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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.
(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 :)
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