This latest episode was easily one of, if not the best of the series.
I always knew that the name Kylo Ren came from George. He gave the name Kybo Ren to the showrunners of the Droids series back in the '80s for a pirate leader:
It continued his trend of recycling concepts from Droids into the Prequels.
Stand down from battle stations. Star Trek rights holders CBS and Paramount have seen the logic of settling a copyright suit against Alec Peters, who solicited money on crowdfunding sites and hired professionals to make a YouTube short and a script of a planned feature film focused on a fictional event — a Starfleet captain’s victory in a war with the Klingon Empire — referenced in the original 1960s Gene Roddenberry television series. Thanks to the settlement, CBS and Paramount won’t be going to trial on Stardate 47634.44, known to most as Jan. 31, 2017.
According to a joint statement, “Paramount Pictures Corporation, CBS Studios Inc., Axanar Productions, Inc. and Alec Peters are pleased to announce that the litigation regarding Axanar’s film Prelude to Axanar and its proposed film Axanar has been resolved. Axanar and Mr. Peters acknowledge that both films were not approved by Paramount or CBS, and that both works crossed boundaries acceptable to CBS and Paramount relating to copyright law.”
Peters’ Axanar video and script, which feature such arguably copyrighted elements as Vulcan ears, the Klingon language and an obscure character from a 1969 episode, sparked a lawsuit in December 2015. The litigation then proceeded at warp speed with the case almost making it to trial in just 13 months, an amazingly brisk pace by typical standards. Before R. Gary Klausner, the same federal judge in Los Angeles who presided over the copyright trial in 2016 concerning Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” the case charted an unexplored copyright galaxy. Although there have been past legal disputes over such fare as Harry Potter and Seinfeld encyclopedias, as well as a closely watched battle a few years back over an unauthorized sequel to J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, this one has boldly gone places. “There’s never really been a trial over fan fiction before,” says David Kluft, a partner at Foley Hoag who has written about Star Trek litigation.
News of the lawsuit brought mixed emotions on the part of the famously hard-core aficionados of Star Trek.
Some were astounded when CBS and Paramount sued after decades of turning a blind eye to fan-made works. But in taking action over Peters’ video, the studios aimed to convey the message that professional-quality “derivatives” of its films and series wouldn’t be tolerated (Paramount released a Star Trek film last summer and CBS has a new Trek series coming to its All Access streaming service in March). Upon widespread concern caused by the lawsuit, the companies put out “guidelines” so fans can stay legally in bounds with amateur productions.
The case is now ending, which probably means no one will ever get to see the several-hour-long highlight reel of episodes and movies being prepared by attorneys for CBS and Paramount for the purpose of introducing jurors to the franchise’s intricate universe.
Instead, when Axanar comes out, it will look different.
“Axanar and Mr. Peters have agreed to make substantial changes to Axanar to resolve this litigation, and have also assured the copyright holders that any future Star Trek fan films produced by Axanar or Mr. Peters will be in accordance with the ‘Guidelines for Fan Films’ distributed by CBS and Paramount in June 2016,” states the parties’ joint announcement of a settlement.
Creators of parodies or homages often argue they qualify as “fair use.” But a summary judgment ruling in January from Klausner took away fair use as a defense, which for Peters was the equivalent of going into battle with a starship’s shields down. What’s more, the judge found under an objective analysis that the YouTube video, dubbed Prelude to Axanar, was too congruent to Star Trek, leaving a jury to decide whether a reasonable person would find the total concept and feel of the works to be substantially similar. In other words, Peters’ best hope to avoid an adverse verdict was for jurors to look at Axanar and conclude it doesn’t feel authentically Star Trek.
“It was first presented to me as something very raw and unformed,” recalls Christian Gossett, the director hired to take Axanar, he says, from nerd-horrible to Trek-worthy. “Once it became clear that Prelude was not a Star Trek spec for CBS but a fundraising tool that generated over $1 million [in crowdfunding], I suspected that a lawsuit might follow.”
Kluft can’t recall any instance when a jury has found insubstantial similarity after a judge has concluded otherwise. The fact that CBS and Paramount have looked the other way, maybe even encouraging past Trek fan fiction, probably wouldn’t have mattered much on the issue of liability. (It may have factored more had CBS and Paramount brought a separate claim of trademark infringement. Failing to police a mark holds consequences, and the studios’ decision to give the defendant a pass here deserves at least some notice.)
“You got sued because you are too good,” says Kluft, referring to Peters. “It’s a compliment.”
The trial that would have been is somewhat of a moot point now, but it might help to explain what the parties were thinking by striking a deal. At a pretrial conference two weeks ago, Klausner told the parties there would have been three big issues. Besides similarity, a jury would also entertain whether Peters — a lawyer by training who runs a merchandising website — acted willfully in committing infringements, and also, what damages to assess. These latter aspects could have become the most important at trial and may have factored as the parties negotiated a settlement months after premature talk of a deal, spurred by comments by Star Trek Beyond executive producer J.J. Abrams at a promotional event.
For the prospective trial, CBS and Paramount had a big decision to make. They could have either gone after profits — which they estimated to be about $1.4 million in income from Axanar (possibly from the crowdfunding campaign and ad revenue from YouTube) — or elect statutory damages, which can be up to $150,000 per infringed work. That might not sound like much, but adding up the hundreds of copyrighted materials used in Axanar — TV episodes, more than a dozen movies and all those elements like Starfleet uniforms — it could have theoretically computed to damages surpassing $100 million. The complexity of figuring out what copyrights were at issue was one of the things that made a case covering a five-decade-old entertainment franchise somewhat unique. David Grossman, the plaintiffs’ attorney, had told the judge he’d indicate his choice of actual damages or statutory damages on the first day of trial. Meanwhile, Peters’ attorney Erin Ranahan (working pro bono) was preparing to use the studios’ lack of pre-litigation warnings to knock the allegation of willfulness and had hoped her damages expert would tell jurors that fan-made fiction hardly makes a dent in CBS/Paramount’s Star Trek earnings and represents free promotion.
The choice also represented the difficulty for CBS and Paramount in figuring out what constituted a true victory here. Whatever the result of the trial, the dispute could have dragged onto an appeals court where Peters may have challenged the judge’s decision not to let him argue before a jury that Axanar is a transformative fair use of copyrighted material. Meanwhile, a humongous verdict could have driven Peters into bankruptcy with the studios having little hope of collecting. More importantly, CBS and Paramount could have suffered bad publicity from being a bullying Borg at a time when a new Star Trek is about to launch on CBS All Access, something Star Trek fans — and even Abrams and Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin might not have tolerated.
Instead, the parties have made arrangements to move on. Maybe, to quote one famous Vulcan, they discovered that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
The joint statement from the parties linked to the guidelines and added, "Paramount and CBS would like Star Trek fans, with their boundless creativity and passion, to ‘Live Long and Prosper.’”
That’s Angel. He used to post here back in the day but left after some disagreements…
I weep for the Ewok duology, it’s not been represented here once!
My favorite episode would have to be The Inner Light.
I’m sure he would have, had he been given more than four weeks to compose the score. I’d like to hear what he could come up with given a proper schedule.
I wouldn’t want to hear the Imperial March before its first appearance in The Empire Strikes Back. Having it hinted at here is the right way to do it.
Apparently cinematographers discuss and use them all the time when shooting on film and want that green look. Here’s a photographic film guide that discusses the same thing.
You know, I might have just come up with an explanation for the green cast in that shot. What if it was lit with fluorescent lights? Back then fluorescent lights usually had a bit of a green tint to them:
Just a thought.
Love this. Wonder what else might be hidden in there…
Anyone that would subject a new viewer to The Phantom Menace as their first Star Wars experience should be locked up.
This is not the post you are looking for…
RO is now #7 all time Domestic and #28 Domestic + International.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/
Adjusted for Inflation it is #65 Domestic.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
TFA is #11 on the adjusted chart, which is pretty amazing for a 2015 movie.
All eight live action SW films are in the top 100 adjusted. No other franchise has that many.
“I question the wisdom of this move. At this price, what’s left to drain from this franchise? I don’t think Star Wars is another Bond-like franchise. It’s been eclipsed by movies like Avatar. I’m not convinced (Star Wars) has the cultural force it once did.”
- Former Columbia Pictures Marketing Exec Peter Sealey on Disney buying Lucasfilm
Yeah everyone already knows that. Are you guys trying to suggest that Fox is the reason the OOT hasn’t been released? Because boy, that’s a good one…
Think about this from a business perspective. We’ve received multiple reports that they’ve restored the OUT but there’s been no sign of a release. Why is that? Here are the two options:
Which sounds like the smarter business decision?
That’s hilarious, I just realized Reese from Malcolm in the Middle was in the running to play little Anakin!
Alderaan said:
To put things in perspective, it was 6 years between the time George released the GOUT and the time he sold all rights to Disney. It has now been 5 years since Disney took over, and still no OOT.Considering their films are barely better than the prequels, which is not saying much, this lack of action should be considered an outrage.
Here’s some perspective:
Fox owns distribution rights to the original Star Wars, No. 4 in the series, in perpetuity in all media worldwide. And as for the five subsequent movies, Fox has theatrical, nontheatrical and home video rights worldwide through May 2020.
While the rights on those five films eventually will revert to Disney, that “in perpetuity” pact for the first film appears to be an obstacle to Disney releasing a complete set – unless a deal can be made.
I mean in Rebels, which is all set before RO.
I thought the ktch noise was the other trooper initializing his radio.
Yeah, that was the other possibility but the timing makes me lean toward it being the helmet impact. Sounds just like their armor as well.
I think they might have actually added an impact noise for the mono mix. At least that’s what it sounds like. Right as he hits his head you hear a *ktch* like noise.
One thing for sure, Hollywood is unfortunately not going to give up on CGI Actors. Let’s hope Hollywood doesn’t CGI Actors just to make some stupid commercials.
Or celebrities in general…I can already picture a CGI version of Michael Jackson grabbing its crotch…
I was asked to talk about my Top 10 Movies of 2016 on my friend’s podcast, so I had to watch some more movies from 2016 before I recorded so I wouldn’t have to have X-Men: Apocalypse or Deadpool in my list.
If you haven’t already recorded, I’d recommend the following:
I think Disney should have a go at doing the prequels to RO and show the demise of Anakin (again). It needs re-doing.
I think a standalone Anakin/Vader movie can solve this problem.
If they were to do an Obi-wan standalone as well as a pre-SW Vader, we’d have enough films for an unofficial replacement Prequel Trilogy!
It’s been bugging me that we’ve never seen one up to now and yet they were so prevalent in RO.
I liked that series except for all of the cringey Huttese slang.