Copyright Judgement Deals Severe Blow To Controversial Star Trek Fan Film
Last week the controversial Star Trek fan film Axanar was dealt a severe blow in its ongoing legal dispute with Star Trek intellectual property owners Paramount Studios and CBS.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled that Axanar was not protected by Fair Use policy, which had been the foundation of the movie’s defence against CBS and Paramount’s legal assault on the film.
Producer Eric Peters began work on the film in 2010 and the story revolves around the Federation’s first war with the Klingon Empire. He managed to Battlestar Galactica alum Richard Hatch as well as a number of actors who had starred in various Trek shows (Kate Vernon, Tony Todd, Gary Graham). He even cast himself as the heroic Captain Garth. After financing the short Prelude to Axanar through crowd funding, he raised over a million dollars through similar campaigns to finance a feature film he planned to release in 2016. Paramount Studios (which owns the movie rights to Star Trek) and CBS (which owns the TV and merchandising rights) filed a copyright challenge in December of 2015. The two sides have been mired in a legal dispute ever since.
CBS and Paramount contend a number of violations, but like most disputes, the crux of their complaint is money. While Star Trek’s rights holders (like many other IP owners) have tolerated fan fiction (such as Star Trek Continues and Star Trek Horizons), they were happy to look the other way as long as those productions were strictly non-profit.
Which is where Axanar got into trouble.
Axanar earmarked a large portion of their fundraising to lease a warehouse and convert into a soundstage that would be used for subsequent commercial projects. Peters paid himself a salary even after he stepped down from his acting role, a talent agency was contacted to recruit professional actors to fill specific roles (including the role Peters vacated) and merchandise was sold or offered to donors with the Star Trek name and logo on it (in 2014, Axanar Productions did remove Star Trek from all of its branding, admitting on their website at the time they were using copy written IP). It appeared they were setting up a production company for future businesses and profit using an intellectual property they didn’t own.
It has been a legal roller coaster ride ever since, with allegations traded back and forth and hearsay adopted as fact. Paramount and CBS contend that Peters met with distributors such as Netflix to try and sell distribution rights and copyright terminology. Axanar Productions countered with the argument that no one owns the “idea of Star Trek.” Peters and company also retorted that most of the characters in their work are original and that inspiration came for shows like M*A*S*H just as much as it came from Star Trek. They also feel that the “mockumentary” film style grants them exemption from copyright expectations.
Rumour has it that Peters has estranged himself from some members of the Star Trek fan community, with many of his supporters and donors feeling betrayed. Others have adopted him as a champion of fan rights.
Last summer, Paramount and CBS released new guidelines for fan films to follow and weeks before Star Trek Beyond was released, director Justin Lin and producer J.J. Abrams implied the lawsuit would be dropped.
But in the end, Axanar Productions has no legal leg to stand on and faces the nearly impossible task of convincing a jury that Axanar does not resemble Star Trek while including Klingons, Vulcans and starships flying at warp speed. And they will attempt that Herculean task with legal representatives of two of the largest entertainment corporations in the world sitting across from them in a court of law.
Not even Captain Kirk would like those odds.
Source: Arstechnica.com
