Just when it looked like the Paramount Pictures and CBS Corp. lawsuit against Axanar Productions over the Star Trek: Axanar fan film was winding down after both J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin said last week that it would "go away," Axanar Productions has filed a countersuit against Paramount Pictures and CBS Corp.
The counterclaim was filed on Monday, and it runs twenty-eight pages in length.
A statement from Axanar explained why the counterclaim was necessary. "Yesterday, Axanar Productions, through its law firm Winston & Strawn, filed a response to the first amended complaint filed by CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures. The response includes a Counterclaim for Declaratory Relief that previews Axanar Productions' fair use defense, provides substantive background on how Alec Peters operated in good faith in his dealings with the Plaintiffs, and describes Alec's fruitless four year struggle with CBS to obtain fan film guidelines.
Axanar is looking for a recovery of attorneys' fees and cost, as well as "additional relief the court finds 'just, proper, and equitable.'"
In defending Axanar's use of the Star Trek playground, the defense provided Peters' history as a bona fide Star Trek fan dating back to the original airing of the show. They went all the way back to Peters' childhood, giving a story of Peters' watching the show as an eight-year-old boy. "Mr. Peters is a lifelong Star Trek fan. Starting with the very first Star Trek teaser appearing on NBC in the summer of 1966, Mr. Peters has seen every episode of Star Trek many times over. When Mr. Peters was just eight years old and NBC moved Star Trek to 10:00 p.m., his mother would put him to bed at 8:00 p.m., but would wake him up at 10:00 p.m. only so that he could watch Star Trek, before putting him back to bed again."
The counterclaim also mentioned the support of Abrams and Justin Lin, saying "even Plaintiffs' own producers and directors have recognized the importance of fans to Star Trek, and have publicly renounced and called for an end of the lawsuit against defendants."
The defendants gave their reason for the counterclaim as the "defendants are currently left with uncertainty as to how Axanar may proceed with its film to fulfill the wishes of thousands of fans who have contributed."
Had Paramount and CBS planned on dropping the suit, it will not be possible at this time due to the counterclaim being filed this week. The plaintiffs now have three weeks to answer this latest legal action, and then the defense will have three weeks to respond.
The full counterclaim can be found here.
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According to io9 J.J. Abrams announced that Paramount Pictures' lawsuit against Axanar Productions was "going away.".
The report comes from a Star Trek event in Los Angeles, at which the trailer for Justin Lin's new film Star Trek Beyond debuted:
io9 was at the fan event, where Abrams noted that Star Trek Beyond's director, Justin Lin, was outraged at the legal situation that had arisen.
Axanar is a kickstarter-funded fan film covering events preceding the original Star Trek, and the team responded to the io9 article with cautious optimism
While we're grateful to receive the public support of JJ Abrams and Justin Lin, as the lawsuit remains pending, we want to make sure we go through all the proper steps to make sure all matters are settled with CBS and Paramount.
Paramount's legal manoeuvrings, and IPR claims, have been covered previously on Soylent.
I found this article that explains CBS's real reason for the Star Trek fan film crack down. They say they are trying to stop huge money making productions full of ex-Trek actors (Renegades probably) and they will ignore any small productions now and in the future.
Quoted from the article:
Van Citters stressed that the guidelines were not designed to quash fan films... "That's not what we're trying to do here," Responding to compiled fan questions, Van Citters explained that CBS won't be going after pre-existing Star Trek fan films which don't adhere to the new guidelines, nor will it be actively reviewing and policing new ones for compliance.
The question is, can they be trusted not to sue any group making a fan film after the new rules came out?
Previous SoylentNews Coverage on the topic:
- Paramount's Lawsuit Against Star Trek Fan Film is "Going Away"
- Axanar Files Countersuit Against Paramount Pictures and CBS Corp
- CBS and Paramount Issue New Guideline for Star Trek Fan Films
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 26 2016, @09:01PM
I sure hope they got Peter Thiel to secretly fund their lawsuit, otherwise they are gonna lose this fight due to bankruptcy.
(Score: 4, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday May 26 2016, @09:39PM
This may seem counter-intuitive to many but is actually a good move on Axanar's part. If Paramount had just dropped the lawsuit as they had claimed was their plan then there would always be the chance that they could re-file at some point in the future, like if Axanar's movies kept getting better reviews than Paramount's offerings.
By forcing the suit to continue the matter of whether the ST Universe, including it's lore, races, languages and broad backstories, are public domain for everyone to use will be settled. Paramount will still have copyright claim over the series and ships that they create for distribution, but they will not be able to prevent anyone else from using the ST Universe for themselves.
I've seen ton's of fanfic and some really cool looking ship designs that build on the ST universe, most of it built on what is accepted as cannon.
I think as long as people respect that Paramount has final say as to what is cannon in the ST Universe I can see everyone getting along, for the most part :/
At least they could if Paramount wakes up to the fact that they are currently being dicks to the ST fan base by trying to claim they own EVERYTHING related to ST.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 26 2016, @10:10PM
> the ST Universe (...) are public domain for everyone to use will be settled
Not gonna happen. The studio may choose to enforce its copyright to choose which fanfic gets to exist, and which gets squashed, but they will never let it be public domain.
The value of the franchise is an asset of the studio. Public domain would wipe it out.
George is willing to bet $4000000000 on the existence of a precedent.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday May 26 2016, @10:48PM
By forcing the suit to continue the matter of whether the ST Universe, including it's lore, races, languages and broad backstories, are public domain for everyone to use will be settled.
Yes, and the answer will probably be "no they are not."
At least they could if Paramount wakes up to the fact that they are currently being dicks to the ST fan base by trying to claim they own EVERYTHING related to ST.
They either do or they don't. They've been incredibly charitable to turn a blind eye to previous productions, but now Axanar is publicly soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, I don't see how Paramount have much choice but to act.
Should Axanar be allowed to profit (note: I'm not suggesting this is actually their aim) from Paramount's IP? Should Paramount have to monitor and audit anyone who wants to make a non-profit work, no matter how much money they might receive and spend in the process?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday May 26 2016, @11:20PM
If copyright terms were still sane, the copyrights would have expired about 20 years ago. Further, copyright protects the "creative expression of ideas", not the underlying ideas themselves. They are claiming that any specific ideas they drawn from cannon constitute "fair use".
Paragraph 46 of the counter-claim specifically says that the dispute does not appear to be about trademarks (which would mostly cover the "Star Trek" name).
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday May 27 2016, @07:39AM
If copyright terms were still sane, the copyrights would have expired about 20 years ago.
Well, yes, there is that. I never claimed they were :)
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by seeprime on Thursday May 26 2016, @10:02PM
"Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war"
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday May 27 2016, @12:28AM
I was thinking along the lines of: let's hope Axanar wins big, and shows the Corporations that fans "are the ones who knock!" :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday May 27 2016, @02:14PM
Shakespeare's descendants are drawing up a copyright suit against Nicholas Meyer as we speak.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mrsam on Thursday May 26 2016, @10:26PM
Sadly, they're wasting their time.
I'll defend my Trekkie credentials against anyone else's. Although I wasn't yet born when "Star Trek" was on the air, it was one of the first shows I found, by chance, on a static-y, beaten up TV set, on channel 11 in New York, in the first year of my start of a new life, after immigrating to America many, many decades ago. I've been a Trekkie ever since.
But I don't have to be a lawyer, and neither do you, to clearly realize that Axanar's counterclaim isn't going to go anywhere. It's legally doomed.
There is no way around the basic fact that Axanar-type fan fiction is clearly a derivative work under copyright law. No ifs, ands, and buts. It's cut and dry. As such, Axanar will have no legal leg to stand on.
CBS, or whoever owns the copyright these days, has no legal obligation to have "fan film guidelines", and Axanar's "four year struggle" to obtain them carries no legal weight. Neither does the defendants' life history. This may sound harsh, but that's the law. I don't agree with it myself, but I am not going to delude myself into believing that Axanar is in the legal right here.
The problem here is not Axanar, and it is not CBS. It is copyright law. But the copyright law is what it is, and you have to be intellectually honest about it. No amount of wishful thinking will change this basic fact: that the hopeful meme that, somehow, the Star Trek universe and ecosphere is in public domain, in some form of fashion, is nothing more than wishful thinking. It's fantasy. Nothing wrong with a fantasy, of course, as long as you fully understand that it's a fantasy; and no judge worth his robes will rule anything other than it is a derivative work under copyright law, and no fair use exception applies to entire shows and fan fic series that are set in the Star Trek universe.
Sorry, but these are cold hard facts. Even if Axanar lucks out, and the judge happens to be on crack that day and rules in their favor, it will be quickly dispatched on appeal.
What Axanar's counterclaim is, is just a Hail Mary pass, hoping to get CBS to settle it for modest attorney fees. I'm going to guess that Axanar's legal beagle is a Trekkie, is giving them a break on legal fees, and is simply hoping to get at least some loose change before this whole thing becomes a forgettable footnote. But what's going to happen is that CBS will answer, and Axanar will file their reply. At some point later, of CBS's choosing, they'll move for a summary judgement on the counterclaim, Axanar will respond, CBS will then file their reply, a hearing will be held, the judge will dismiss the counterclaims, and close the case. I'll give this another 5-6 months, before everything gets wrapped up.
The End.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday May 26 2016, @11:34PM
The defendant’s life-story is very relevant here. The problem is that copyright law no longer exists on human time-scales.
Article 27 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights [un.org] says:
If Axanar is not considered "fair use", then current copyright law may be unconstitutional. Not being a US citizen, I had to look up the relevant section [archives.gov] (8):
(Bold is mine)
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday May 27 2016, @09:39AM
I'm not a US citizen either, but I'm pretty sure that their current interpretation of "limited time" is the mathematical one of "any number that is not infinity is limited".
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 1) by mrsam on Friday May 27 2016, @12:06PM
Article 27 of UN something or other carries as much legal weight in a US courtroom, in a case based on the US copyright law, as all the snot I washed out of my eyes this morning.
This is another flight of fantasy, I'm afraid, that's not going to go anywhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @02:51PM
Not only that, but if the judge did give it a nod, we'd have right-wing authoritarians screaming about the New World Order and libtards and One World Government and all that nonsense.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday May 27 2016, @04:46PM
What does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have to do with it? Star Trek is owned by CBS and Paramount, not NBCUniversal.
But seriously, even if the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights had any legal force in the United States, "moral and material interests" could include an interest in suppressing fan fiction that may compete with the publisher's own works, and "to participate in the cultural life of the community" could refer to creating entirely original works.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @12:56AM
We can only hope that the shotguns will come out and execute all of these filthy, disgusting copyright mongrels on the spot. Much like niggers, they aren't people.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @07:36AM
"The problem here is not Axanar, and it is not CBS. It is copyright law. But the copyright law is what it is,"
Actually copyright law is what companies like CBS made it, with excessive lobbying and lots of "campaign donations". So if you have a problem with copyright law, blame both the politicians that refused to think for the common good and the companies that acted in greedy self interest rather than just tossing your hands up and assuming the law was written for the benefit of the people that are forced to live under it.
And even if the particular company didn't directly lobby/bribe the current laws into the books, if they're abusing them then feel perfectly free to blame them too.
(Score: 3, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday May 26 2016, @10:51PM
In defending Axanar's use of the Star Trek playground, the defense provided Peters' history as a bona fide Star Trek fan dating back to the original airing of the show.
Why should that have anything to do with it? Why should this guy have more right to use Paramount's IP (look, don't jump down my throat okay, this is how the law works right now) just because he's a big fan?
and describes Alec's fruitless four year struggle with CBS to obtain fan film guidelines.
Why should they have to provide any?
Trek fans have been bloody lucky to get away with as much as they have already. Publicly soliciting sizeable donations is biting the hand that was previously charitably ignoring you. Filing a countersuit is hubris.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @01:16PM
Why should that have anything to do with it? Why should this guy have more right to use Paramount's IP (look, don't jump down my throat okay, this is how the law works right now) just because he's a big fan?
His defense is free to make any argument it wants, that is how the law works actually. The law is usually written in ambiguous fashion so it ends up being interpreted by a judge or jury. Usually judge instructs the jury how to apply the law and what constitutes being covered by a particular law. But also jury can say to themselves "fuck this law. He might have do something against the law, but he didn't do anything wrong and I won't punish him for it." Of course don't tell the judge or persecution that is what you are doing cause they will move for mistrial.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @07:51PM
While i can see what they are doing in this counter suit, the paramount side dropped it out of being kind. Now they are punching paramount in the mouth. Paramount can always restart their case, and sue the fans into oblivion, making an example out of them for the future. And i see this happening now.
After seeing the 'prelude' it would have been nice to once again have a fairly professional version of star-trek that was true to the original intent, and not this flash/bang crap that JJ Abrams puts out. Oh well.