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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.
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 "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."
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
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.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
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.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
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?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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.
Bruce Perens.
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.
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.
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.
Fat shaming = sexist?
If it's about valuing women based on physical appearance, yes. Women are not objects.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'