CBS/Paramount new stupid fanfilm rules

[DarthPooky]

http://www.startrek.com/fan-films

Wow CBS and Paramount just released these new rules for making Fan films. Just WOW look at them I mean 8 9 and 10 are fine but 1 2 3 4 5 and 7 like I get having nothing pornographic ok but they cant show a character have a glass of wine or beer to say nothing of rule 1. what a great way to alienate your fan base.

[Elheru Aran]

1: Most fan productions aren't much more than 15-20 minutes anyway, and a chunk of that is credits. Now this kind of puts the kibosh on people making their own series like Axanar, which sucks. But those are in the minority.

2: Can't title it Star Trek? Well. *shrugs* Nothing stopping them from running that line "A Star Trek Fan Production" and making the "Star Trek" part really big at the bottom of the title screen.

3: Of course they don't want people ripping off ideas, like knocking off scenes from DS9 or whatever. They want people to be *original*. Star Trek is a big universe, there's plenty of room for new stories.

4: OK, that's kind of lame. Official merch is kinda expensive, and this is basically saying they can't make their own costumes and props from scratch. So yeah, this is pretty much a straight-up fuck-you.

5: Kinda uncool. Means they can't save their pennies and hire one of the original actors to make a cameo. Not a huge deal... but annoying. One implication of this that I can see is that they can't contract with a prop house (though that's already forbidden by #4) to make new props, pay someone to do their special effects, and so forth. In theory I can see why (they want people to do their own work) but in practice I can't see that helping improve the quality of fan films in any way.

6: Can't make a profit. This is totally normal and par for the course. This is pretty much how Star Wars fan stuff works, too.

7: Family friendly.... that gets a pretty huge 'meh' from me. The only question I have is whether they mean up to PG or PG-13, or if they have to keep it strictly G-rated. DS9, Voyager and even some TNG could get pretty hard PG-13 on occasion. "No alcohol"... well Quark just poured a glass of some glowing green beverage, it's obviously NOT alcohol, right? Because alcohol doesn't glow green, right? That kind of stuff can be handwaved away with ease.

The last three are pretty much just legalese ("don't try to copyright stuff that we technically have the right to and not you, put up this disclaimer please, and we aren't going to endorse you so don't say we are") so they're not a big deal.

The most offensive are probably 4 and 5, as those put the greatest impediment in the way of any prospective fan-filmmakers. 6 is also potentially an issue, as I can see a creative lawyer saying that someone getting hired because of the work they did on a fan-film is a "profit". The rest of it is mostly just CBS/Paramount keeping the smelly nerds at arms' distance by giving some clear rules that they need to follow, but if they do that, CBS is basically giving them a semi-assurance that they won't sue their asses off for IP infringement.

[Soontir C'boath]

Just saw a post from Darkerprojects.com that they are pulling their ST audio dramas down due to these rules of which I can only assume it's mainly #1.

15-30 minutes I don't mind, but only allowing standalone stories is a bummer. Especially if it's just a 15 minute production.

[FaxModem1]

Axanar really stuck something in Paramount's craw.

[Elheru Aran]

Axanar really stuck something in Paramount's craw.

It had gotten pretty popular, hadn't it?

[FaxModem1]

Axanar really stuck something in Paramount's craw.

It had gotten pretty popular, hadn't it?

Either that or Tim Russ's stuff suddenly got popular. Either way, having clauses that forbid prior workers in Star Trek from doing fanfilms means that they don't want the competition.

[Joun_Lord]

Either that or Tim Russ's stuff suddenly got popular. Either way, having clauses that forbid prior workers in Star Trek from doing fanfilms means that they don't want the competition.

It seems stupid that they would think of it as competition. Maybe if people were charging for the fan films but even something almost professional like Anaxar nobody is being charged. They had donations but were making any profit, nobody was paying to see the final product, it was supposed to be free.

But considering fan films are free and literally done by fans, this seems like shooting themselves in the foot. People so hardcore to make fan films are going to be the core of the audience, the people that gave Star Trek 50 years of life. Casual fans come and go, the nerds who filmed shitty but earnest VHS films back in the 80s and computer generated whiz bang fancy films today will always be with Trek so long as the series has them. Their films aren't competition, its homage to a series they love done solely for the love of it.

With all these rules those people probably aren't going to think its worth it. Sounds like nothing can be made not even shitty little garage films because their cardboard Enterprise doesn't meet some legalize code about official merchandise or something. The passion, the joy they had in Trek will be diminished, will die. They probably aren't going to be throwing tons of money buying DVDs and massively overpriced boxsets, dropping dollars on merchandise from a franchise that pretty much told them to eat a bag of dicks.

I fear this drive to stifle "competition" may wind up killing the franchise.

That doesn't even get into the problem of denying Star Trek workers the chance to be fans. Most probably started working on the shows and shit because they were fans, probably started doing fan films well before becoming official. Then people like the actors who enjoyed their role in the series and like interacting with fans probably are going to have some major problems.

From what I've heard Tim Russ enjoys working with fans because he is a fan himself. He does fan films not for the money but because he enjoys Trek and enjoys working with other fans. I'm sure telling he can't won't exactly make him a friend of CBS/Paramount. If nothing else pissing off your actors who do press, voice over work, DVD commentary who knows what else for your company probably ain't smart.

[Q99]

The most offensive are probably 4 and 5, as those put the greatest impediment in the way of any prospective fan-filmmakers. 6 is also potentially an issue, as I can see a creative lawyer saying that someone getting hired because of the work they did on a fan-film is a "profit". The rest of it is mostly just CBS/Paramount keeping the smelly nerds at arms' distance by giving some clear rules that they need to follow, but if they do that, CBS is basically giving them a semi-assurance that they won't sue their asses off for IP infringement.

Also, 5 is probably boilerplate that they won't care about unless it's *obvious*, i.e. if your characters have a glass of Romulan Ale they won't care, but showing a crew of blackout-drunk disgraces to starfleet is out.


Frankly, the one I'm most bugged about is the length, but as mentioned, most fan-stuff is short anyway.


On the whole?.... these aren't horrible rules, they don't make it too burdensome on fan makers, and a lot of them are common-sense that the majority of existing fan films would qualify on anyway.

It seems stupid that they would think of it as competition. Maybe if people were charging for the fan films but even something almost professional like Anaxar nobody is being charged. They had donations but were making any profit, nobody was paying to see the final product, it was supposed to be free.

Weren't they using it to set up a studio they intended to use for other for-profit productions? It really did seem to fall into 'hollywood accounting,' i.e. playing with the numbers to claim it's not making money.

And the budget was so big it really was pushing the limits of fan-film.... and US law is also quite clear that properties have to be protected. If they didn't do anything, it is possible for things to get to the point that Disney could go, "We're going to make a Star Trek movie since it's obviously ok with you, and you can't do anything about it since you allowed all these other productions with a budget."

That's the CBS/Paramount nightmare scenario.

Studios may like fan stuff to an extent but it has to be clearly recognizable as fan-stuff, make it a show, even a free one, and they can potentially face some real problems.

Anaxar really was the perfect storm of "how to make a company react"- Arguably for profit, has an actual budget, uses professional actors (including existing Trek actors), and aiming to make it look as much like a real show as they can.

I fear this drive to stifle "competition" may wind up killing the franchise.

I seriously doubt it. Most people haven't seen fan films, and this won't even stop people from seeing fan films- heck, we now have an outlined zone we *know* is safe.

[RogueIce]

You want a villain in this story? Look no further than Axanar Productions, not CBS/Paramount.

Because they're the ones that, even if they weren't violating the letter of the law (debatable) they most certainly took the spirit of the law out behind their (totally not-for-profit we swear guys!) studios and beat it with a rusty crowbar. And then, when CBS told them "no stahp what are you doing this isn't right cut it out guys" they not only decided to fight back (okay fair enough, day in court and all that) but doubled down on a negative PR campaign to rile up that sweet, sweet fanboy rage against the legitimate IP holders doing what legitimate IP holders do when some upstart fucks try to take their IP and receive financial benefit from it.

Read on for more details: http://axamonitor.com/doku.php?id=axanar_myths Note especially how so much of the "not-for-profit" line only came out after the lawsuit was announced? Yeah...totally not fishy at all!

Anyway, is it sad that other fanfilms that weren't (and in Axanar's case, continues to be!) a bunch of raging dickbags will be hurt by this? Yes, yes it is. But if you're looking to direct your fan rage at some target, at least let it be the ones who brought about the wrath of Paramount's lawyers in the first place and made them sit up and decide, "Hey guys guess we need some official guidelines on this fan film thing after all."

Because these rules - no matter what you may think of them - are a whole lot better than what would have been a lot easier and simpler (from a lawyer's perspective, anyway) for them to do: Just go LOLNOPE to any and all future fan film productions and start firing off the takedowns and C&Ds at the current and past ones to boot.

[Q99]

Because these rules - no matter what you may think of them - are a whole lot better than what would have been a lot easier and simpler (from a lawyer's perspective, anyway) for them to do: Just go LOLNOPE to any and all future fan film productions and start firing off the takedowns and C&Ds at the current and past ones to boot.

Which is a stance that isn't too rare- Games Workshop killed a German-made Warhammer 40k fan film.


Even though I can't think of other properties who's fans have gone as far into "let's try and make this look like a real professional film." This is fairly unprecedented, and the companies do have to (as in, 'legally required to if they want to keep the property,') draw a line somewhere.

[Elheru Aran]

Because these rules - no matter what you may think of them - are a whole lot better than what would have been a lot easier and simpler (from a lawyer's perspective, anyway) for them to do: Just go LOLNOPE to any and all future fan film productions and start firing off the takedowns and C&Ds at the current and past ones to boot.

Which is a stance that isn't too rare- Games Workshop killed a German-made Warhammer 40k fan film.


Even though I can't think of other properties who's fans have gone as far into "let's try and make this look like a real professional film." This is fairly unprecedented, and the companies do have to (as in, 'legally required to if they want to keep the property,') draw a line somewhere.

As I noted, this is basically CBS/Paramount saying "if you follow these rules you're probably safe". Which has to be sort of a relief for someone wanting to make a fan film-- they know they won't get their asses sued off. On the other hand, their options are suddenly much more narrowly limited, so they may still be screwed as it is. It's hard to say.

[Simon_Jester]

I think (1) is very excessive because it sharply restricts the length of the works. Down to significantly less than, for example, a full episode of any Star Trek series. It also creates problems if the same group of people want to get back together a year later and do the same thing; is that considered a "sequel" or additional "episode?"

(4) is harsh though it can in large part be resolved via workarounds since it's not like there aren't plenty of gratuitous uniform changes and reworkings of the Enterprise user interface that Starfleet put its people through from show to show and movie to movie.

(5) is in my opinion questionable. Can Paramount or CBS really tell Walter Koenig or George Takei that they can't appear in a fan film? It's not like either of them is going to get hired again for anything by Paramount or CBS. Maybe that's legal and all... but if so that's a questionable regulation. It's even worse if you're talking about someone who was randomly brought in as an extra in some specific scene of Deep Space Nine fifteen years ago... do you mean to tell me they aren't allowed to do anything else, unrelated to what they originally did?

The others are relatively unobjectionable, and (8), (9), and (10) are basic common sense if Paramount and CBS want to retain copyright.

But yeah, I've noticed that people have been, for lack of a better term, escalating the degree to which they nibble away at CBS/Paramount's claim to exclusive control over Star Trek, for at least the last five years or so. Partly, I think, because we're starved for content given that they've only been turning out movies every few years and there hasn't been a new TV show for Star Trek in ten years.

Since they want to retain the ability to release future TV and movies, they're cracking down. I understand that even if I think taht rules (1) and (5) should be relaxed.

[Lost Soal]

If someone wants to go the full film route I'm guessing they can go the Star Wreck route and create a parody fan film as parodies have far more legal protection and exceptions allowed.

[The Romulan Republic]

To pull off a successful parody, being funny and not too close to the original while still being obvious what you're referencing, is a tricky balancing act.

Straight drama, I think, is easier, and most fans, well, aren't great writers.

[Q99]

I think (1) is very excessive because it sharply restricts the length of the works. Down to significantly less than, for example, a full episode of any Star Trek series. It also creates problems if the same group of people want to get back together a year later and do the same thing; is that considered a "sequel" or additional "episode?"

I think the timeframe doesn't matter- stay under 30 minutes, or switch characters/settings etc..

So you could do two sub-15-min episodes each in TOS, TNG, DS9, Voy, and Ent with the same actors just fine.

Also, your words made something click for me- "significantly less than a full episode of any Star Trek series." Or to put it another way, watching something this length you would not mistake it for a full official episode even if the actors were good and it had high production values.

If someone wants to go the full film route I'm guessing they can go the Star Wreck route and create a parody fan film as parodies have far more legal protection and exceptions allowed.

Right, that remains 100% kosher.

You can't do "the feature length adventure of Captain Gnar, first Gorn in the Federation's Starfleet." You can do, "the feature length adventure of Captain Gnar, first Rerp in the Commonwealth's Star Corps."


Heck, personally I'd like to see more stuff like that.

[FaxModem1]

https://fococomiccon.com/2016/star-trek ... le-fandom/

Star Trek: A Case Study In How to Dismantle a Fandom
Posted on June 24, 2016 by Nick Armstrong in FoCo Comic Con Community 168 Comments
Photo Credit: US Army Europe
(Header Photo Credit: US Army Europe)

CBS and Paramount handed down new Star Trek Fan Film guidelines and most fans are livid:

Star Trek Facebook

At the time of writing, the official post on Star Trek’s Facebook page had 1,300+ comments. 1,300+ “angry” and “sad” reactions. Tweets from Trekkie lawyers like Ryan Kairalla and an entire hashtag around parody rules:

Follow
Ryan Kairalla @ryankair
"To ensure authenticity, all deep space scenes must be shot on location" #trekfanfilmguidelines @StarTrekAxanar @BurnettRM
1:39 PM - 23 Jun 2016
10 10 Retweets 20 20 likes
On the rules, Paramount and CBS indicate: “CBS and Paramount Pictures are big believers in reasonable fan fiction and fan creativity, and, in particular, want amateur fan filmmakers to showcase their passion for Star Trek.” So, what’s all the fuss? Let’s deconstruct the guidelines (cited from StarTrek.com on 6/24/16 at 12PM Mountain):

CBS and Paramount’s Guidelines for Avoiding Objections:

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.
The title of the fan production or any parts cannot include the name “Star Trek.” However, the title must contain a subtitle with the phrase: “A STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTION” in plain typeface. The fan production cannot use the term “official” in either its title or subtitle or in any marketing, promotions or social media for the fan production.
The content in the fan production must be original, not reproductions, recreations or clips from any Star Trek production. If non-Star Trek third party content is used, all necessary permissions for any third party content should be obtained in writing.
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.
The fan production must be a real “fan” production, i.e., creators, actors and all other participants must be amateurs, cannot be compensated for their services, and cannot be currently or previously employed on any Star Trek series, films, production of DVDs or with any of CBS or Paramount Pictures’ licensees.
The fan production must be non-commercial:
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 must only be exhibited or distributed on a no-charge basis and/or shared via streaming services without generating revenue.
The fan production cannot be distributed in a physical format such as DVD or Blu-ray.
The fan production cannot be used to derive advertising revenue including, but not limited to, through for example, the use of pre or post-roll advertising, click-through advertising banners, that is associated with the fan production.
No unlicensed Star Trek-related or fan production-related merchandise or services can be offered for sale or given away as premiums, perks or rewards or in connection with the fan production fundraising.
The fan production cannot derive revenue by selling or licensing fan-created production sets, props or costumes.
The fan production must be family friendly and suitable for public presentation. Videos must not include profanity, nudity, obscenity, pornography, depictions of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or any harmful or illegal activity, or any material that is offensive, fraudulent, defamatory, libelous, disparaging, sexually explicit, threatening, hateful, or any other inappropriate content. The content of the fan production cannot violate any individual’s right of privacy.
The fan production must display the following disclaimer in the on-screen credits of the fan productions and on any marketing material including the fan production website or page hosting the fan production: “Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.”
Creators of fan productions must not seek to register their works, nor any elements of the works, under copyright or trademark law.
Fan productions cannot create or imply any association or endorsement by CBS or Paramount Pictures.
10 guidelines which, taken together, dismantle the Star Trek creator fandom.

Not all the rules are explicitly unfair, though – so let’s start with some premises:

Let’s agree that profiting off of someone else’s brand or copyright is probably not in the realm of “Fair Use”, so guidelines 6, 8, 9, 10 are more or less fair to a true indie fan creator.
Some might take exception to #6 based on production costs to build sets and the like, but it’s not like you couldn’t crowdfund prop replicas or sets – like the “restore the bridge” project – separate from the production fundraising in and of itself.
Let’s also agree that – as fan productions, the product should always be free to the audience (except for previously mentioned donations for production up to the level of breaking even) and not have advertising revenue associated which would negatively impact the property owner’s income.
The one caveat to #6 is that if you backup your production on a DVD or USB drive and do a screening with that media, you’re in violation.
So what does that leave us? Let’s explore the remaining rules: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7

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.
Consequence: No world-building. No characters surviving or explored beyond the scope of 30 minutes in total. No complex storylines. No ongoing efforts. This one rule, in and of itself, can put a stop to: Axanar, Star Trek: Continues, Star Trek: Phase II (New Voyages), Star Trek: Outpost, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, Star Trek: Renegades, Starship: Exeter, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, Star Trek: Section 31, Star Trek: Intrepid, and pretty much every other fan production that is longer than 30 minutes or one episode.

Many productions and audio dramas have already indicated they’re halting work via their Facebook pages.

It’s not entirely clear if these rules only apply to film productions or if audio and written form (ie: if it takes you longer than 30 minutes to read or has more than 2 sections/chapters it violates this rule), but they’re halting all the same. Episodic, serial Trek is what we’ve seen, time and time again and what most productions have modeled themselves after – because fans expect it.

The title of the fan production or any parts cannot include the name “Star Trek.” However, the title must contain a subtitle with the phrase: “A STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTION” in plain typeface. The fan production cannot use the term “official” in either its title or subtitle or in any marketing, promotions or social media for the fan production.
Consequence: Not a huge deal, just every fan production with “Star Trek” in the title will be slightly harder to find in Google and will need to change domains.

The content in the fan production must be original, not reproductions, recreations or clips from any Star Trek production. If non-Star Trek third party content is used, all necessary permissions for any third party content should be obtained in writing.
Consequence: If interpreted to include audio clips and effects, that means you can’t use any existing sounds, effects (transporter/warp), or music. The way this guideline is written, it could also mean you can’t use fonts, designs, or derivations of existing work – such as LCARS, the ship designs, Klingon symbols, you name it. So… is it still Trek if it doesn’t have the trappings of Trek?

Theoretically, you could also stretch this guideline to YouTube and Twitch streams of role-playing Star Trek Online players – since they’re essentially “producing” “machima” using “official clips” from a Star Trek production.

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.
Consequence: Whew. No 3D printed phasers or tricorders (because Playmates made a Tricorder back in the day – good luck finding one on Ebay). No 3D-printed combadges or rank pips, because Anovos made replica licensed props of those ($$$). No TOS, TNG, Voyager/Early DS9, or Insurrection uniforms because those exist via Anovos (sometimes they’re even in stock). Again, is it still Trek if it doesn’t have the trappings of Trek? This feels like a cash grab more than an honest intent to be “true to the trappings of Trek” (especially in tangent with rule #3 – wherein you can’t use any official clips or recreations of official clips).

The fan production must be a real “fan” production, i.e., creators, actors and all other participants must be amateurs, cannot be compensated for their services, and cannot be currently or previously employed on any Star Trek series, films, production of DVDs or with any of CBS or Paramount Pictures’ licensees.
Consequence: If my day job is to produce audio, and I produce audio on a fan film for free, the fan film is now in violation. If I build website professionally, and I donate my services to the fan film, that fan film is in violation. If a fan film has a professional Trek actor participate, that fan film is now screwed. If you’ve ever appeared in the Trekkies documentaries, you cannot participate in a Star Trek fan film. Depending on the interpretation of the word “employ” (as in: employed as an eyewitness commentator? employed as an unpaid extra? Employed as an unpaid intern?) anyone who was ever on their local CBS affiliate could also be risking a lawsuit from CBS and Paramount if they participate in a Star Trek fan film. This really seems like an overreach, and ultimately, I believe is in violation of most state laws on noncompetition agreements as it has a chilling effect on hiring.

The fan production must be family friendly and suitable for public presentation. Videos must not include profanity, nudity, obscenity, pornography, depictions of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or any harmful or illegal activity, or any material that is offensive, fraudulent, defamatory, libelous, disparaging, sexually explicit, threatening, hateful, or any other inappropriate content. The content of the fan production cannot violate any individual’s right of privacy.
Consequence: You’d better not have any interesting characters who are dealing with any personal vices, you cannot have a duplicitous Ferengi breaking the law, you cannot use Orions (especially with regards to slave trafficking and Orion women probably violate the obscenity bit because obscenity is SUBJECTIVE), you cannot show the NX-01 Decon Chamber (bow chica bow wow), you cannot have a Klingon/Federation bar fight scene, you cannot have a fight scene at all (because last time I checked violence was illegal and harmful), you cannot use the Betazed or Borg assimilation (because you’re violating an individual’s right of privacy – in this case, a character, but it’s not written to preclude that). In short: do not do anything we find disagreeable. Having a plot is highly discouraged.

Having a plot is highly discouraged.

What are we left with?

Not anything that we currently recognize as a Trek fan work. Certainly nothing long enough to deal with current social issues, or that can even deal with social issues at all.

I’ve always been a Trekkie. I can remember my first episode, watched with my family on the couch. I remember being inspired by a more hopeful future – technology side by side with social progress enabling massive shifts in human culture. I wanted to live up to those ideals. I dabbled in fan fiction, created my first fan website, created my own audio drama, and now participate actively in one that just posted its 72nd episode – a Trek audio drama that won a Parsec Award (this is like an audio drama Emmy). That production, completely staffed and produced by amateurs, likely can’t continue under these rules handed down by CBS and Paramount. And that’s wrong.

CBS and Paramount Pictures are now icing the most enthusiastic Star Trek fans in the name of corporate greed and it’s wrong – wrong enough that I’m rethinking my status as a Trekkie.

Since 2005 when Enterprise went off the air, fan films and conventions kept the torch going. Let’s be clear: w/out Star Trek: Continues and other fan films like it, Star Trek’s fanbase was in a major drought. CBS and Paramount no doubt benefitted from fan work – who the hell do you think kept buying, watching, reviewing, and asking for more and more advanced props and reference material? Who do you think showed up in full-on cosplay at the premiers?

Fan films, experiments, adaptations, and fiction should be given special immunity from copyright as long as they’re not products the audience pays for (beyond donations for production costs). It’s pretty clear when that line is deviated from.

There are at least 4 different legal arrangements for fan work I’m aware of that CBS and Paramount could have employed without risking their business model:

Creative Commons (least ambiguous, most enforceable, has community support, has to be constantly monitored but a large media company has the resources)
Open-Source (or Creative Commons) Creator’s Toolkit (Nine Inch Nail’s The Hand That Feeds album)
Selective Licensing (Star Wars Extended Universe)
Open-Forum Guidelines w/ Reporting and Advice (Kindle Worlds)
Speaking as a creator whose creations have been infringed upon – in my case my work was outright stolen and republished as someone else’s, not remixed by a fan – I say let fan creations ride.

Fan creations almost always help the original artist. Thanks to the DMCA, piracy and off-brand usage are almost always easily thwarted without litigation. If you want to encourage remixes and adaptation, Creative Commons has use-specific license denial when you don’t agree (morally or otherwise) with the remix’s intended purpose and “not-for-commercial sale” option built into the CC-AT-NC licenses, too. Sounds like a perfect platform to encourage fan creations, right? You never relinquish your copyright and can object to a particular use at any time.

A stone-cold “you cannot create anything that would remotely compete with Trek and, also, please only watch/buy/wear/share Official Trek” stance is wrong-headed. Worse: to consider a largely fan-created language (Klingon) enforceable property is just… greedy.

There’s no confusion on the part of fans: we know what “real” Trek is, what it looks like. We’re not making the choice of where to put our money. We are going to spend (and HAVE spent) money on *all* of it – fan or canon, paid streaming or Netflix or YouTube. It’s not an either/or proposition. It’s always an *and*. That loyalty is supposed to work both ways, though – and when you get greedy in the sandbox, nobody wants to play with you anymore.

These guidelines essentially spell the end of Star Trek fan creations. It’s as simple as that.

Bad rules are bad for business. You don’t have to be a Ferengi to see how icing fans between productions chills demand for all Trek. These guidelines represent a completely antithetical deviation from a franchise that once espoused that money wasn’t the end goal in the future. It would be nearly impossible for a fan film following guidelines 2, 6, 8, 9, 10 to have a significant financial impact on either CBS or Paramount so it’s hard to see why the remaining items are necessary outside of a lawsuit.

It would be nearly impossible for a fan film following guidelines 2, 6, 8, 9, 10 to have a significant financial impact on either CBS or Paramount so it’s hard to see why the remaining items are necessary to enforce outside of a lawsuit.

This Trekkie can no longer sustain being a fan. If you feel the same, let CBS and Paramount know.

What a terrible and short-sighted end to such a beautiful vision of the future.

Essentially, all this vague wording really makes it to where fans aren't allowed to do anything aside from having people pose in licensed costumes.

[Broomstick]

"No alcohol"... well Quark just poured a glass of some glowing green beverage, it's obviously NOT alcohol, right? Because alcohol doesn't glow green, right? That kind of stuff can be handwaved away with ease.

"Synthahol"

Prune juice - it's a warrior's drink!

Really, you can work around that with any sort of creative spark.

[Mange]

Too bad, I really like Star Trek: Phase II. With these new rules, I can't see how they can continue the way they do.

[Lost Soal]

I'm all but certain that names are Trademarks and under US law must be actively defended in all cases meaning the fact there has been so many fan projects over the decades would indicate they've effectively lost that trademark and so can not legally enforce the name rule.

The non-pro rules I'm convinced in completely unenforceable since that's trying to enforce retroactive non-compete clauses all their employees and, depending on how you read the guidelines, people who've never signed a contract with Paramount in their lives.

[Elheru Aran]

I'm all but certain that names are Trademarks and under US law must be actively defended in all cases meaning the fact there has been so many fan projects over the decades would indicate they've effectively lost that trademark and so can not legally enforce the name rule.

The non-pro rules I'm convinced in completely unenforceable since that's trying to enforce retroactive non-compete clauses all their employees and, depending on how you read the guidelines, people who've never signed a contract with Paramount in their lives.

I think CBS/Paramount are kinda counting on the fact that the great majority of fans who care about the genre enough to make their own films simply don't have the money to mount any kind of legal challenge to these rules. It's possible that once enough people complain to former actors like George Takei and Tim Russ that they might be willing to help out, some of the rules might get tweaked a bit. Takei in particular has a really massive Facebook following (cat videos, picspam, and the occasional self-promotion and LGBT support mostly) so he has a pretty decent amount of pull if he decided to get involved.

[Q99]

I think CBS/Paramount are kinda counting on the fact that the great majority of fans who care about the genre enough to make their own films simply don't have the money to mount any kind of legal challenge to these rules. It's possible that once enough people complain to former actors like George Takei and Tim Russ that they might be willing to help out, some of the rules might get tweaked a bit. Takei in particular has a really massive Facebook following (cat videos, picspam, and the occasional self-promotion and LGBT support mostly) so he has a pretty decent amount of pull if he decided to get involved.

I sincerely doubt they would- it's not the strictest of rules on the whole, and ex-trek actors have a reason to be on CBS/Paramount's good side (appearances at official events/conventions).


Also there is the matter that allowing fanfilms at all is not a legal requirement and many companies don't. It would be entirely possible to respond to challenges with, "Ok, here's new, tighter rules."

[Simon_Jester]

I'm all but certain that names are Trademarks and under US law must be actively defended in all cases meaning the fact there has been so many fan projects over the decades would indicate they've effectively lost that trademark and so can not legally enforce the name rule.

That wouldn't be an improvement. Because if your interpretation is true, then every content producer has to crack down on EVERY fan project and fan fiction. If they don't, they risk losing the copyright because "hey, you let someone else make a fan video."

It is not in the collective interests of fandom to tell major corporations that they can lose the right to control of their IP if they tolerate the creation of nonprofit amateur fan videos for a few years.

Because what they're really afraid of isn't the fans, it's rival corporations. As noted, Paramount has to be worried about Disney trying to make Star Trek. I imagine Disney is worried about other people trying to make Star Wars. It wouldn't be hard for a major corporation to do something like that. Literally the only thing that allows companies (or individuals) to go on profiting from franchise characters like James Bond, superhero comics characters, or yes, Star Trek, is that a corporation is allowed to have a monopoly on the right to use depictions of that character.

They are free to choose to permit others to exercise that privilege, but under existing law, it is not something that can be taken away from them casually. If they fear that it can be taken away casually, say, by four guys in redshirt costumes making a Youtube video... They have a serious problem. And their only recourse is to crack down on those four guys and that Youtube video.

This is, for example, the route Disney likes to take with depictions of their numerous cartoon characters. They are positively ferocious about enforcing copyright. Because the reality is, it would not be that hard to steal the likeness and depiction of characters like, oh, Elsa from Frozen. She's a CGI cartoon character, any bunch of determined people could create copies of her likeness indistinguishable from the 'original.'

And yet... she is also worth tens if not hundreds of millions in merchandising. Disney created the movie that made the character famous; Disney has a reasonable expectation of being able to reap the financial awards. And has a reasonable expectation that others will NOT create copy Elsas and put them on backpacks for little girls (cutting into merchandise revenue). And that they will not produce TV shows involving Elsa for showing to children on major television networks (competing with any Frozen-derived TV show Disney actually produces or plans to produce).

Paramount has faced the reality that the fan-made Star Trek content is getting better and better. And in the past few years, as practiced by some, it has started to become what strongly resembles a for-profit enterprise. At some point they have to worry about what will happen if a bunch of corporate investors decide to fund and profit from a scaled up version of the fan videos.

The non-pro rules I'm convinced in completely unenforceable since that's trying to enforce retroactive non-compete clauses all their employees and, depending on how you read the guidelines, people who've never signed a contract with Paramount in their lives.

That is a good point. I doubt anyone who appeared in the original series, and probably not a lot of people who appeared in other Star Trek later, actually agreed to permanent non-compete terms like that.

[FedRebel]

Which is a stance that isn't too rare- Games Workshop killed a German-made Warhammer 40k fan film.

Which was darn retarded, Yep with major theatrical releases, memeticly huge MMO's. (Blizzard's "Warcraft" and "Starcraft" Heresy's.) The last thing Warhammer needs is a fan film to help spread word of mouth an bring more fans in.

[Rogue 9]

Which is a stance that isn't too rare- Games Workshop killed a German-made Warhammer 40k fan film.

Which was darn retarded, Yep with major theatrical releases, memeticly huge MMO's. (Blizzard's "Warcraft" and "Starcraft" Heresy's.) The last thing Warhammer needs is a fan film to help spread word of mouth an bring more fans in.

To be fair, they're (so far) explicitly allowing the production of The Lord Inquisitor. From following both Damnatus and that project, it seems they have the opposite stance from Paramount; they want their IP represented only by quality stuff (the abysmal failure that was the Ultramarines movie notwithstanding).

[Lost Soal]

I'm all but certain that names are Trademarks and under US law must be actively defended in all cases meaning the fact there has been so many fan projects over the decades would indicate they've effectively lost that trademark and so can not legally enforce the name rule.

That wouldn't be an improvement. Because if your interpretation is true, then every content producer has to crack down on EVERY fan project and fan fiction. If they don't, they risk losing the copyright because "hey, you let someone else make a fan video."

It is not in the collective interests of fandom to tell major corporations that they can lose the right to control of their IP if they tolerate the creation of nonprofit amateur fan videos for a few years.

Because what they're really afraid of isn't the fans, it's rival corporations. As noted, Paramount has to be worried about Disney trying to make Star Trek. I imagine Disney is worried about other people trying to make Star Wars. It wouldn't be hard for a major corporation to do something like that. Literally the only thing that allows companies (or individuals) to go on profiting from franchise characters like James Bond, superhero comics characters, or yes, Star Trek, is that a corporation is allowed to have a monopoly on the right to use depictions of that character.

They are free to choose to permit others to exercise that privilege, but under existing law, it is not something that can be taken away from them casually. If they fear that it can be taken away casually, say, by four guys in redshirt costumes making a Youtube video... They have a serious problem. And their only recourse is to crack down on those four guys and that Youtube video.

This is, for example, the route Disney likes to take with depictions of their numerous cartoon characters. They are positively ferocious about enforcing copyright. Because the reality is, it would not be that hard to steal the likeness and depiction of characters like, oh, Elsa from Frozen. She's a CGI cartoon character, any bunch of determined people could create copies of her likeness indistinguishable from the 'original.'

And yet... she is also worth tens if not hundreds of millions in merchandising. Disney created the movie that made the character famous; Disney has a reasonable expectation of being able to reap the financial awards. And has a reasonable expectation that others will NOT create copy Elsas and put them on backpacks for little girls (cutting into merchandise revenue). And that they will not produce TV shows involving Elsa for showing to children on major television networks (competing with any Frozen-derived TV show Disney actually produces or plans to produce).

Paramount has faced the reality that the fan-made Star Trek content is getting better and better. And in the past few years, as practiced by some, it has started to become what strongly resembles a for-profit enterprise. At some point they have to worry about what will happen if a bunch of corporate investors decide to fund and profit from a scaled up version of the fan videos.

Trademark, not Copyright, their two different things. Copyright; designs, music; they can choose to enforce or allow as they wish (I believe) but the Trademarks which include the Star Trek names & logos must be actively defended under US law or they give up the rights which as I understand is one of the reasons why Toho have filed suits against almost any company with Zilla in the name. Since both Lucas and Paramount have left fan films with the name Wars & Trek names in them then by the letter of the law if it were to go to court then they technically should be ruled against. Whether it would actually play out this way or they bankrupt the opposition before a decision is made is another matter entirely.