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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."
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.
I would be happy to pay for media with no advertising.
But I refuse to pay you to sell to me.
/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.
Hiring lawyers to go before the judge costs money and when you're doing something because you like it, spending all your money in court to fight the company that owns it isn't entirely worth it. CBS has infinite lawyer funds whereas fans don't.
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.
You aren't missing anything with STD. It's crap.
The Orville is the spiritual successor to Star Trek. I originally wrote it off as a dumb Galaxy Quest show but once you get past the first 2 episodes it starts to get good.
In the case of B5, I think that's more of a case of nobody giving a flying fuck.
Aside for the rabid fans, who even remembers this tripe? *I* remember it because a buddy of mine tried to get me into it. I gave it a full year, which is more than fair.
Just watch the Orville instead. It's a hundred times better than anything labeled Trek has been in a generation, and more true to the original Trek concepts while actually being entertaining.
And it'd be especially funny to see the Orville outlast Trek proper if CBS keeps up this attitude with its fans.