Star Trek fan film, Axanar.

AudioPostExpert said:
.............. If you are going to make something, anything, which is based on IP owned by someone else, that someone else is entirely free to exercise their copyrights whenever they choose!
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You are absolutely right here.
I'm not saying they don't have the right to do so.
I'm only observing that after years of a laid back approach to fan films without guidelines, they now provide guidelines that forbid numerous productions they always allowed before. A pretty hefty correction from their side compared to their previous approach.
The new guidelines on the IP part very clear and I think that is perfect.
It's just that the 15 minute limit and the budget limit seem to be made to prevent high production values and great stories.
 
WalterB said:
I'm only observing that after years of a laid back approach to fan films without guidelines, they now provide guidelines that forbid numerous productions they always allowed before.
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That's what I meant be "whenever". It's their IP, they can choose to ignore a copyright infringement, strictly enforce their copyrights or even change their mind, ignore and then enforce their rights. The risk one takes when infringing copyright is that you can't be certain how the copyright holder will respond, if their response will be consistent with past responses or even if their response will change over time, even towards the same production. The only way of guaranteeing a response is to license the IP.

WalterB said:
It's just that the 15 minute limit and the budget limit seem to be made to prevent high production values and great stories.
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I would say that's Exactly why they've placed those limitations! Any other response, unless it were even more restrictive limitations, could easily be deemed to be a dereliction of duty. The Star Trek IP rights are a very valuable asset, any action or decision by the board of directors which reduces the value of that asset could be interpreted by Paramount/CBS shareholders as incompetence, as of course they are looking to the board to increase asset values. Allowing a high production value film to be distributed (even just free online) potentially creates competition and also, sets a precedent making it more difficult to enforce their copyright in future, both of which would each devalue the IP asset. For this reason I'm sure the board, to fully protect their positions, really wanted to clamp down and not allow any copyright infringements (fan films) at all. Anyone who understands even the very basics of how the film industry (or business in general) works would know this, which is why I say the producer of Axanar was foolish/incompetent and why the donors were also foolish/ignorant.

On the other hand, banning Star Trek fan films entirely could blow up into a PR disaster and alienate some of the fan base, which would also of course devalue the IP asset. Hence the logical compromise of effectively allowing Star Trek fan films while placing limitations which make it as difficult as possible for those fan films to compete or otherwise devalue their IP asset. I think that $50k and 15mins is fairly generous, in their position, I'm not sure if I'd have been quite that generous!

G
 
Here's the full list.

(sorry if its been posted before)

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

I have to say, its pretty stringent but I can't say that I blame them. The Axanar production has made the IP holders question their position. Its a shame, but they went to far and have now ruined it for everyone. :/
 
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