Anyone Looking Forward to Star Trek: Axanar?

Oh sure.

Because we all know Christians are never treated disdainfully and disrespectfully in this country.

I would point out that only 44 of them have been elected to the highest political office in the land, but that would be derailing this thread into Red Room territory, so I won't. You want to talk about such things, then I suggest moving the discussion there. Let's keep this thread to Trek, shall we?

Is Star Trek Continues still in production.

No. According to their blog, they are just finishing the last episode and then they are done.

That is too bad. Of all the fan productions they seem to capture the spirit of the original best.

So basically this guy fucked up fan films/series for everyone, and he's still getting his ass sued. Brilliant.

I feel so sorry for the massive majority of the population who are Christian. Whatever will they do?

People can like or dislike Peters all they want. But what's ultimately at stake here is how to change a concept of copyright developed for top-down production of individual or episodic fictional media to the new reality of dispersed production of storyworld fictions. Ignoring that the latter is not the same situation as the former, i.e. ignoring that we are talking about creating new legal concepts rather than just applying old ones, will lead to incongruent and unstable decisions.

The verdict runs into this problem (and completely ignores it) when it quotes the two reasons why in a different case, similar material was considered as objectively and subjectively different.

1) Material B was produced without knowledge of material A.

2) Material B presents a different plot from material A.

These rules come from a time when (1) and (2) usually align. But that is ludicrous for a shared storyworld. Clearly, Rogue One does not have the same plot as Phantom Menace. The Wrath of Khan does not have the same plot as The Voyage Home. And Axanar wasn't going to have the same plot as Whom Gods Destroy.

Copyright is there, allegedly, to protect producers' rights. The question here is what people produce. In my opinion, the producers of Whom Gods Destroy produced a TV episode; they did not in any material sense produce Garth of Izar, as evidenced by the fact that the TV episode exists and exists as a result of said production, whereas Garth of Izar does not exist. If someone copies the TV episode and sells it as their own, they infringe copyright: They receive money that would otherwise go to the original producers. But if someone else makes a different product that includes Garth of Izar as a character, the original producers will likely sell more or the same amount of their product as a result. Rightholders, of course, are a different matter; they might be as interested in making sure their Star Trek movie is the only one that comes out this year as they are in holding back a new Star Wars movie to better sell their Star Trek movie. That's fine. But they have no moral right to protect future income by this means, income that does not result from anything they have actually produced.

^^^ That's some seriously bizarre logic, right there.

I don't think so called intellectual property rights should be absolute anyway. To me, once you produce something that becomes available to the general public that people in the general public pay to view or read then your absolute rights to that material is diminished.

Consumers have rights to in other words.

I'm sure you can spell out why then, and explain how logically, protecting producers' rights should lead to producers receiving less money and less control.

Yeah, no. If you want to use someone else's property you need permission. Especially if you want to put from it.

Can you clarify what you mean by that?

Profit.

^I see. But that might not always be the law.

And the lawsuit is over.

Is this a one time only settlement or does the restrictions mention go along with what had previously been announced for Star Trek fan productions?

And what is to keep a future fan production from producing and releasing 3 15 minute segments with them being effectively a full length TV episode.

Or 7-8 15 minutes segments with them effectively being a full length movie.

Because the rules say you can only post two.

I'm not sure I understand this. Does this mean EVERY Star Trek fan production group can each only post 2 15 minute segments in total?

Or does it mean you can only post two RELATED 15 minute segments....then move to do what amounts to another "two part short episode".

Also, what happens if a group of Trek fans calling themselves Star Trek 2.0 post 2 fifteen minute segments.......then officially "disband" their group....and reform it as Star Trek Again....and post 2 more 15 minute segments that while using different actors and effects clearly tie into the earlier 2 segments. ?

Yes. Your questions are exactly on point, and there is no clear answer, and that is deliberate. Making rules for media control vague and uncertain is an age old method, see 'chilling effects'.

I thought it was two 15 minute episodes that are related or as many 15 minute episodes unrelated as you want.

An example of what I'm talking about is this:

Alec Peters produces and puts out two 15 minutes segments over Axanar......then some people that worked on Axanar move on and do two 15 segments over the crew of the U.S. S. Constitution fighting in the Four Years War.... then some that worked on those projects do two 15 minutes segments........focusing on the Klingons fighting in the Four Years War.

Essentially you end up with a Star Trek movie about the Four Years War just as surely as if Alec Peters had been given full freedom to do what he had planned anyway.

I don't think you could combine them and edit them together to make a full movie.

Of course they couldn't.

But what would stop someone (even I could do it) from downloading them and doing it themselves?

Nothing.

Too bad about the lawsuit being settled out of court.

Peters was going to have his ass handed to him anyway, but it would have been nice to have a court of law set some parameters around the "rules of engagement" for fan films.

The convoluted "rules" issued by Paramount/CBS aren't going to help anything. Yes, they're the rights holders but as @K. aptly points out, they're really likely intended to quash any type of fan production.

It's not dead, Jim!

Saw that over at TBBS. I think the general consensus is that it's a huge scam, a play for money, and begging for more legal action.

Yeah, there's a site ran by a copyright lawyer who keeps tabs on the whole thing: http://axamonitor.com/doku.php?id=start

The general consensus is that people are being bilked.

The fan film being worked on "The Romulan War" looks impressive to me.