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CBS Shuts Down Stage 9, a Fan-Made Recreation of the USS Enterprise (torrentfreak.com)
An anonymous reader writes: For those unfamiliar with the project, Stage 9 is a beautiful virtual recreation of the Enterprise ship from Star Trek: The Next Generation for Windows, Mac and Linux. More experience than game, Stage 9 was built by fans over two years in the Unreal Engine. "There were two things that we were always pretty careful with," says project leader 'Scragnog'. "We made it as clear as we possibly could that this was NOT an officially licensed project. We had no affiliation with CBS or Paramount and the IP we were trying our hardest to treat with respect was not our own. We were fans, just creating fan art."
In an announcement this week, Scragnog reminded fans that no one involved in the project was in it for any financial reason and everyone was well aware that throwing money into the mix could be a problem. However, the team says it has always known that they could be shut down at any time on the whim of a license holder because in this world, that's what can happen. Unfortunately, that day has come all too soon for the impressive project. Stage 9 was hit with an intellectual property complaint from CBS just over two weeks ago and has now been shut down.
"This letter was a cease-and-desist order," Scragnog explains. "Over the next 13 days we did everything we possibly could to open up a dialog with CBS. The member of the CBS legal team that issued the order went on holiday for a week immediately after sending the letter through, which slowed things down considerably."
In an announcement this week, Scragnog reminded fans that no one involved in the project was in it for any financial reason and everyone was well aware that throwing money into the mix could be a problem. However, the team says it has always known that they could be shut down at any time on the whim of a license holder because in this world, that's what can happen. Unfortunately, that day has come all too soon for the impressive project. Stage 9 was hit with an intellectual property complaint from CBS just over two weeks ago and has now been shut down.
"This letter was a cease-and-desist order," Scragnog explains. "Over the next 13 days we did everything we possibly could to open up a dialog with CBS. The member of the CBS legal team that issued the order went on holiday for a week immediately after sending the letter through, which slowed things down considerably."
They've also shut down my desire to continue to watch Star Trek. Maybe I'll see what Picard is up to via the bay, though.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
When will media companies figure out that fan projects are good for them? They maintain/increase interest in an IP, even when the media company is being sloppy and putting out no/terrible content.
Say what you want about Lucas, he was usually pretty cool with people doing Star Wars parodies and homages. He even voiced himself on the Robot Chicken Star Wars episode.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
They lose the right to sue people who really rip them off (as opposed to Stage 9) unless they defend their rights across the board. I wish this law was changed.
- The Kessel run is for nerf herders. I can circumnavigate the entire Central Finite Curve in a lot less than 12 parse
Why not just pay the people for their contributions and buy the damn thing? It's popular. It's apparently well-made. CBS could make money from it!
Seems to work in other fields.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
And I don't intend too now.
> The member of the CBS legal team that issued the order went on holiday for a week immediately after sending the letter
What a fucking piece of shit that dick is.
I would be happy to pay for media with no advertising.
But I refuse to pay you to sell to me.
What is the best Troi rag doll simulator in VR now?
/s I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you that Corporations hold culture hostage!
There is something wrong when companies see fans as competition instead of free advertising.
In a decent world, there would be untouchable hackers who could aggressively e-attack corporations like CBS, that are kicking fans in the balls every chance they get. Maybe steal something genuinely valuable from them, like a major blockbuster movie the week before its release, and make it so universally available it becomes worthless. Then let them know every time they pull stuff like this, they can expect another financial bitch slap.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
They lose the right to sue people who really rip them off (as opposed to Stage 9) unless they defend their rights across the board. I wish this law was changed.
That's only for trademarks.
If Scragnog has called the game "StarTrek: stage 9", Paramount and CBS must show that show that they have put effort into defending their trademark otherwise they lose it and "star trek" becomes generalized (such as band-aid, velcro, thermos, dumpster, aspirin, etc. Name that used to be brands but now just used as generic word for the category, not a specific brand-name).
Note, though, that Paramount and CBS doesn't need to *win*, they only need to *show effort*. The judge can actually rule that there's no possible brand confusion. See Apple vs Apple (back when Apple was only making computer and could in no way be confused with the record company.
Here, the main problem is that CBS doesn't even bother telling Scragnog what the problem is.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
>"This letter was a cease-and-desist order,"
Most of these letters have ZERO legal weight, and get thrown-out when submitted to courts. While CBS owns the appearance of the TNG Enterprise, the law clearly allows derivative works (such as parodies and fan-inspired art).
Only a JUDGE has the power to shutdown this endeavor, not some Intern at CBS writing cut-and-paste form letters.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Corporate shill much?
He can't answer. He's too busy washing Moonves's and Parsons's Santorium off his lips (based on his username, I suspect it's one of his favorite things to imbibe.
QAnon predicted this would happen.
They could license the project, and it might be a good idea to charge $1 and put some terms on it. Since it's a non-profit project, the terms could even say CBS gets 100% of the profits (which is $0).
What they need to avoid under current law is IGNORING infringement, which would imply that they don't care about the trademarks anymore amd anyone is allowed to use them for any purpose.
"100% of the profits" (which don't exist) would also further protect CBS from a future commercial infringer trying to use this as estoppel, saying "CBS acted like it's okay for people to use the trademark". The very same act that the future infringer would try to use against CBS would indicate that the infringer must pay CBS 100% of the profit.
Exactly. CBS could just license the project.
Because the project is non-profit, it may be a good idea for the terms of the license to say CBS gets 100% of any profits in order to protect themselves in the future. (There are none.)
See also:
https://tech.slashdot.org/comm...
*Copyright* abandonment was more of a thing before the Copyright Act of 1976. Now, it requires an overt act showing intent to abandon. It's essentially the same as publishing the material under CC0 or WtfPL - explicitly allowing others to use and copy it with no restrictions.
You don't want to contact the legal team; they're job is to secure everything they can for their client, regardless of whether it is reasonable or even legally justifiable. In their world view there's no reason to ever back down from a C&D letter unless that letter is somehow itself illegal, and it's not illegal to exaggerate your rights.
The people you want to get to are the marketing and PR types, who are more concerned about the court of public opinion.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I will NEVER watch any of their shitty Star Trek artificially-flavored shows, not even downloaded for FREE illegally, because they're being such assholes about things like this. Also makes me consider not watching any CBS shows even OTA for free, except it wouldn't hurt them one bit due to them not even knowing if I'm watching or not. Shutting down the Star Trek fanbase is not going to make them any friends.
Not as shocking as the notion that we think the entirety of our culture is a creation of corporations. It's almost like the rest of us have been doing nothing with our time but sitting in front of a TV for the purposes of soaking in ads, and empowering the fast-food industry.
Virtually everything.
CBS will probably rue the day, but the idiots that made such poor decisions will evade personal responsibility by moving on, retiring, or just playing the bureaucrat should it be necessary.
This is well-known in the music "industny". Small labels started to notice, that their "sales" went up a lot, if the songs were available via file sharing in the early 2000s. So they started doing it intentionally.
Big labels followed later in the decade. Most notably, Warner was caught red-handed.
But apart from actually reading a license (a very unlikely scenario), this was the one thing that risked that people would find out that their whole "intellectual property" lie was in fact not only a lie, but that they know it is a lie. (OK, the public having even a single clue about physics and what information actually is, would also ruin their crime scheme, but that's usually too unrealistic to even mention.)
So they kept acting like it was "OMGTEHPIRATETHIEVES". While they themselves were of course the ones stealing money and not working for it. From artists, from fans, from everyone but their coke dealers and coke semi truck drivers.
Two living room elephants with one legal swatter.
https://audienceservices.cbs.c...
I saw the first few episodes...
It's bad news that CBS is operating on GREED.
* I'm not interested beyond the 7 day trial.... To much GREED.
As in physical reality, the concept of "stealing" or "owning" in incompatibly with the concept of information.
Please check it yourself. Look up what information actually is, and why the natural laws of information space are not the same as those of matter-energy space. (Esp. the differences in copying information vs copying e.g. a chair.)
And then look up what "theft" is. (Hint: Theft is when you take something, that the original "owner" doesn't then have anymore, and that needs work to make again. This does not apply to information. It does apply to the money you lose when they "sell" you a copy of information though. Or to the part of the income that is not actually earned with work, but called "profit".)
The Internet never forgets. Someone must have a download link for this, please post it before it get too scarce to find easily, thanks!
Engineering, prepare to receive torrent in cargo bay 1!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Something's amiss there...
CBS has published fan art guidelines for Star Trek, so I would suggest that they continue to appeal to those to keep the project going, unless or until CBS can tell them explicitly how it is not in accordance with those guidelines, they should reasonably be able to continue to use those guidelines as a defense.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Les Moonvies wants to probe your anus.
As pointed out a HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18085119), the Internet Archive of the download page still has the well-seeded torrent links...
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:ce1cf2847d8303a8e7e708cb378d9e7ab1534628&dn=Stage9-Mac-v009.zip
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:f2b84daf5a60ad9a452c933523de7ec786bbb0bd&dn=Stage9-Windows-v10.exe
My local cable stopped broadcasting them ages ago because they were bastards and too expensive. Now i have a dead channel there on my cable service.
That's right CBS, piss the fans off - what could go wrong with being a Corporate bunch of assholes?
Anyone have a torrent? :)
I have not heard of this until now.
They have considered just having the media assets leak, so that others can continue the project as an international 'black market' open source project? It always infuriates me that we don't have a thriving open source scene for content deemed too legally precarious to develop on clearnet/publicly.
Cripes. Literacy matters.
Did IBM throw a hissy-fit over it? Not really, and because of that the PC took off like a rocket.
I'm afraid they did. IBM sued several early PC clone makers claiming they had copied their BIOS.
It wasn't until Phoenix made a clean-room BIOS implementations that clone makers could flourish.
Start doing satire & parodies: there is legal fair use for them.
A evil corporation is merged with the Borg and the Borg start acting like lawyers and serve papers on everyone.
Q presides over the court and proceed to torment all with glee.
and the Borg collapse into a white hole of paperwork suing themselves.
I find it rather amusing that a IP built around the idea of 'fully automated luxury communism' in space has to rely so heavily on intellectual propriety law.
Just kidding... there's nothing amusing about communism, even in a fiction.
When will fans stop paying for the bad treatment they receive in response?
Disney was a principal figure in a US copyright term extension (which was exported abroad), much to the chagrin of Americans and the world. Bringing this up at that time elicited some responses like one of the highly-upvoted posts in this /. thread saying they'll not buy more of the products. But when the next Star Wars work comes out, fans here who know of the role Disney played then (which people are still seeing the effects of) will pay to see the new Star Wars thing.
A Star Trek copyright holder puts down ridiculous and provably unnecessary restrictions on making derivative Star Trek works (which didn't exist for most of Star Trek's existence). It doesn't really matter how this came to be or if you want to blame one party (say, Axanar) for speaking out of turn. What matters is what you're going to do in response, particularly if you believe that you have some say along the logic of "voting with your money".
The opportunities to show some spine abound. The question is whether you're going to reject paying for Star Trek stuff on the basis of being treated badly by Star Trek's copyright holders or show them that you'll knuckle under?
Digital Citizen
Can they reskin their work to be for Star Wreck?
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
If Hollywood sends its thugs after you, you can't just move your server to the free world, like Sci-Hub.
Locking up ideas as property is ultimately no less a form of censorship than trying to suppress them. If I cannot say or write words that have been said or written before, or even something similar because someone owns those words, I do not have freedom of expression. Copyright belongs in the dustbin of history.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
The member of the CBS legal team that issued the order went on holiday
Suuuuuuuuuuuuure they did. You know, there are a few people over the course of my adulthood, dealing with different things financial, etc. that seem to "go on holiday" a lot when it's most inconvenient for my particular case. Maybe I'm naive, though, and just realizing that this is a common tactic to get people to forget about whatever it is they were upset or concerned about and leave you alone. Amirite?
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
All CBS did was give the "Cord Cutters" one more reason to get rid of TV. CBS is only hurting themselves.
This is a perfect example of an ever increasing trend to treat the customer or potential customer as an enemy.
I suppose no one ever told them that, "Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery."
There is a very large difference between creating something beautiful and getting rewarded by pay through your efforts (if you're lucky, too); and, taking what you or others have created, sealing it off from the world, and turning it into a money-cow-god to be endlessly milked. The public becomes a sort of domesticated creature in which money is derived from. If they try to hop the fence or do things they shouldn't do, they get the cattle prod.
man, f*ck cbs.
Here's an honest question for all the CBS shills in the audience: why do you hate your fans so much?