This is the fifth entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks.
You thought the CBS/Paramount EMPIRE would be the one to strike back, right?
Well that narrative could still happen, but Axanar Productions, the folks behind the impressive fan film Prelude to Axanar and the theoretically upcoming Star Trek: Axanar, have staged a legal counterattack versus the CBS/Paramount lawsuit.
Readers may wish to check out the third entry of this impromptu series where I elaborate on my position. I absolutely believe that CBS/Paramount has intellectual property (IP) rights to Star Trek and can (and should) protect those rights. However, there is also a big precedent they themselves in allowing fan productions to exist. From a legal standpoint, I wonder if they can be so inconsistent in the protection of their rights, all fan productions being equal. On a practical matter, they absolutely want to be sensitive to how this looks to ardent Star Trek fans.
Axanar, in essence, is asking CBS and Paramount to clarify exactly what rights Axanar is violating. You can actually read the entire motion at the article link above (and I know some of you will).
It could be a delaying tactic, as a lawyer consulted for the article notes, but it is a sign that Axanar Productions isn’t rolling over — which appears to delight many Star Trek fans publicly (and potentially Star Trek fan productions privately). Whether or not this results in a decision that Star Trek fans applaud, this is intensely interesting for those of us wondering about the future of copyright and intellectual property law.
By the way, if you thought I would stop making references to that other “star franchise” (you know, the one with the magical space wizards) while still talking Trek, you were mistaken. To mix franchises even further: the board is set and the pieces are moving.
In fact, it would probably be a good idea for all said fan productions to meet up, Council of Elrond like, and discuss what they’d like the end state to be for Star Trek fan films. No, I’m not saying CBS/Paramount is Sauron or even Saruman, though I suppose I am saying the different fan productions may behave like elves and dwarves do when they get together: contentiously. (I mean, I hope not, but have you met fans?)
But in any case, the lawsuit is a dark cloud hovering over every fan production and will remain so until it’s resolved. For that reason, I’m actually kind of bummed Axanar did their David vs. Goliath thing. Whether one considers CBS/Paramount and evil empire or not (I don’t) and whether you think they took a heavy hand in going a lawsuit route (I do, at least based on info I have), they still own the Star Trek IP. In general, I don’t see how Axanar can ultimately win a court case that they can use other people’s copyright that is neither transformative nor protected under parody. So they need to settle. That’s all we need. We just need there to be no war… today.
Frankly, I’m bummed that we’re talking about this in March. I kind of hoped that, after all the announcements in January, there would be some update that Axanar people, perhaps with a lawyer by their side, met with CBS/Paramount, and a settlement was reached for the fan film to be made.
A worse case would be that there’s no settlement and we’re still talking about this in the summer. That eats into what I’m sure will be Star Trek Beyond publicity time… and meanwhile, I believe Axanar Productions has a warehouse-now-studio it’s paying rent on. That’s donor money that’s better spent on making a way cool fan film.
We’re burning daylight and dilithium people! Let’s make this work.