CBS and Paramount Issue Rules for Star Trek Fan Films

Intellectual property owners have to walk a fine line between encouraging fan engagement and protecting their franchise against copyright infringement. The various entities behind the 50-year-old Star Trek franchise have been forgiving up to a point, and that point is Star Trek: Axanar, a full-length fan film that was crowdfunded to the tune of $650,000. CBS and Paramount filed a lawsuit against Axanar’s producers. And now the two companies have released a list of ten guidelines for Star Trek fan films that could help fans avoid a lawsuit. They limit the length, budget, and content of fan films. Actors must be amateurs, although in the real world, the definition of “amateur” could be argued. However, they cannot be paid for their contribution to a Star Trek fan film. And the finished product cannot be sold or even monetized on YouTube.

On the one hand, Axanar is a blatant case of copyright infringement. On the other hand, so are smaller fan films that the franchise tolerates because they feed the fandom and boost interest in Star Trek films. The producers of Axanar have released their response to the new rules. -via Slashfilm

What do you think of the rules for Star Trek fan fiction? You can select more than one answer.

While I think Axanar is being a little greasy (I contributed a small bit to Prelude to Axanar, but it was clear early on they wanted this to be their fan-funded livelihood) I could rant on and on about the USA copyright laws.

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I think it's a question of what copyright laws should/are about. I was told once that originally copyright laws were designed to protect creators and encourage them to keep creating. Modern copyright laws seem to be much more about protecting corporate rights than protecting creators or creativity.

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I had the kind-of impression that filing a lawsuit against the Axanar production was more about being jealous that a fan-film is so much closer to the original source (the TV series) in look, feel & story than (at least) the last two big production official movies that it made Paramount look bad in comparison.
Have a look at "Star Trek Continues": it looks exactly like the original series and even has Chris Doohan (the son of James) as the chief engineer "Scotty".
It's a bit sad when low-budget (Even Axanar, at least in Hollywood terms) fanflics are figuratively lightyears ahead of the official Paramount productions.

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