate buyer would knock 9 figures off the purchase price of a company that no longer controlled that mark.

Re:Poisoning the well with 1980's IPR policy

[david_thornley]

There's no real effect on the copyright. They have to defend the trademarks, in some form, but they could permit the fan fiction.

Really, if we had reasonable copyright laws, TOS would be out of copyright and people could make as much fan movies as they liked from it.

I knew it

[Yvan256]

CBS/Paramount are run by Ferengis.

Re:I knew it

[spiritplumber]

No, Hasbro is run by Ferengis. CBSP is run by idiots. Look at the amount of money and brand loyalty Hasbro got out of My Little Pony.

Re:I knew it

[Stormy Dragon]

No, a Ferengi would have rememberd Rule of Acquisition #57: Good customers are almost as rare as Latinum - treasure them

Re: I knew it

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. They make their women wear CLOTHES!

CBS corporate would be SO much more pleasant if they were Ferangi. But alas, they are of the most vile intergalactic ruthless scum there is - yes, MBAs!

Re:I knew it

[wbr1]

They would also know #62: "The riskier the road, the greater the profit." Losing control is risky. But beneficial.

Re:I knew it

[bill_mcgonigle]

Ferengi may be shrewd, but they're interested in maximizing profit . CBS are a bunch of Klingons, trying to claim credit for Shakespeare and ultimately poisoning themselves through stupidity.

Gas, Captain. They're full of it.

Re:I knew it

[Z00L00K]

That's an insult to Klingons.

Re:I knew it

[irving47]

111 - "Treat people in your debt like family... exploit them."

Wow. 239 one seems relevant to our current lineup of movies... ""Never be afraid to mislabel a product."

Re:I knew it

[Anonymous Coward]

No, CBS is run by Pakleds.

Re:I knew it

[The-Ixian]

They look for things... things to make them go...

Re:I knew it

[Baron_Yam]

In fact, they'd have started licensing fan fiction, charged for mandatory script approval, and rented props. Which, so long as the fees were reasonable and tied to a 'non profit' condition for the fan production, would have been an excellent solution to the issue.

Re:I knew it

[Agripa]

You just insulted all Ferengis. Ferengis would produce a better product and not be blind to the good will of their customers.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't spell freedom without REEEEEEEE

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't use Collective, it's probably copyrighted by The Borg.

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creativ

[Anonymous Coward]

While they are both violent, Klingons have a deep sense of honor and integrity. In fact, Klingon violence is typically ritualized and regulated. There are rules of engagement and a great degree of shame for violating them.

So no, it's not fair to compare them to niggers. Niggers shoot other niggers over stupid shit, far worse than racist whites ever did. Dumb niggers. Unlike Klingons, nigger men rarely ever parent their own kids as well. So no, "African Americans" is not a good substitute for "Klingon".

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know "fat chicks" were in a sex of their own.

Actually kind of makes sense now that I think about it.

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creativ

[Anonymous Coward]

Guys, guys! We got an edgelord here!

Did The_Donald overflow into Slashdot today? I've seen a lot of these kinds of comments today.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

PuhLEASE. You weren't pissing and moaning about fat guys, you sexist moron.

Re:Goofy Dorks.

[Stormy Dragon]

I'm curious: how many homeless have been housed by your Slashdot comments, since that's apparently the only metric for determining how worthwhile an activity is?

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead of Klingon use African American, and so on..

Jesus Christ, I almost spit out my pop when I read that.

what a relief!

[ooloorie]

Fifteen minutes maximum you say? I suppose that means Kirk/Spock is now limited to quickies, rather than involving lots of character development.

RIP Star Trek Continues

[bugnuts]

The fundraising issue really bothers me. I know that Star Trek Continues had done some fundraising and was producing 45m episodes that were excellent. The production value was amazing, and they recreated parts of the set that were very convincing.

This may shut that down, without special dispensation from cbs/p.

Re:RIP Star Trek Continues

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know about this before. It honestly looks impressive!

And their nonprofit explanation is awesome

http://www.startrekcontinues.com/nonprofit.html

Re:RIP Star Trek Continues

[Anonymous Coward]

Star Trek Continues recreates an authentic experience for Star Trek: The Original Series fans. I found they even maintain the same campiness as the original series. CBS and Paramount Studios will kill off the fan base if they persist in threatening fan-created episodes similar to Star Trek Continues.

Star Wreck ... In the Pirkining

[BarbaraHudson]

Fortunately, we'll always have Star Wreck - In the Pirkining. Watch it or full downloads in various formats from archive.org. It's funny, lots of poking fun at star trek, and CBS can't do squat about it since it's a parody, doesn't use their characters or their universe.

Re:Star Wreck ... In the Pirkining

[Z00L00K]

This is going to be great! Trailer for Star Wreck: Imperial Edition

Re:Star Wreck ... In the Pirkining

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately, we'll always have Star Wreck - In the Pirkining. Watch it or full downloads in various formats from archive.org. It's funny, lots of poking fun at star trek, and CBS can't do squat about it since it's a parody, doesn't use their characters or their universe.

+1 and if that weren't enough it answers which of the two franchises is the best. B5 for victory. :)

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

[davmoo]

I said it last time this topic came up, and I'll say it again now. Its no surprise to me that their rules are so draconian that they would eliminate pretty much all Star Trek fan fiction created thus far, and would make anyone think twice before bothering to create anything new. The reboot is so horrible they can't survive any real competition. Even with just a short at this point, its obvious that Axanar is going to totally blow away Star trek: Fast & Furious In Space.

Re:Wash, Rinse, Repeat

[VTMarik]

It's the same PR policy they adopted in the early days of the internet, torpedoing fan sites and web rings because they wanted to control the very IDEA of Star Trek fandom. You'd think they would have learned after they lost the lawsuit over those sites back in the day that they really need to stop antagonizing their fanbase. God knows they need the fans more than ever now with the latest bit of drek they're releasing.

Re:Wash, Rinse, Repeat

[LWATCDR]

I have to say that I do hate the reboots. Dear CBS Paramount you killed Star Trek but the fans kept it alive and ended up making it a cash cow for you. You blew it with ST:ENG. The reboots are terrible. You made the crew of the USS Enterprise into a bunch wack jobs and the new ship looks like crap.
You better hope that the Fans save your cash cow for you again or just sell Star Trek to Disney they actually seem to know how to keep a franchise working.

Re:Wash, Rinse, Repeat

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to say that I do hate the reboots.

You still watched them. Mission accomplished.

Re:Wash, Rinse, Repeat

[LWATCDR]

You don't know that you will hate them until you watched them. But I did not buy or rent the DVDs.

Re:Wash, Rinse, Repeat

[GrumpySteen]

The reboot is so horrible they can't survive any real competition.

The thing is... it's not competition.

It's not like people have to choose to see one or the other. Most Trek fans would happily watch both and more.

Re:Wash, Rinse, Repeat

[The-Ixian]

Yeah, it seems like the smart thing to do would be to just take a cut of any revenue earned or just hire the best of these fan-fiction creators and bring them in to the fold. They could be the YouTube presence... the outreach to a younger audience...

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creativ

[sexconker]

You replied to your own comment. That's bad form. You have to let the troll post live or die on its own.

Why all the fuss now?

[Anonymous Coward]

There hasn't been any new trek since 2002. Suddenly they care about fan fiction 14 years later?

Re:Why all the fuss now?

[Z00L00K]

Because they are afraid, very afraid that the fan films will be better than their own productions.

Re:Why all the fuss now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Know what I would do if I owned a franchise and someone made a damn good fanwork that exceeded the source material?

I would write him a letter, not an email, a letter, offering him a role as an official writer.

Re: Why all the fuss now?

[Anonymous Coward]

And set up a precedent so that thousands of untalented creeps can flood the web with crap hoping to be The One? No thank you. Professional writers are plentiful, it's worth to lose some questionable "talent" (and they're mostly one-trick ponies anyway) in order to keep control of your property. It's plain to see you are not, have never been and will never be a professional at anything. Leave adult stuff to grown-ups, kid.

Re:Why all the fuss now?

[Anonymous Coward]

JJ Abrams version sucks so it isn't hard for fans to do better

what a joke

[epine]

The fan production must be less than 15 minutes for a single self-contained story, or no more than 2 segments, episodes or parts, not to exceed 30 minutes total, with no additional seasons, episodes, parts, sequels or remakes.

Good grief. This is a geek genre, for people with honest-to-god attention spans. Fifteen minutes is not a bad length of time to reach the opening credits.

Paramount Pictures can FOAD.

Re:what a joke

[Z00L00K]

Fifteen minutes in warp drive will be several hours in real time.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fat shaming = sexist?

EZ

[sexconker]

Fund primarily via Bitcoin.
Make it as long as you want, then double, triple, quadruple, etc. the playback rate get it under 15 minutes. I'm sure every hypernerd that watches this shit can play it back at the intended speed. (And no, you won't lose frames if you merely alter the rate.)

Boycott

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a joke, they are not cooperating in the slightest, and should be taken down.

Worst. Guidelines. Ever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just. Boycott. The. Next. Movie.

Re:Worst. Guidelines. Ever.

[transami]

I am.

Injustice Served

[transami]

Lets back up here a bit CBS/Paramount. You didn't invent Star Trek. You didn't even fund it's creation. You know who did: Lucille Ball (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Ball). Yep. That woman. She sunk her company's last penny into it and sold off all her rights to her own TV show to blood suckers like you to do it, until she could not hold any longer and had to sell out completely. If she could have held out another year she would have made it, but not one of you misogynist pigs in the industry would support a woman. So you buy the rights to Star Trek out from under her for a song, and then what do you decide to do? Cancel the show! CANCEL THE SHOW! Only a massive writing campaign by fans restrain you from canceling it, to your recorded dismay, so in retribution you stuff the last season into the Friday night death slot. It wasn't for the massive rerun support of fans you would have shelved the who thing long long ago, in a closet far far forgotten.

Paramount, you have no shame and I'm not sure you deserve any of the proceeds you've made off this franchise. I wish Lucille Ball could sue you, but alas, she has a statue of limitation. Meanwhile you get to keep exploiting her and Gene's legacy endlessly.

Re:Injustice Served

[transami]

Sigh... typos and Slashdot do not mix. Sorry.

Re:Injustice Served

[MrKaos]

WOW!! - I did not know this, thank you so much for pointing this out!

Re:Injustice Served

[tipo159]

A lot of this story is correct, but a lot of it isn't.

In case you couldn't figure it out, Desilu was Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball's production company, which they ran together. Arnaz handled the business side and Ball handled the creative side. After Ball divorced Arnaz and then remarried, Arnaz couldn't handle working with her anymore. Ball bought him out, but didn't really want to run a company. However, the studio wasn't doing so well at the time and she didn't want the staff to loose their jobs. So, she used 'I Love Lucy' spin-off pilot advance money to pay for shows like 'Star Trek' and 'Mission: Impossible'. Once the studio was doing well enough to be sold for a reasonable price and the staff would keep their jobs, she sold Desilu.

NBC originally aired 'Star Trek', not CBS. NBC were not inclined to cancel 'Star Trek', because it did well in particular demographics popular with advertisers. Roddenberry started the cancelation rumor and seeded the letter writing campaign. NBC had nothing to do with Gulf + Western's purchase of Desilu; Gulf Western owned Paramount Studios and renamed Desilu as Paramount Television.

Years later, Viacom bought Paramount. Years after that, Viacom bought CBS. A few years after that, Viacom split into a TV company (now called CBS) and a movie company (now called Paramount). The TV company owns 'Star Trek' and JJ Trek is the movie company licensing Trek from the TV company. And CBS is the current instantiation of the company formerly known as Desilu.

Re:Injustice Served

[Z00L00K]

Typos on the net is a grate way to get comments.

Fine Then

[Anonymous Coward]

Release a 15 minute video at 120 FPS with super high pitched audio. Play that back at a slower speed...

But CBS, like most (all?) media companies are idiotic control freaks. They could be making tons of money and free marketing by holding fan video competitions. Pay $ to enter your video. Pay $$ for the conference. Pay $ for the official 'fan-based' t-shirts and other swag. Etc...

And we're idiots too for sticking with a company that clearly doesn't want us.

Dump Star Trek and fuck CBS/Paramount

[Anonymous Coward]

I say dump the StarTrek universe and fuck CBS/Paramount. Why don't people just cook up their own fan created 'open source' universe anybody can contribute to and make a SciFi film based in it. All the pieces are already on the board. Axanar Productions has already demonstrated their ability finance such a project via Kickstarter and produce a decent product. That trailer from Axanar Productions looks good enough to me that I'd pay to watch that movie on a streaming service, the acting is decent and so are the special effects. I watch more YouTube videos and other streaming services than corporate television anyway and even the silly unboxing/review videos on YouTube are more useful, watchable and sometimes more entertaining than the stream of reality shows and other cultural sewage offered by corporate TV networks.

Re:Dump Star Trek and fuck CBS/Paramount

[Half-pint HAL]

But people aren't fans of this hypothetical universe. People don't want to write about this hypothetical universe. And this hypothetical universe would probably be even cheesier than the Star Trek one -- just consider how decades of "heroic fantasy" were just cheesy pseudo-Tolkien.

Re:Dump Star Trek and fuck CBS/Paramount

[blackomegax]

It's hard to compete against decades of emotional investment and nostalgia.

why i pirate

[n3r0.m4dski11z]

Are they doing anything right now to contribute to the franchise. Are they doing anything that is better than the fan made one? The answer is no. Then they should fuck off, move over and let actual interested parties, ACTUALLY DOING THE WORK, get whatever benefits those parties see fit.

You shouldn't be able to copyright a fictional universe. As long as bullshit money rules, copyright has become the spurning of creativity, not supporting it. How many years do they own "star trek" for? beyond the lifetime of most humans?? and even then, its a 60s era remake!! if you cant make enough fucking money off an idea you BOUGHT from a human, in 60 years, whoes problem is that?

A company by its nature can not produce a creative work. Humans do this, and the creative work should then remain the property of humanity, not corporations!

How dare they dictate what people do in their own time, creatively, with their own resources and skills. Fuck CBS. This shit really pisses me off!!

Re: why i pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

Make something original then. Aren't star trek fan movies trying to piggyback on the success of the franchise? The franchise is doing what it is supposed to be doing to protect its trademark by limiting what fans are allowed to do regardless of the original writer or human lifespan.

Re:why i pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

You shouldn't be able to copyright a fictional universe.

You shouldn't be able to own a television or property.

Excuse me while I drive off in this car, which clearly isn't yours, because stuff should be free, man.

Re:why i pirate

[Half-pint HAL]

Creativity does not arise from dabbling around with existing works -- it involves, well, creating something. Derivative works tend to degrade the original property, not build on it -- look at any and all major TV and cinema adaptations of folklore and mythology in the last several decades: they've never been accurate to sources and they have broken people's connection with the originals. Lots of Robin Hood, for example, but not since the Disney cartoon have any of the traditional episodes been included (e.g. the golden arrow). Heroic fiction for decades was a series of cheap "I wish I was Tolkien" pulp paperbacks until George "R R" Martin came along and took the right royal piss out of the whole genre with his books.

Re:why i pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody read John Scalzi's "Redshirts"?

It'd have blown the relatively interesting and entertaining plot, but there was definitely an opportunity missed for additional copyright commentary. "Oh, I'm sorry guys, you'll have to cool your heels here for another 95 years before you can write the script that will save your universe- after all, this is copyrighted material..."

Re:why i pirate

[Anonymous Coward]

They are though. There's an ongoing highly successful movie franchise. For various reasons many slashdotters (not including myself) seem to hate it as much as everyone else loves it, but that's not super relevant.

It's fine to debate the merits of copyright, but this is a straightforward case of a derivative work, and it is certainly not covered by fair use.

A company by its nature can not produce a creative work. Humans do this, and the creative work should then remain the property of humanity, not corporations!

This is a degenerate definition of "produce". By this definition, a company by definition cannot have any property because it does not produce anything, humans (and machines built by humans and therefore the property of humans) produce things.

It's also a bit rich to decry a company for a lack of creativity when the premise is that people outside the company chose to copy that company's work as a starting point instead of being creating their own universe.

I really liked the Axanar pilot so it's disappointing to see that suppressed. Doesn't mean it's completely unreasonable. They aren't even dictating any of the things you said. Only what you release to the public as a clearly derivative work.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because men have to actually achieve something to be considered sexy. All the average woman has to do is: not get fat. Realizing that reality is not sexism, it's realism.

Gene Roddenberry to CBS / Paramount

[Anonymous Coward]

Lower your shields or we shall open fire.

Star Trek is my creation, and I leave it to the fans and supporters, not the corporate sycophants that nagged me to an early grave.

Re: Drop the name Star Trek

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, they didn't invent space movies. Drop the name and produce the film anyway. Then the producers and talent can make some money on the back end as well.

So JJ's words are worth zilch...

[Anonymous Coward]

kinda sad, but then, not really surprised since he loves to play the nice guy.

Re:So JJ's words are worth zilch...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, he lied. As did this Lin fellow.

CBS/Paramount are just a bunch of Pakleds.

[Anonymous Coward]

We have mega-lawyers, they make us powerful. We are strong now, we destroy you. ... meanwhile, on the enemy ship Axanarprise, a young captain prepares to unleash the ultimate weapon, the universally feared Axanarite Device.

Decades later, this will be referred to as the Axanarite Maneuver.

How about fuck 'production'

[Anonymous Coward]

companies owning this shit, sacrifice ST to the gods of Creativity, and create a new universe, with fresh and creative commons licensed materials with MAD clauses for licensing (IE you can use it, even commercially, but as soon as you sue anyone whose creative works you utilized they can invalidate your license and sue you right back.) This would be communal universes the way they should be, especially for a 'free trade' capitalist world (ironic depending on which view of Trek society you prefer.)

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creati

[Anonymous Coward]

So ... Do you disagree that niggers often shoot each other? Or that they rarely father their kids? Because both of those are facts. What then is your objection? Oh, it wasn't factual at all huh? Thought so.

Axanar's fault, yes I said it

[Anonymous Coward]

First and foremost I'm a monster Star Trek fan and love all the fanmade stuff too. That being said, this is Axanar's fault! They were actively trying to make money off the Star Trek name (just look at this coffee link below) and that was what finally forced Paramount/CBS's hand

http://i.imgur.com/0xlikjx.png

I hate that all the fan stuff is seriously crippled too, but if the Axanar project wouldn't have gotten so greedy financially this wouldn't have happened or would have happened MUCH later. The other fan projects respected the crap out of this and that's why the studio let it slide for sooooo dang long. Axanar took advantage of their patience and rule stretching and has now ruined it for everyone.

Look no further than Tony Todd (Kurn/old man Jake Sisko) leaving the project as evidence of this.

Read it like this

[MrKaos]

Your stories can no longer be imaginative and better than our, you must find a way to make them more lame because we don't know how to. Breach these conditions and we will sue you out of existence.

Personally, I think the fan stories are more interesting. I've kind of given up on paramount's version of star trek because it is usually disappointing so I don't see any point in it any more. I think the fan fiction is the only thing keeping their franchise alive simply because CBS make the movies for a wider audience that isn't interested in ST knowing that fans will go for the eye candy.

I think that once CBS lamifies the fan fiction, it's all over for star trek, at least for me, simply because it's just not that interesting or challenging anymore.

Re: Read it like this

[Anonymous Coward]

"I think, I think, I think..." what you think is irrelevant. What is relevant are box-office figures and they say JJ Abrams' Trek is wildly popular and successful so as far as Viacom is concerned this is the only Trek that matters. You sad nerds have better get over it: as an audience you are nothing. The new fans outnumber you and they're Cool People, not antisocial basket cases. Give up.

Re: Read it like this

[MrKaos]

Ok, I give up on star trek - you can have it. As far as being cool, it is relative. I think what you said isn't very cool.

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creativ

[johnsmithperson123]

Commodore Kirker: Best guess, Zulu. Zulu: Aye, sir. (HMS Corporation fires phasors [hey, Master of Orion II got away with that] at HMS Infallible, missing.) (HMS Infallible shakes.) Genghis: Forward missiles, fire! (Missile launches into space, missing.) This, ladies and gentlemen, is what Paramount is going to do to Star Trek.

Good this will not affect my lesbian interest seri

[Anonymous Coward]

As these are rarely more than 5 min long.

Answer with your wallet

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, they asked for it - No Star Trek movie for me anymore. The reboots are no to my taste anyway.

It looks like they do not want my money. I will comply and will ask others to do the same. That's the only language they will understand.

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[supremebob]

Yeah, I can't wait until Major Keerk uses his Maser to take down a charging Klangron warrior before beaming up to his star cruiser and engaging the hyperspeed drive at speed factor 6.

There, I just invented my own Star Trek knockoff lingo!

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creati

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm quite sure they father their kids.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Evidently.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

He isn't wrong though. There are no jive talking blacks in Star Trek. You can be mad and call him racist but it's a fact.

Once again laws trumps your feels

[Anonymous Coward]

See a lot of post ignorant of the law. If one does not protect their IP then that opens up the door for your competitors to use your IP. Expecting brain dead studios to act in a way that allows their brain dead competitors to use their IP for free, is pretty brain dead. But changing laws is hard and hating on studios is easy.

Re:Once again laws trumps your feels

[transami]

There is nothing stopping Paramount from working with fan fiction producers, even elevating the really good ones to top production quality with licensing arrangements. There's is clearly more demand then Paramount knows what to do with, which means they are loosing money by their own actions, not the fan film maker's.

Re:Once again laws trumps your feels

[bugnuts]

If one does not protect their IP then that opens up the door for your competitors to use your IP.

You're thinking of trademarks, not copyright. The Star Trek universe, and the characters, are copyrighted even if someone else writes a script using those characters. The copyright holder can selectively choose to prosecute all or none of the violators at his whim.

Certain copyright violations cannot be prosecuted, such as Fair Use. But it's very unlikely fan fiction can fall under fair use, although that has yet to be seen. I believe Star Trek Continues is trying to use that defense as they are non profit and claim their usage is educational (which usually does fall under Fair Use). This is a weak shield, but they also are not harming the franchise so it will likely be overlooked anyway.

"See a lot of post ignorant of the law."

*cough*

Re:Once again laws trumps your feels

[Anonymous Coward]

You are one of those people that suck the life out of everything.

Law rules? Great, enjoy having ideas locked up because a corporation deems them IP.

You are just an enabling cog in the great machine of intellectual imprisonment. And the fact you even defend this bullshit just shows me that you are so plugged into the system you wouldn't survive a day thinking on your own.

In short - go fuck yourself, and your defense you fucking knob.

Human knowledge belongs to the WORLD, not corporate suckups like you.

Re:Once again laws trumps your feels

[omnichad]

Except copyright only protects...copying verbatim or making derivative copies, still significantly like the original text/work. A character is also an idea - it's protected partly by trademark. Paramount could license these characters for little to no money and still be "protecting" their trademark.

There's no one who knows better than Disney. A lot of Mickey cartoons would likely enter the Public Domain, were it not for them using their character as a trademark. Time will tell whether it's even possible to distribute those easily without a trademark lawsuit.

Re:Once again laws trumps your feels

[bugnuts]

Except copyright only protects...copying verbatim or making derivative copies, still significantly like the original text/work.

Not really true in that respect. It protects all sorts of things, even compilations of works that might be copyrighted by others, but the compilation itself is copyrighted (e.g. the books Brad Templeton made by publishing jokes from rec.humor.funny). It doesn't have to be a verbatim copy, but derive a significant portion of its value from some copyrighted work. In fact, in the UK there was a judgement against someone who merely duplicated a style of photograph, found infringing due to having a history of actual copyright infringement. [I mostly disagree with this ruling, btw, but again copyright isn't strictly verbatim copies.]

The argument is that far fewer people will release their creative projects to the world without some form of protection, so it was coded into the US Constitution and subsequent treaties. Consider making something cool, then someone rich simply stealing the idea and capitalizing it through distribution channels while you reap nothing for your original creative idea. This has happened, and even happens today occasionally.

Basically, works based in fictional universes are copyrighted by the holder of the fictional universe, and such works are considered derivative because a large amount of their value (e.g. recognizability) are from the fictional universe or characters. There are certainly intentional exceptions such as parody where you make fun of the universe or the characters, and that's why sketch comedy like SNL has an ironclad protection to create their humor.

Re:Once again laws trumps your feels

[bugnuts]

Glad to see you posting here again, Richard Stallman.

Someone should liberate the rights already

[Octorian]

I keep wondering if some billionaire Star Trek fans should settle this argument once and for all, by paying CBS/Paramount enough money to release the rights.

After all, I think its been established that the official studios can no longer be trusted to produce Star Trek content, and many fans feel as though Star Trek is too important to be left to the official studios.

Re:Someone should liberate the rights already

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Paul Allen should do it.

Unfortunately, the last several movies have been profitable, so he'll need to wait another 5-10 years to go back down in value.

Re:Someone should liberate the rights already

[Anonymous Coward]

The new movie will make Star Trek rights 'Quite Affordable'.. I might rent it in 10 or 20 years to see it for the first time.

counter strike

[brendan.robert]

IANAL, but almost none of the original series or movies used "officially licensed" uniforms or props. They just used whatever the costume department or prop department came up with for an episode. From movie to movie the outfits were always different. Even from season to season, in many cases. What then, do any of the genuine-looking costumes or props have anything in common with the licensed ones which are generally plastic toys, or are made of cheap fabrics that are poorly stitched or just outright glued together? I'm sorry, if Paramount is going to put this bird-cage fodder in their requirements then they, too, need to seriously commit to improving the quality of the products they're trying to force on the fans. The only other logical option is revise the requirement so that people trying to make a believable fan fiction are allowed to use self-made articles of, unquestionably, higher quality than the mass produced garbage and NOT SELL THEM. Because that's how you respect the trademarks and copyrights, to not sell knock-offs to undercut their bottom line. Maybe something for the CBS folks to consider is that THE STAR WARS FRANCHISE DOESN'T DO THIS CRAP TO THEIR FANS. (They do other crap, but not this. ;) )

Re:counter strike

[Obfuscant]

IANAL, but almost none of the original series or movies used "officially licensed" uniforms or props. They just used whatever the costume department or prop department came up with for an episode.

What you are saying here is that the copyright/trademark holder cannot authorize the production of props for production of their own intellectual property because it won't be "officially licensed". In other words, the Paramount props department cannot produce props for a Star Trek movie that Paramount is shooting because they don't have a license.

I think you might be wrong about that.

Re:counter strike

[R3d M3rcury]

IANAL, but almost none of the original series or movies used "officially licensed" uniforms or props.

Yeah...there's a reason you're not a lawyer. When you're creating things for the series, you're officially licensed.

As an aside, Gene Roddenberry was certainly not above making a quick buck off of "officially licensed" Star Trek items.

The only other logical option is revise the requirement so that people trying to make a believable fan fiction are allowed to use self-made articles of, unquestionably, higher quality than the mass produced garbage and NOT SELL THEM.

If you RTFA, it says:

If the fan production uses commercially-available Star Trek uniforms, accessories, toys and props [emphasis mine], these items must be official merchandise and not bootleg items or imitations of such commercially available products.

So if you buy uniforms or props off the rack, they need to be official. If you build your own, you're perfectly fine.

Re:counter strike

[Actually, I do RTFA]

If the fan production uses commercially-available Star Trek uniforms, accessories, toys and props [emphasis mine], these items must be official merchandise and not bootleg items or imitations of such commercially available products.

So if you buy uniforms or props off the rack, they need to be official. If you build your own, you're perfectly fine.

I think you misread that. Whether you purchased an item or made it, it doesn't change whether the item is commercially available. You seem to be fine making something that is not available for purchase. But you'll run afoul of the rules if you clone a commercially-available item.

Re:counter strike

[R3d M3rcury]

I don't think so.

First, there's a long history of people making their own Star Trek costumes/uniforms/etc. These are perfectly okay. The problem comes up when you try to sell those uniforms.

If I'm making a Star Trek fan flick which takes place on the bridge, figure I need about 10 uniforms. Here are my options:

(1) Find someone to make 10 uniforms and give them to me.
(2) Buy properly licensed commercially available Star Trek uniforms.
(3) Buy improperly licensed commercially available Star Trek uniforms.

(1) is A-OK. (2) is A-OK. (3) is Right Out.

Now there may be some issues in (1) if I'm paying them for uniforms...

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creat

[Anonymous Coward]

I've found that nearly everyone who has a problem with back people also happens not to actually know any black people.

Here's a thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't they make a Star Trek film worth watching first? Trek should be public domain already, but they've been clinging to its well-beaten corpse for so long without making anything worthwhile out of it's bones that it's pathetic. Either they're trying desperately to kill it for good with this measure, or they're just incredibly vain about how terrible they are at using the franchise for anything worthwhile.

Ben Franklin would be shocked by CBS behavior

[Anonymous Coward]

The entire point of Copyright, Trademark was to "encourage" not "discourage" or Troll the audience for creative ideas.

CBS has turned the founding principals of our nation into a Mockery.. a Joke.

CBS should be roundingly boycotted and left to their own.. "here take your ball and good home, please don't come back."

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creat

[Anonymous Coward]

Same. At the very least, black people refuse to associate with them due to manner. No-one likes to interact people that act like jerks.

It truly is sad to see that there are people that attempt to spread their ideas that certain groups of people are horrible, useless, evil, untrustworthy, and unworthy of existence, when the most ugly thing is that persons attitude and beliefs.

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more crea

[Anonymous Coward]

I've observed the same myself. Lack of actual contact leaves a vacuum to be filled by what is apparently a mid 1970s blacksploitation type view.

New jurisdiction

[Anonymous Coward]

What the world needs now is a jurisdiction where people can just ignore the idiot american copyright laws. They had their chance to play nice, they didn't want that so fuck'em.

Re: New jurisdiction

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks to TTIP there's going to be no jurisdiction at all where US copyright laws aren't enforced. Nowhere at all. :) Face it, nerds: you have lost. Your dreams lie dead and buried beneath a pile of dung on which we piss. :)

Re: New jurisdiction

[Anonymous Coward]

You piss on dung under which something is buried? Fetishist.

Star Trek XII - So very greedy

[Anonymous Coward]

Profit! The final frontier.
These are the voyages of the corporation Paramount.
Its unending mission;
to explore new merchandising possibilities,
to seek out and reuse old tired worn out plots,
to boldly go where most science fiction has already been for years.

Re:Goofy Dorks.

[Applehu Akbar]

Without state troll programs, the safety of our public infrastructure would be totally dependent on a dismayongly small number of professional bridge inspectors.

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[Darkling-MHCN]

"Set pulsenators to incinerate!"

Buy Master of Orion

[Anonymous Coward]

The Master of Orion franchise has its own history and races, it was cheap ($200K), and it comes with 2 classic games (and a 3rd spreadsheet galaxy simulator). Make: Federation = Terrans, Ferengi = Gnolans, Borg = Meklars, Klingons = Mrrshans, Vulcans = Psilons, and more.

Don't let all those Trek sets go to waste Star Trek Continues!

Is Anyone Troubled

[BrendaEM]

Is anyone troubled that an entertainment company is trying to make United State laws?

Re:Is Anyone Troubled

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't they write ALL the US laws? Certainly RIAA and Disney are doing their bit.

Wonder if you could call the NRA entertaining?

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[Zontar The Mindless]

That was kind of sexy until you got to the "incinerate" part.

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[irving47]

Well, you're close, anyway... It already happened. See: "Gene Roddenberry's : Andromeda" it was a Star Trek adapted to a non-Trek property because Paramount wasn't interested.

Re:Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Three.

15 min rule

[uldics]

What if someone compresses normal length video to 15 minutes by speeding it up to some 300 fps. Probably unplayable at the "normal" speed unless you happen to have 16 cores and can wrap your brains around such flowrate. A quick videoplayer setting to slow down 10 times and watch it as nothing was forbidden for 150 minutes. Fans are creative, the proopertyheads will never catch up with their rules. If we put our minds to it, all of those rules would be ignorable.

Re:15 min rule

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't work. A judge would rule that the master prior to speedup is the "intended" length.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Hognoxious]

Apart from the Ferengi.

Time to move on

[GeekWithAKnife]

What the heck is this? they are policing their fans? writing rules on how fans can contribute to the zealot-like following?

Are they doing their best to alienate the fan base? -some starting sci-fi series, books etc would kill to have the sort of mass drone following of Star Trek.

An exercise to protect their work only diminishes their profits with bad press and unhappy fans.

They want to police how fans interact with their product?! I say screw Star Trek products! -Vote with your wallet.

Isnt Star Trek getting (just for the past couple of decades) a bit same old same old? - Sci-Fi needs to be about more than semi-emotional human look-alikes, red shirt deaths and the enterprise.

Re:Time to move on

[david_thornley]

If they cared about the original fan base, they'd have done a better job with the Abrams movies.

Seriously, the die-hard fans are going to get screwed, because they'll go to anything labeled Star Trek that has something to do with space travel or utopian societies. There's not much payoff in making stuff they want, because they'll pay money for the stuff they barely want.

If you want any sort of negotiating leverage in any sort of relationship, and fan-to-producer counts, you have to be able to walk away if the deal gets too bad. Go make up your own universe that resembles Star Trek in spirit. Don't go to bad Star Trek movies.

Market should rule here.

[EzInKy]

If enough people care that fan fiction, you know that created by those who love the Star Trek enough to take the time to create fan fiction in the first place, has to follow these draconian rules then perhaps those fans should just put the whole thing to bed and create something else in its place?

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[stealth_finger]

How about set pulsenators to oblivionate

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[Whibla]

See: "Gene Roddenberry's : Andromeda" ...

Take my advice, don't.

  Watching re-runs (if there were any) of the 70's show Blake's 7 would be more enjoyable, 30 odd years difference, and the plots, dialogue, and acting all got worse.

So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's their property, not the weirdos' who stroll around in pajamas pretending they're spacemen. Go sulk in a corner and boycott to your heart's content, nerds: the new movies are highly successful and the now profitable franchise doesn't care to be associated with losers. :)

Re:So what?

[Opportunist]

These losers is actually what created the whole hype around those movies. Without them, it's just yet another franchise that cranks out movie after movie. Yes, you can do that, and it will have some success, but these losers are what boosts it to the levels where the real money is.

These losers are your life insurance as the franchise holder. Because you can, at will, whenever you please, go and do a "$franchise marathon" in a cinema of your choice and they will go on a pilgrimage to that mecca you create there, pay whatever you want to charge for ancient movies nobody really would dream of watching in a theater anymore because they could watch it any time on their home TV. Whenever you need that extra million for whatever, this is where you can easily collect it.

This of course only works as long as you don't piss them off. Call them losers all you want, and personally, I agree, but the very last thing I'd want to do is piss losers off that I can so easily harvest money from.

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lol. You lose, nerd: the new movies rebooted the franchise *precisely* to throw the weirdos out of the window and start anew to appeal to a larger, cooler, better fanbase. Which they did. Now you can drown in your own tears, nerdinhos. Old trek is *dead*. You will *never* have it back. :)

Re:So what?

[david_thornley]

The original Star Trek spirit doesn't sell anymore. Having the name squeezes a last few dollars out of the diehards, but the movies are not made to attract them.

The new Star Trek movies are a lot closer to Star Wars than old-fashioned Star Trek. I realized that when I saw the latest Star Wars.

Realistically, TOS wasn't all that good. There were a few really good episodes (I seem to be in a small minority by not considering "City on the Edge of Forever" (or whatever) as one of them, but what the heck), and a lot of bad episodes, more so in the third season. It was the ideas behind the series that made it Star Trek, and Abrams has ignored them.

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Those ideas were surpassed. Not relevant anymore. Abrams did well ignoring them and ignoring the petulant aspies that passed as "fans". The new Trek is successful. That is all that matters.

Re: So what?

[Opportunist]

You call that successful? You know what real success is? Being able to put them into a cinema in 20 years and fill it to the brim with paying customers. THAT is success in an age of perpetual copyright, being able to show an ancient movie that has regained its cost ten times in the meantime and STILL get the same idiots that have seen it a million times already to pay to see it!

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more crea

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, how are you supposed to even meet black people if you're not in a halfway house or incarcerated ?
I mean, it's not like you're going to meet any in the boardroom or at the school fete or anything....

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Half-pint HAL]

Fat shaming = sexist?

If it's about valuing women based on physical appearance, yes. Women are not objects.

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creativ

[Anonymous Coward]

Will the comms officer be called Ubuntu?

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creat

[Anonymous Coward]

I knew a fair number growing up, starting with no bias what so ever... After a few random assaults and other BS I learned to be a racist(against only blacks from my exp) and with education learned of statistics and their apparent GENETIC propensity to violence (6x that of whites).. This is evident in virtually every black population; Where they are more mixed race(but still called "black" that value starts to change. IQ results generally show africans 20+ points lower than the average white person who is 11 lower than Asian.

Smart money is to avoid them and well as Klingons.

Low bar

[sjbe]

Because they are afraid, very afraid that the fan films will be better than their own productions.

That is a rather low bar to clear for much of the Star Trek universe. Some genuinely good stuff but way too much really bad writing and the plot holes generally don't get any bigger than they do on Star Trek.

Again, this has to be addressed with legislation

[SkyLeach]

Paramount is attempting to write law using the threat of big-money legal harassment as their police force. Many corporations do this.

The issue here is that Paramount isn't a lawyer, and their grip on a cultural meme doesn't expire. It's a money game where cultural evolution is dictated by intellectual property rights that are unsupportable for society itself.

It has been over 50 years since star trek became a part of our culture. It has been propagating through two generations of humanity. The right to communicate with shared cultural meme cannot be 'owned' as intellectual property in perpetuity, or like the airwaves soon every shared idea will be owned by someone. There must be limits.

Considering...

[MitchDev]

...the shit Paramount has been putting out under the name "Star Trek", they're just afraid the fan products are worlds better than theirs....

Re:Considering...

[Opportunist]

Rightfully so, the fan products are by no means worse than anything Paramount cranked out lately.

It is no longer impossible for amateur groups to come up with something that rivals "professional" quality. The technology has become affordable, props have pretty much been replaced by CGI, so what drives costs is labor.

And people doing it because they want to do it (often euphemistically called "doing it for love", even though rarely anyone gets laid) are usually far more affordable than people doing it just for money. Plus, they're usually also far more personally invested and more ready to go the extra mile to make it "extra good".

In other words, it's quite likely that the fan projects ARE actually better than what Paramount can produce.

Re:Considering...

[MitchDev]

Exactly, as you put it, it's a labor of love, so they care more about making it "good" than making it "marketable" to the lowest common denominator....

How'd the world get this bad?

It isn't nice

[ravenswood1000]

CBS/Paramount? It isn't nice to mess with your fan base. Don't do this.

Those who can, do

[Opportunist]

Those who can't, sue.

It's sad to see that Paramount has to pull such stunts to keep from being upstaged by movies made on zero budget by amateurs.

Re:Again, this has to be addressed with legislatio

[Opportunist]

In other words, do the movies in countries near Generistan. The feds there only care for real crimes, not imaginary property.

Re:Goofy Dorks.

[Hotawa Hawk-eye]

How about sports?

Do we really need to pay people millions of dollars to hit a ball with a stick and run around in a big circle?
Throwing a ball into a basket with the bottom cut out?
Slamming into one another like rutting walruses trying to pound one guy carrying a ball into the turf?
Kicking a ball then chasing madly after said ball, with the occasional (bad) performance of "He touched me, I am slain!" ?
Or smacking a small white ball then walking towards where you hit said small white ball and repeating the process? Just pick the damn thing up and carry it with you!

Ignore them

[Anonymous Coward]

Fair Use, Parody, Satire, etc. is all completely legal and CBS and Paramount can't restrict the time or segment of any of the above, or require true merchandise to be used.

A vast majority of Fan made Star Treks are multiple seasons, and more than 2 segments.

Re: Ignore them

[Anonymous Coward]

OK. Ignore them. Get sued. Lose everything. Your kids will thank you when they'll have to scavenge for their next meal from the garbage dumps. Oh wait, you have no family of your own because no woman would ever hump a smelly fatso neckbeard. :)

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[codebonobo]

All Humans are objects.

noun

1.

anything that is visible or tangible and is relatively stable in form.

2.

a thing, person, or matter to which thought or action is directed:

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

All of the above is way better than watching Fat Dorks... Oh, sorry, Turd Wreck... How was that show called anyway? You know, the one that pedophiles like so much?

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creat

[Aerokii]

[Citation needed].

Stormfront doesn't count.

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creativ

[Sir_Eptishous]

How come this didn't get modded up!?!

That's effectively EVERYTHING

[Anonymous Coward]

According to wikipedia these rules will stop or would have stopped:

Star Trek: Axanar
Star Trek Horizon
Star Trek: Of Gods and Men
Star Trek: Renegades
Starship Exeter
Starship Farragut
Star Trek Continues
Star Trek: Dark Armada
Star Trek: Hidden Frontier
Star Trek: Intrepid
Star Trek: Odyssey
Star Trek: Phase II/New Voyages
Star Trek: Phoenix
Star Trek: Progeny

Which would all have probably been perfectly fine under the original copyright term limit.

CBS's seems to be doing everything in its power to guarantee its new Star Trek series tanks hard.

Paramount: if we cant make good ST neither can you

[Anonymous Coward]

Take your fucking space gi-joe shit & shove it up your ass then Paramount

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Racist? I didn't see him promoting a race. When you don't even know the meaning of the words you use, you should just shut up.

BTW, the word you are looking for is bigot.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Riiight, because the ONLY male sex symbols are those that have "achieved something". *eyerolls*

My my, the world must be a twisted place when viewed through sexist moron goggles, like yours.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gee whiz, that's a mighty nice strawman you just knocked down there.

Now, how about saying something vaguely relevant? Just for a change?

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh stop, you're too funny for words.

FYI, bigotry is a synonym for prejudice. There are many forms of bigotry/prejudice. Racism is one form, and can be EITHER promoting one's own race OR denigrating another race.

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creativ

[oldmac31310]

GENGHIS!

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[oldmac31310]

Paddy: Ah, shure begorrah Jem, she'll break in two if we don't get the unobtanioum crystals.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

It is only racism if one believes that their own race is superior.

Personally, I mock all races and use racial slurs and stereotypes, even for my own races. You could say that I discriminate equally. I am prejudiced and bigoted? You could say so. I am I racist? Absolutely not.

As much as you want them to be so, the two terms are not the same. FYI, wishing for something doesn't make it true.

Nothing has changed. Stop your whining.

[mmell]

From TFA:

CBS and Paramount Pictures reserve the right to revise, revoke and/or withdraw these guidelines at any time in their own discretion. These guidelines are not a license and do not constitute approval or authorization of any fan productions or a waiver of any rights that CBS or Paramount Pictures may have with respect to fan fiction created outside of these guidelines. - See more at: http://www.startrek.com/fan-fi...

This has nothing to do with CBS/Paramount's legal rights (which haven't changed and can't be changed by them unilaterally). This is basically a statement to the effect "Hey, we have these rules. If you break them, we're more likely to assert our rights in court. Not saying we will, just reminding you that we can."

Of course, if CBS/Paramount sicks the MPAA on them or starts doing the takedown tap-dance on them that'll be proof that I'm wrong. Until they actually do something like this, the whole article is little more than CBS/Paramount clearing their throat and aiming a (well-desserved?) "ahem" at those fans who think they can make money off the franchise.

Prepare to Fast Forward!

[Anonymous Coward]

The fan production must be less than 15 minutes for a single self-contained story

Make official playback at high speed, totaling under 15 minutes, and inform users to adjust playback speed to suit their preferences.

@ParamountStudios

[Winkkin]

After 50+ years, I will not support the new movie or the new series. I fear you've sealed your fate.

Re: @ParamountStudios

[Anonymous Coward]

Lol do what you want, weirdo. New Trek has plenty of new fans, you and your sorry bunch won't be missed. :)

Re:Goofy Dorks.

[blackomegax]

Says the slashdot troll.

Re:Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

There are more useful things to do than post on /., but you went and did it anyway.

CBS/Paramount are a bunch of morons!

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead of alienate its fan base, they should work with them. Let them create stuff for the Star Trek universe, just tell them that their stuff cannot make any profit and does not include porn.

Every fan movie is advertising FOR FREE. Motivated fans are multiplicators for their market and franchise.

Instead CBS/Paramount are shitting into the well BIG TIME. What a f*cking bunch of idiots. I really hope they fail miserably with their upcoming JJTrek and series crap.

Re: Scifi fans are generally a little more creativ

[Agripa]

While they are both violent, Klingons have a deep sense of honor and integrity. In fact, Klingon violence is typically ritualized and regulated. There are rules of engagement and a great degree of shame for violating them.

I always got the impression from the overall collection of Star Trek stories that the Klingons became politically correct wimps over time. It seems like Niven's Kzinti which overlap through the Star Trek animated series were in response to this and become more like what the Klingons were suppose to be.

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[Agripa]

The part I find funny about copyright preventing alternative stories in the Star Trek universe is that Star Fleet Battles and Federation and Empire which were based on an early snapshot of Star Trek made a unashamed effort to copy the real world politics of the Cold War with the Klingons representing the Soviet Union, the Federation representing the US, and various other nations being represented by Kzinti, Hydrans, etc.

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[SvnLyrBrto]

You jest. But the producers of the Star Wreck series (And eventually, Iron Sky) did exactly that. The last installment before they switched to moon nazis vs. Sarah Palin (No, I did not make that up.), was "In the Pirkinning", which chronicles an adventure of the C.P.P. Potkustartti, commanded by Captain James B. Pirk, with the assistance of crew members Commander Dwarf and Commander Info.

Through various somethity hole something anomaly blah blah blah; they eventually cross over into the universe of the Babel 13 space station, commanded by Captain Johnny K. Sherrypie, with first officer Commander Susannah Ivanovitsa, and Security Chief Mikhail Garybrandy, who sometimes also have to deal with the machinations of Psy-Co officer Festerbester.

Hijinks ensue.

Re:Scifi fans are generally a little more creative

[Anonymous Coward]

Star Trek Reneges which is filming the next part in their story just dropped the name Star Trek and references, so they can keep working. It is sad, since it has ST alum and was brought to the studio as a pilot for a new ST series with an exciting premise, but they were told "We are not looking to back a new series."

Since Preludes to Axnar was so good, one would think the studio would back the follow up film by either having it as a tv film that will air before the new tv series or tag it onto a new Star Trek film.

from the horse's mouth, the words of an ass

[epine]

This is the first time since the beginning of time that I've come back to a thread a second time, more than a day later.

And, so far as I'm concerned, Star Trek Continues is the true heir of TOS. Excellent scripts, better acting than you'll find in the reboots. They just work so damned well, and it's unfortunate it looks like that kind of project is dead in the water now.

STC was the only one I've become invested in, and it's the main reason I'm burned up about the new "guidelines".

On this week's episode of Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast, Jordan Hoffman welcomes John Van Citters of CBS, a lifelong Star Trek fan, to give some much needed context on the recently released Star Trek fan film guidelines issued by CBS and Paramount Pictures.

Unfortunately, this is an in-house affair, with both the host and the guest hewing to the official CBS / Paramount story line. Van Citters seems like a nice enough guy, but then the length restriction comes up, and I wanted to put a brick through my monitor.

48m40

I've heard from a lot of people and seen a lot of chatter online in recent days about the length guideline and people feeling that that is untenable and that they can't tell a Star Trek story in fifteen minutes or thirty minutes.

I think that's a bit insulting to Star Trek and to the creativity of the fans I've met and to some of the fan filmmakers I've met.

The idea that Star Trek is capable of only telling one type or length of story that that is kind of ludicrous. There are dozens of winners of the Strange New Worlds competition who would disagree ...

Certainly, a creative person can compose shorter works. For example, Tolstoy composed a novella by the title (in English) The Death of Ivan Ilyich. This was later adapted by Akira Kurosawa as the movie Ikiru, with a a running time of 143 minutes. Oops, perhaps that was a bad example.

Let's try again.

Nobody ever accused Mozart of not being able to compose a Divertimento. Turns out he actually composed 17 numbered Divertimenti, but the performance times seem to range around the hour mark for the ones with their own Wikipedia pages. Oops, perhaps that's another bad example.

I could go on, but I think that's enough.

What made the original Star Trek captivating for me back when I was ten years old was that the stories involved having an actual attention span. No fanfic production will recapture my childhood with a crappy fifteen minute performance length.

Roger Ebert:

I saw "Ikiru" first in 1960 or 1961. I went to the movie because it was playing in a campus film series and only cost a quarter. I sat enveloped in the story of Watanabe for 2 1/2 hours, and wrote about it in a class where the essay topic was Socrates' statement, "the unexamined life is not worth living."' Over the years I have seen "Ikiru" every five years or so, and each time it has moved me, and made me think. And the older I get, the less Watanabe seems like a pathetic old man, and the more he seems like every one of us.

Did Kurosawa make it too long? You be the judge. I personally don't think you're going to pack a whole lot of "examined life" into fifteen minutes unless you're fricking Tolstoy.

I'm trying to figure out why that entire interview pussyfoots around the subject matter (I could only handle the first 50 minutes on my first pass). I started to wonder if the real problem with STC is that damn redhead, Elise McKennah, played by Michele Specht. At first I didn't like the character (or character idea), but her spunk eventually grew on me.

The thing

Re:from the horse's mouth, the words of an ass

[MightyMartian]

No doubt about it. Star Trek's keepers are turning their backs on the fans. It was the fans that kept it going during the dark days of the 1970s and the period after Enterprise's cancellation. Their reward for that is to be kicked in the teeth by a bunch of lawyers and accountants.

Well, it really is too fucking bad, but I'm questioning whether I'll ever buy a ticket or DVD now.

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Half-pint HAL]

Sense two is the grammatical term. "The subject verbed the object." Sense 1 is not a definition of object as I'd recognise it. Objects have no agency -- they are just things.

Strange New Worlds

[iq145]

"So that it won't get the creative Star Trek fan sued for copyright infringement"? Years ago, i sent in an entry of Trek fan fiction for an annual contest called "Strange New Worlds". My entry went unanswered, as far as whether i'd won or lost. Some time later, in the very next Trek movie Paramount released, i noticed something happening that i thought of and had in my short-story... Commander Data flying through open space. It was then i realized, Star Trek writers and producers can easily use a simple media such as a "contest" as a source of new ideas! Ideas don't grow on trees. They'll become stale or simply run out of new material eventually, but with submissions pouring in from fans around the world, they can go on and on with what'll seem like new never-before seen ideas!

Re: Goofy Dorks.

[Anonymous Coward]

The dictionary definition is a red herring. What "objectification" means is treating a person as a non-person, disregarding their feelings and desires and seeing them as a thing to be used for your own purposes.

That said, I don't think valuing women based on physical appearance is any less legitimate than valuing them for their dress sense or business acumen or artistic talent. Judging someone as unattractive because overweight is not very nice, but it's certainly not mysoginistic. Women do it to men too, and I can tell you there is definitely a female bias against short men, at least in the USA.

Down with short-shaming!