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Stage 9 was a non-commercial, virtual reality recreation of Star Trek The Next Generation's Enterprise starship. It allowed fans of the series to explore the beloved vessel and immerse themselves in the chief setting of the series. It was built over the past two years using Unreal Engine 4 by fans who have taken great pains to state that the project was not affiliated or licensed with CBS or Paramount and that they weren't doing this to make money, only to artistically demonstrate their fandom. That did not stop CBS from sending a cease and desist letter, thus shutting down the project as CBS was reportedly unwilling to engage in dialog.
From Techdirt : CBS Bullies Fan Star Trek Project To Shut Down Despite Creators' Pleas For Instructions On Being Legit
and at Ars Technica : Amazing NCC-1701-D simulator issues final command: "all stop"
and at TorrentFreak : CBS Shuts Down Stage 9, a Fan-Made Recreation of the USS Enterprise
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday October 02 2018, @04:08AM (4 children)
As a fan of something, you want to be able to have fun in creating it and not have to hide like a thief in the shadows. This sort of fan participation is much more about enjoying yourself in your object of enjoyment. If it was just about modelling, they could easily flick over to a Star Wars ship, a BSG carrier, heck, the Babylon 5 station. If it was just about the show itself, they would be watching it non-stop.
It's not about distributing the final outcome only (which of course they could do via any way quite trivially), it's much more about being able to enjoy themselves and feel truly a part of the journey for fans like this. That's what CBS can however shut down.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 02 2018, @04:21AM (3 children)
They could have easily created pseudonyms, Discord chats, subreddits, and whatever else they needed to feel like a community. They could have kept discussion "in-house" and only publicized it after it was done. Can Viacom or Disney sue "Fluffeh"? Not without some serious legwork, I'd hope.
It's not like they didn't know this was a possibility. There was the Axanar [wikipedia.org] lawsuit filed in late 2015, a pretty fresh event, but apparently before work started on Stage 9.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday October 02 2018, @04:52AM (2 children)
I'm not disagreeing completely, I just don't think it was ego. Naivety more likely - hoping that because their project is art and it's also non-profit and stuff they hoped they could be included and allowed to do it. In any case, it doesn't really matter - another fan-made production has gotten shut down because someone thought they were losing money.
I wish we had more of the franchise-embraces-fans type stories rather than these.
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday October 02 2018, @04:54AM (1 child)
Fuck.
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Wondered where that was from...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2018, @10:12AM
Close tags, the final frontier.