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CBS Shuts Down Stage 9, a Fan-Made Recreation of the USS Enterprise (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tough-luck dept.

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."

17 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. That's not all they've shut down by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.'"
    1. Re: That's not all they've shut down by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sorry you can't afford to spend ten bucks a month in expedited shipping priority, and, I guess the music and movies and books they throw in for some people too.

      Sorry you can't afford an email address. It would let you get a Slashdot login, so people might care about your opinions.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. free advertising by wgoodman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:free advertising by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Informative

      AFAIK copyright law requires the holder to take reasonable actions to maintain and protect their copyright. Not doing so makes it more vulnerable to challenge (and in the worst case, invalidation).

      I believe that is more applicable to trademarks than to copyright.

      And with copyright, you can license use of your copyrighted work...and you can do it for nothing or maybe like $1, which would be good to do with some fan project like this.

      If you actually sanctioned them, licensed them....you'd generate more goodwill and revenue for your commercial sales/uses of your copyrighted material.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re:free advertising by lgw · · Score: 4, Informative

      When will media companies figure out that fan projects are good for them?

      The more successful ones have. George Lucas was always OK with fan content, even very insulting fan content. The most striking is Jim Davis, owner of possibly the most financially successful modern IP, reached out to the creator of the "Garfield without Garfield" web site and, instead of a cease and desist, said "hey, want to publish a book".

      Perhaps there's a reason those just made many billions of dollars.

      Marvel is aggressive in protecting trademarks, but is otherwise surprisingly OK with fan content that doesn't get in the way of their merch sales. Heck, the Comics Explained YouTube channel is exactly the sort of thing that inept IP owners (including other parts of Disney) routinely shut down, and he probably makes more money from his Patreon than Marvel does from comic book sales these days.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    3. Re: free advertising by mark-t · · Score: 4, Informative

      No both copyright holders and trademark holders must defend their IP

      You are mistaken. Trademark holders do, but there is absolutely no requirement that copyright holders do likewise. At most it sitting on a known copyright infringement without taking action may limit or even entirely block the damages that the copyright holder could collect for that particular infringement, but it would not at all impact one's ability to sue for later infringements by different parties, as would be the case for not taking action on a trademark violation.

      And even if this *were* being alleged to be a trademark violation, they could probably rightfully claim nominal use of the trademark and be done with it (as long as they also explicitly said that it was not endorsed by CBS or Paramount, etc).

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  3. Lucas by JBMcB · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Lucas by commodore64_love · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Warner Brothers is also lenient when it comes to fan-made Babylon 5 sites. They only require we include a Trademark and Copyright notice on the bottom of the page to protect WB's IP.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    2. Re: Lucas by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Informative

      It depends on what is on the site and what the fans added to make their creation different or transformative. For example JK Rowling sued one Harry Potter encyclopedia fan site a few years back but whole heartedly endorses two others. So she's not against fan site but why did sue that one site?

      The site that was sued just quoted her book for nearly all of their articles. Many times, the articles didn't properly use quotation marks or attributions to note that the entirety of the text came from one of her books. Without any original text, it's hard to argue that that site didn't infringe. In this case, other than remaking it in another format, what original work was contributed?

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  4. Re:Fix the laws by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They don't HAVE to shut everything down.

    They could just GIVE STAGE 9 A CONTRACT TO SIGN, stating that they will continue to be noncommercial and that CBS owns all the rights.

    So long as Stage 9 is authorized, then there is no issue with them suing other, unauthorized, people who rip them off.

  5. Corporations hold culture hostage ... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    /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.

  6. Rolled-over too easily by commodore64_love · · Score: 5, Interesting

    >"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
    1. Re:Rolled-over too easily by wgoodman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

  7. Barking up the wrong tree. by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  8. Re:Don't want no klingons by stevew · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yep - after CBS started playing commercials on their streaming service within TV shows that are available over-the-air I canceled my subscription. Only got it to watch Star Trek Discovery - and honestly it was the worst Trek yet! I've been a fan since the original show originally aired! I can live without this!

    --
    Have you compiled your kernel today??
  9. still widely available by jlv · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  10. Re:Fuck CBS sideways with a rusty chainsaw by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have, do, and will watch The Orville, it's a good show even from what little there's been of it so far, and I'm surprised it's on Fox.