No, nor is Axanar to be "sold".

However there are different levels of rewards for different levels of support, at some level of kickstarter donation you could get a copy of the finished movie on DVD / BluRay but it is well above the fair market value of such a product.

How is that not selling the movie? You pay money, and get a copy? That is the definition of a sale.

Okay technically they are "selling" the movie, but the key is that no profit is made. The movie will be freely available online, just like all the fan productions are. The copy on disc is just a "perk" for people donating to the kickstarter, as are copies of the script, autographed copies of pictures of the actors, uniform patches etc. They even had a donation level of a few thousand dollars where you could be an extra in the cast and appear in the movie.

See here:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/axanar#/

Whether they make a profit or not doesn't matter. There's a big difference between "not taking money for someone else's IP" and "not making money on someone else's IP"

Yes, it does.


From David Gerrold comments above:


"All of the fan film productions operate under the same general guideline -- have fun, but you're not allowed to make a profit. So all of the fan film productions are freely available on YouTube."

is he a lawyer? no, and by his own admission he doesn't represent either side. He doesn't have to be precise with his wording.

"Making a profit" in legal terms is not about staying under the threshold of a positive return on investment. It's about taking money for the finished product ... at all. Maybe Paramount would tolerate a kickstarter that didn't promise anything to the backers other than "your name in the credits" and a YouTube HD video as a result. But producing disks and selling them online or at conventions, or bundling copies of the film with other items which are nominally sold, that's a big no-no.

Star Trek Renegades does the same, they've not been sued.

http://startrekrenegades.com/home/donate/

Got to start somewhere.

I've heard that's why companies often seem so litigious, because if they don't squash everyone, even the little mom and pop operations, they can't defend their copyright because the first person they sue can say it wasn't a copyright defense since they didn't go after other infringers. I wonder if not going after those other productions will hurt their case.

Exactly. By waiting till now, they've undercut themselves. On the one hand it seems obvious they should prevail, but because they sat around winking and smiling at previous efforts they've definitely established a precedent.

I think the apparent quality in the trailer exceeds what they think they can budget for their new stupid "streaming only" ST and they're nervous people will watch the pilot and say "Axanar looks better, forget this" and kill their All Access (that IMO is doomed anyway) initiative. They are right to be concerned about whether this will work, and whether their series will succeed, but they went the wrong way about this.

It MIGHT have worked...if CBS had swallowed their pride and put the new ST on Amazon or Netflix. How many people already have one or both of those? Who's going to fork out for a THIRD service? Or if you have Hulu, a fourth? CBS content only? For the price of an MMO? Not going to last.



The Jedi Master

Exactly.

Which is why, I think, Lucasfilm was smart to word a license for fan productions.

There has to be some difference between this and renegades, what that is, I dunno. My first guess in waiting so long would be, fans are going to hate you for trying to protect your IP, because in some instances you have to or stand to lose all control of them in the future. So maybe there were waiting for some "milestone" to be reached before going ahead. Just because the kickerstarter and other funding were successful doesn't mean it will definitely happen, as folks have learned.

If it falls apart on it's own then you don't have to be the bad guys to ruin it.

Maybe Renegades is ok because they said they were going to pitch it as a pilot for a new show to CBS? Axanar might be something they planned on doing officially, guess we'll have to wait and see. Or maybe it's possible Renegades will get the same treatment in short order.

They seem to be thinking upside down, They have the IP for
this, and people seem to want to create it for themselves.
This could be a whole new way to profit - let anyone make
the stuff, market it like Steam's game market works, and
take a royalty profit on every purchase; let the consumers
pick the ones that have the quality to continue supporting.

If it's trademarked, not copyrighted, this revenue stream
could only expire when people are saturated with product
and can't be bothered to buy any more. Imagine if you had
ownership of a trademark for say, Sherlock Holmes, or all
of Shakespeare's characters and titles...

This group has been allowed to continue, as have others...

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/21/entertainment/star-trek-new-voyages-online-series/

Axanar signs Winston & Strawn to Defend CBS/Paramount lawsuit

Potentially good news:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/paramounts-lawsuit-against-axanar-productions-star-trek-1777959978

If it turns out to be true, I can only say: Thank you, J.J. Abrahms and Justin Lin!

Welp...

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/06/23/a...lms-guidelines/

These guidelines retroactively prohibit a lot of previous fan made films and productions.


From the CBS site: http://www.startrek.com/fan-films

The whole thing is a slap in the face; It has to be 15 mins or less, can't have any professional anything including any actors who have ever been on Star Trek. Can't use the words "Star Trek", not exactly an embrace of the fans and their creativeness.

"or utilizing previous Star Trek cast and crew"

That's BS, they have a right to work and exercise their talents. I don't see how they can make that call.