BREAKING NEWS – AXANAR SETTLES LAWSUIT!!!

The following press release was just sent out by Axanar Productions.  I am told there will be more details coming in an e-mail to be sent out to donors later on today.  As soon as I receive that e-mail, I will publish it here.

Feel free to submit comments, but please understand that there is still a LOT we all do not know yet–including me.  So any responses I post will, for the time being, be only conjecture.  Rest assured that I plan to be in contact with Alec Peters and Mike Bawden as soon as I hit “Publish”….in three, two, one, NOW:

AXANAR PRODUCTIONS STATEMENT REGARDING COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT

Valencia, CA – Friday, January 20 –  Axanar Productions is pleased to announce that we have reached a formal resolution to the lawsuit brought against Alec Peters, and the fan film production, AXANAR, by CBS Studios, Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Since the beginning of the lawsuit, over a year ago, we have expressed our desire to address the concerns of the studios, and our willingness to make necessary changes, as long as we could reasonably meet our commitments to AXANAR’S over 14,000 donors, fans and supporters. We are now able to do exactly that.

Terms of the settlement agreement include an agreement to allow Axanar Productions to continue showing PRELUDE TO AXANAR commercial-free on YouTube and to allow Axanar Productions to produce the AXANAR feature film as two fifteen-minute segments that can be distributed on YouTube (also without ads).

Additional terms of the agreement will be made available to cast, crew and donors through private correspondence.

For the next sixty days, Axanar Productions will be working through some final legal requirements requiring immediate attention. In addition, there are several pre-production issues that need to be re-visited before we can begin principal photography on our project.

Axanar Productions was created by lifelong Star Trek fans to celebrate their love for Star Trek.  Alec Peters and the Axanar team look forward to continuing to share the Axanar story and are happy to work within the Guidelines for Fan Films for future projects.

Throughout this process, we will continue communicating with our fans and backers to ensure they are informed and involved until we reach completion of the production.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mike Bawden, PR for Axanar Productions – 563.359.8654  ([email protected])
Morey Altman, PR for Axanar Productions – +972.54.325.4350

130 thoughts on “BREAKING NEWS – AXANAR SETTLES LAWSUIT!!!”

      2. Please, no more bombshells! The last time I heard about bombshells, Alec Peters said this will continue until he’s given the donors their movie, so much for that ! The day all the financial information was going to be released (which no doubt contained incompetent bookkeeping and deceptive theft) Alec all of a sudden dropped the big boy talk and caved in to agree with not only the guidelines, but in general just toss all this wasted time and effort into the dumpster ! So, I said this entire thing was nothing more than a complete sham to rent a studio (which for now still stands) and add the big boy offices to stroke Alec’s ego – a majority of the donors are now gone for good, the creative talent which produced Prelude have jumped off, and the future fundraisers (if any) are going to come off without any type of serious fund generating —
        It’s really sad that this could have been a successful adventure for these donors who gave hard earned funds to support this, and now if it’s ever produced (doubtful) it’ll be a complete farce of what everyone was expecting!

  4. Once the courts were about to unmask the hidden finances, they settled. Good for them to hide how $1.4 million as blown away. Now that they note they cannot meet what was promised and that they overstepped their bounds, they now have to contend with refunds for those that want them on KS as they cannot meet what was promised (among other policy violations with KS).

    1. Actually, I’m told this settlement has been in the works for about two weeks now. The judge’s decision on the redactions only came on Wednesday. Two days is way too short a period of time to ink a settlement with two huge studios. (And yes, the detractors are welcome to screen cap this and post it to their FB pages and then tell me how wrong I am. Don’t worry; I’m planning to ask Alec about it when I get a hold of him.)

      1. IMO… I think we got screwed. We go from possibly a 60-90 min. full feature film to (2) 15 min. shorts. CBS could use our shorts to promote a new film. One unhappy camper here.

    2. Good luck getting any of your funds back from this crook, isn’t going to happen ! Alec has a reputation of deception and accepting money from gullible people and then folding up shop or declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying out ! This guy has been able to stay out of jail only because he’s sidestepped various laws with his basic law knowledge or more likely has an attorney as a friend who guides him when legal issues occur, however this time he’s going to get the IRS and California Tax Board investigating the 1.4 million dollars which vanished – this is one case where this guy is going to get some slap down, but we’ll have to wait probably another year !! But it’s coming !!

      1. I want to make sure someone screen caps this to send back to Tony next year when Axanar is released on YouTube and Industry Studios is a healthy non-profit corporation. 🙂

  5. well considering that CBS had lost a bunch of their “infringable” items over the past few days including Klingon Language and Vulcans etc, their case was getting smaller and smaller, along with being harder to prove. why continue to pursue it, and spend millions on lawyers, when you can settle, get Alec to admit he went “a bit to far”, and then say he can make it following the guidelines(those very same guidelines he asked for a year ago). while CBS gets to keep their sandbox, Axanar and its supporters get the movie they wanted. Two 15 minute segments in documentary style like prelude, can be done easily, and interspacing cut scenes of action with commentary is something Alec has already shown is doable.

    I await the comments from the detractors, but overall this is a great day for star trek fandom because we avoided what could have been an ugly spectacle. Jonathan you got your birthday present just a couple of days late LOL.

    2. We were not promised two additional 15 minute documentaries, we were promised a feature film. I for one am not at all pleased with this “settlement” and my expectations for this project just fell into the toilet.

      1. Well, I’m sorry you feel that way, Michael. Personally, it sounds like Axanar just dodged a bullet. While I hoped Alec could win this eventually, I feared it would take years, during which time he could lose the studio and we might never see Axanar in any form. So it seems like it’s a glass half-full/half-empty situation…or in your case, a glass that just fell into the toilet.

    3. I wonder if you realize this could have been done by Axanar from the very beginning, and prevented all this bullshit ! This case has had nothing to do with Klingon language for months now, you should really try to keep up !

      1. Exactly! I couldn’t have said it any better myself, Tony! If the studios had simply called Alec and offered him this deal 14 months ago, CBS and Paramount could have saved themselves a million dollars in legal fees! What a waste.

        Oh, and watch the cussing. It’s bullshat around here.

        1. But Alec didn’t take this “deal” when it was offered to him in the first settlement negotiations back in April 2016. What makes you think he would have accepted following the guidelines before the lawsuit was filed?

          1. The guidelines didn’t exist when the lawsuit was first filed. That happened six months later.

            Look, from BEFORE day one, Alec went to the studios seeking guidance. They refused to give him any. Had CBS said, “Hey, look, we don’t want Axanar to be more than 30 minutes long. But if you do that and take out the words ‘Star Trek’ and limit your fundraising, we’ll let you make it…” Alec would have been fine with it. Really (I’ve spoken to him about that scenario even before the settlement). But because the studios didn’t say “stop” at any point, Alec just kept right on going because he assumed it was okay with them. After all, a single phone call or letter or even any of those four meetings he had with studio executives could have given him all the rules to follow. Alec never set out to break rules. There were NO rules at that point. Even the “you can’t make any profit” was a “we can neither confirm nor deny” response from the studios. And of course, other fan series had their own studios to film in and offer to other fan production–so how would Ares Studios have been breaking a specific rule if the studios never even had such a rule? Alec pushed the envelope, yes, but he wasn’t the first to push it…he just pushed it a little farther. But others had pushed it out pretty far already.

            Look, the point is that the studios never even tried to talk to Alec first. Their first hint of any kind of official disapproval was the filing of a multi-million dollar lawsuit. We’ll never know what would have happened if their first move had been a phone call instead.

          2. “Alec would have been fine with it…But because the studios didn’t say “stop” at any point, Alec just kept right on going because he assumed it was okay with them.”–Jonathan, the problem with this line of reasoning, the thing that makes it look rather asinine, is that CBS filed a LAWSUIT. Now, while it is not a polite letter or phone call, a lawsuit certainly looks like a fairly obvious sign that the studio wanted him to stop.

            Instead of being ‘fine with it’, of settling before any kind of trial or motion or anything had to be filed, he chose to fight. If he was perfectly willing to go along with the wishes of CBS, then he would not have fought this, and settlement would have come in January of last year.

          3. I think you misunderstand the United States legal system, Bill. Once a lawsuit is filed, it doesn’t just “disappear” if the defendant decides not to fight it. Instead, the judge simply rules against the defendant and against all of his “John Does” (which could have included Gary Graham, Tony Todd, Richard Hatch, Kate Vernon, JG Hertzler, Christian Gossett, Robert Meyer Burnett, and any other of a whole number of folks who worked on Prelude). Remember that the original lawsuit didn’t name the “Does” (it’s a legal term for defendants to be named later) and cited “thousands” of violations at $150K each. That’s not just a seven-figure verdict–it’s a NINE-FIGURE verdict…as in hundreds of millions of dollars.

            While I don’t have time to research where precisely I saw/heard it (either on the Axanar website or FB page or a podcast), Alec said back in February that the studios did not respond to his first settlement offer AT ALL. He sent one barely four weeks after getting served…and no answer. So what else was he supposed to do? The lawsuit was real…VERY real. And Alec’s duty at that early stage was not simply to protect himself but to protect his crew, as well. In this case, it was his production crew (and cast of actors), but he was still the only one who could do it because he was, at the time, the only named defendant. So Alec lawyered up…and thank goodness he did! The second amended complaint and subsequent filings by the plaintiffs dropped all mention of other “Does” besides Alec (protecting his cast and crew) and reduced the number of alleged violations from “thousands” to just 57.

            Remember, Alec first tried to “surrender” and was ignored. Perhaps the studios just wanted to make him sweat a little more and were waiting for a better opening offer. Maybe they didn’t give a shat. Maybe they were just busy. Unfortunately, Alec isn’t a mind reader and had no way to know for sure…and he had only 30 days to respond to the complaint. Had he waited any longer, he would have lost by default for lack of responding.

            I can’t imagine any argument convincing an intelligent or sane person that Alec did not do the right thing after getting sued, Bill.

    1. Yeah, it looks like the “penalty” for Alec is 70 minutes…which is MUCH better than $8.55 million! I do need to ask him if he’s paying anything to the studios, though.

  7. I’m really happy for Alec personally and professionally as well as all of us donors and fans who believed in the Trek Axanar opened to us.

    1. “We” won two 15-minute episodes of a fan film that Alec Peters was otherwise going to be enjoined by a judge from ever making (pending an appeal). That sure sounds like a “thing,” Ricky. 🙂

      1. Yes, Alec won the right to make a fan film based on the guidelines he asked for. Sounds like he caved in to exactly what the studios wanted.

        1. Except he gets to keep his actors, his studio, and is allowed to make more fan films. Oh, and it sounds like he pays no penalty.

          Thank you for playing. Please enjoy this lovely parting gift.

          (Yeah, I like that sign-off. I think I’m gonna keep using it.) 🙂

          1. I do notice a lot of Alec gets to keep his studio. That is certainly the key win for Alec. His future business and revenue stream. Not the ability to complete Axanar even in a reduced form.

      1. They’re trying a LOT of things…including blaming this settlement on the judge’s ruling this past Wednesday that Alec’s financials would no longer be confidential (resulting in Alec quickly doing an about-face and settling immediately). I’ve now heard from FOUR different legal eagles on this, and each said that a settlement for a case this huge involving two major Hollywood studios doesn’t go through the pipeline in less than 48 hours. I’m also told that this settlement has been in the discussion stages for a couple of weeks now. I suspect it was the judge’s ruling on fair use that triggered both sides to come to the table.

        1. …it sure didn’t hurt 😉

          …also, as you’ve said – all of the interested parties read your blog – and A LOT of sense has been made here on FFF! =)

          …as a result, i think the plaintiffs finally came to their senses! 😉

        2. Your legal eagles have been extremely shaky, at best, during this entire process – please don’t hang too much credit on anything they say !
          As for the “fair use” being tossed out, the only side that had to wake up was Alec Peters and his one man band called Axanar ! As soon as those financials were on the table for release to the public (thus the donors also) it was time to pull the plug and accept the guidelines and the rear end grease job !

      2. I can tell you how they’ll spin it – you basically got nothing that you couldn’t have had after the guidelines hit, so basically Alec and his tribe got buttfucked ! that about sizes it up !

        1. Ah Tony, my anal-retentive friend…

          sorry that you haters couldn’t crush someone else’s creation…

          it must suck for you guys… it shows in your butt-hurt outbursts

        2. Re Tony. Alec got exactly what he wanted. His movie studio free and clear. All he needs to do now is whip up 30minutes of production…print some dvds…and he gets a $1M dollar film studio.

    3. They won not having to release the financial books, which in turn showed how Alec Peters mismanaged 1.4 million dollars in two years –
      / so in a way they won, the donors are the poor suckers here !

      1. How do you know he mismanaged the donor funds, Tony? Have you seen an advanced copy of the financial summary coming out (hopefully, Alec!!!!) later this week? I’ve seen it, and the term “mismanaged” does not seem accurate. In fact, I’d actually say it was meticulously managed with the donors’ best interests. But maybe you saw a different financial summary for another studio…

        But thank you for playing. Please enjoy this lovely parting gift.

  9. Over at CBSPvA, Carlos Pedraza made the comment: “Also, hilariously, these are virtually the EXACT terms CBS/P offered as settlement way back in March.”

    Didn’t I read on here somewhere that the terms under negotiation back when they tried to settle before were not known publicly?

    1. If Carlos is being truthful, then he is inadvertently implicating someone involved in the case who is under a court order not to discuss the details of any settlement negotiations, past or present. I’ve verified now that no one from the defense side spoke to Carlos privately about the settlement talks. So if Carlos knows something, perhaps he had better share his source with the court so that legal steps can be taken.

      2. “I’ve verified now that no one from the defense side spoke to Carlos privately about the settlement talks.”–But how can you be sure? As you say, there is a court order to NOT discuss things, and yet information still gets distributed by people on the defense side of things. Knowing the court order is there, do you really think anyone would cop to being the ‘Deep Throat’ of Axanargate? Obviously, if one has an anonymous source, that source would not identify themselves, since that defeats the purpose of being anonymous…

  10. It’s a compromise if I ever saw one.
    30 mins is ridiculously short and we are still left with these idiotic guidelines as a result of Axanar actions. Yet this is better than dragging the fans into a losing fight. It was looking particularly bad with some of the motions. Without this lawsuit there is no hope of getting attention for change.

    2. No money remaining in the pot now for Axanar, so it’s time to dust off your wallet again – ha ha ha
      What a complete joke!

    3. After wasting $1.4 million of donor cash. Why don’t you give that cigar to the donors who won’t get anything they expected for their money.

      Also, Alec is left with a lease costing around $15000 a month on a warehouse that isn’t up to fire code. Good luck with that.

      It might be a good day for you, but it’s not a good day for Alec or the majority of donors.

  12. Hey any fight you can walk away from ….
    Okay, Axanar is taking a black eye on length; but the story gets told.
    OK OK some folks are complaining about Axanar Productions not delivering …. but .. ya can’t always get what you want but if ya try sometimes you just might find you get what ya need (Rolling Stones)
    AXANAR tried, Prelude is amazing and is now a standard for independent sci-fi movies.
    Guess it’s like the Khitomer Accords.

    OK cat among the pigeons time.

    I was wondering why Discovery got pushed back again in the last few days …. think about it Discovery is set roughly in the same time period …. are we going to get a crossover or coopting of Axanars story or elements there of in to Discovery.

    1. I suspect Axanar and DISCO will stay not only at arms length but football field length. If nothing else, the uniforms won’t match. 🙂

      (Although I think Alec was planning to use Sarek. Not sure where that will go now.)

  13. Holy what!?%&*?!? How wrong was I!

    I must admit, I feel disappointed about this. I feel “we” could have gotten so much more, and set some precedents about the limits of where fan-films can go.

    It still feels quite ugly because Axanar has these leash around their necks with this agreement that other fan films don’t have, and who can continue to interpret the guidelines as just that, “guidelines”, where as with Axanar, this settlement becomes a legally binding contract of rules that Axanar must now follow (correct me if I have made a mistake).

    So what happens about people like Gary Graham playing Soval, IIRC, the fan film guidelines explicitly forbade this, do any differences such as this exist between the guidelines and the settlement?

    And now I feel curious about what Moses advice was, though perhaps he wants to save that for another case…

    1. I’ll see if I can get Moses to share his strategy. In the meantime, in answer to your question about Soval, stay tuned for about 10 more minutes. 🙂

      1. If Moses isn’t available, just ask your youngest son, either way the answer will have the same validity – lol..

        1. Remember, Tony, “lol” means “I am crying on the inside…and maybe even a little on the outside.”

          Oh, and I only have one son. No need to use the “est” modifier on the adjective.

  14. So, while no DVDs or Blu-rays get shipped to donors, at least Axanar gets the right to make 30 minutes worth of film. My hope is that the quality will be as good as Prelude. My concern is that it won’t get made without another fundraiser because there is not enough funds left.

    1. Probably right. But I intend to donate again. I feel like my last donation was hijacked by CBS and Paramount. Others can come up with their own rationales for either donating or not.

      1. You half right Jonathan, it was highjacked, but not by CBS – his name is Garth Peters (or was) maybe more now like “All Mouth Peters” or “wannabe Garth” – what a complete disastrous project ! It’s definitely time to have these already duped donors chuck out some more money, there’s two big SciFi conventions coming up and Alec and Crysstal need first class accommodations – lol

        1. And there’s the LOL again. We should all feel really bad for Tony. He is hurting so deeply right now. You should have seen all the posts from him I deleted because of language. He is so over-compensating. Really, we should be feeling bad for him. No, really, we should.

          Oh, look–squirrel!

      2. There has been much written about the fact that Peters claims to have spent all of the donated funds. Assuming this is so, and that he wasn’t squirreling some away under his mattress, from where will the funds derive to cover the costs of these two 15 minute episodes? Is it possible that MORE donations will be sought? Is it possible that two 15 minute episodes could cost more than $1.5m? Seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it?

      3. Jonathan,

        You do realize that the settlement Prohibits the folks at Axanar from doing any type of fund raising? Since a donation would qualify as fund raising it would violate the terms of the settlement.

        I do think it is in Alec’s best interest that he gets to work on issuing refunds and forget about Axanar all together.

        1. “I do think it is in Alec’s best interest that he gets to work on issuing refunds and forget about Axanar all together.”

          Best laugh I have had all day, Admiral! Thank you for that. Truly. This blog has been so serious and a bit exhausting in the last 24 hours. I am so glad there are folks out there keeping a good sense of humor about all this. 🙂

    2. You got that right ! It’s time to dust off your wallet and cough up some real cash – since better than half the donors are gone now and the other three quarters remaining aren’t going to give a dime more to this sham ! Well, that leaves the few remaining the burden of footing this bill – / so don’t hold back, get the cash out as soon as possible !

      1. “since better than half the donors are gone now and the other three quarters remaining”

        Yes, folks, that adds up to 125%. But think of it this way, that jut means there;s more donors than we think!!! 🙂

  15. While I’m disappointed that the full 90 minute feature won’t be made, I’m glad that Axanar will be shown in some form. I hope that the documentary style shown in Prelude to Axanar will be used instead, as it feels more appropriate to the shorter running times and could continue from where Prelude left off.

      1. The talent which created “Prelude” have left the building ! The only thing left now is to turn off the lights and exit – lol

        1. In this case, “LOL” really means “I’m crying inside like a little baby because it looks like the other team won and I need to somehow find a way to make them feel bad so that I don’t hurt as much. It’s okay, Tony; we all understand how hard this must be for you. It’s never easy to lose and be proven wrong. But just know, Tony, that you still have friends who will love and support you. (Not us, of course. But somewhere there must be someone.)

    2. More money is required before anything can be done, the money jar is empty !
      It looks like the Prelude will be reused again, only added three minutes cut and five minutes of bloopers – thus your 30 minute Axanar, enjoy !

      1. Y’know, folks, I am sure–SURE, I tell you!–that there is some alternate universe out there where the things Tony says are actually considered witty and insightful. And I now believe that Tony may actually be FROM that other universe, and that’s why he’s posting all of these comments…and there sure are a LOT of them (this Axanar settlement really seems to be bothering the poor guy). I truly hope that Tony finds a way back to his own universe soon…for all of our sakes! 🙂

  16. I said in another post I always had a gut feeling Axanar was gonna win. Gee where’s Sandy Greenberg and Rand with their spin?

        1. That reminds me of a fun Jesus joke. If you’re easily offended, stop reading now.

          So Jesus is walking through town with his disciples when he sees someone about to be stoned. He steps up in front of the poor soul, raises his arms, smiles, and calmly says to the crowd, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

          With this, a rock flies through the air and smacks Jesus right on the forehead. He turns in the direction the rock was throw from and shouts, “Mom! Would you please stop doing that???”

          1. Jesus said “he”, or do you imply that Mary had become Mark?

            For that reason I rewrote the episode title using a gender neutral form. (I take it with your expert knowledge of Star Trek that I referred to the DS9 episode)… Rain on the parade… okay, I have a little of Jadzia in me, or perhaps a lot O:).

          3. Meh… I’m going to rationalize that pronoun “problem” with the “oddity” of ancient Semitic language’s “masculine” gender being close to a “not feminine only” gender when applied to the natural gender of an object. You see a similar thing in Spanish with the plural genders (if the word refers to a mix of sexes, you use the masculine plural, males in a mix can be enough to contaminate the whole group preventing the use of the feminine gender). I think English speakers too strongly tie grammatical gender to sex of an object when grammatical gender really has a semi-tenuous tie to the sex of an object (probably because gender is nearly dead in the English language, so they have limited experience with it). In the past, when English had full grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and case, the gender of a word didn’t always line up with the sex of the object it referred to (some male things were referred to in feminine, some females in neuter, some females in masculine, et cætera; it is, after all, just a tool of language to help keep track of what words are associated with other words in the sentence, not for sexing an object).

            tl;dr: Jonathan, you’re joke is 100% fine, IMHO. 🙂

    2. Well, Greenberg has been vomiting words around here. As for Rand, I’m assuming he’ll be back after getting over me completely blowing a big fat hole in his accusation over the Retro Donor funds being scrubbed……

  17. I can say WITHOUT RESERVATION that Carlos Pedraza is lying. Why? Because our first settlement conference was in APRIL. Carlos claim that they made a settlement offer in March is absurd.

    More lies from Carlos. So typical. .

    Alec

      1. I stand by what I said. Whoever leaked that information to Carlos has violated a court order. Carlos should not be sharing that information so casually. Also, I’m not entirely certain he is correct. While I don’t have the details that Carlos claims to have, I was led to believe from something I saw posted (I can’t track it down) that the previous terms included no Axanar anything, which is why Alec turned it down. Obviously, the terms offered in May (actually April, which according to Alec, was when the settlement negotiations took place) would NOT have included following the new guidelines (like the final settlement terms did) because–guess what!–the guidelines weren’t announced until the end of June. And I do know from a source inside the studio that the guidelines weren’t completed until just before they were announced. So no settlement offer in April could have included following the new guidelines.

        So I, too, must call bullshat on Carlos. Too many factual holes to be explained by simply being “he was just misquoted” (unless the quote is, “Yeah, I’m just making stuff up…”). 🙂

    3. Alec,

      How can anyone take you at your word you lied in a court of law during discovery. Why did you have TWO financial statements? Did you honestly think you could lie and not get caught?

      1. What makes you think Alec lied? The two sets of books have the same exact payments in them. They’re simply sorted differently. Set #1 is every check Axanar wrote for any expense. Set #2 is every check Axanar wrote for any expense organized into those paid for with donor funds versus those paid for with Alec’s personal donations. It’s not like set #2 leaves out anything from set #1.

        Don’t call someone a liar without having some kind of proof…especially not on this blog. Unfounded accusations are a no-no.

  18. Granted, that 2 fifteen minute segments are better than nothing, or Alec being held responsible for millions to CBS, but this is not a “victory”. The feature film is gone, and a bad precedent set for other ST fan film works. It may be a 50/50 walk-away, but it is NOT a victory.

    1. I actually disagree. David was battling Goliath, and even though the biblical hero won the fight with a lucky shot, lightning seldom strikes twice. This was going to be a HUGE uphill battle.

      I wish that people would stop looking at everything Axanar didn’t get and look at how much it DID get. This glass is totally half-full…maybe even 75%! 🙂

      2. No the loss is to all star trek fans .Those ” guide lines” are now law .won the battle lost the war.

  19. And the “guidelines” rear their ugly heads yet again.

    We were promised a feature-length movie…we’re gonna get a vignette.

    While I’m overjoyed that Alec Peters got what he wanted, this “victory” (hollow as it is) stinks for fan film makers worldwide.

    BUT THE STUDIO HAS SPOKEN:

    “Star Trek is ours to do with as we please. Not yours.”

    We can say goodbye to the likes of Starship Exeter, Star Trek Continues, etc. As far as the studio is concerned, fan films/series are done.

    And that, effectively, kills my fan film.

  20. Axanar won nothing but to be allowed to give “some donors” what they wanted. Alec dodged a snipers bullet and that was all.

    Alec still must acknowledge he indeed did willfully infringe on CBS and Paramounts Star Trek copyrights, he can no longer use Crowdfunding he must adhere strictly to guidelines and cannot use any professional other than what the settlement allows.

    Alec get a small victory, CBS and Paramount gets a bigger victory.

    Who are the losers here…. You, Me and every donor who gave Alec money to make a film and he squandered it selfishly on himself, his girlfriends and on RMB. NO one benefited from any of this but Alec himself.

      1. Well the good news is he won’t be donating again so there’s no possibility of future whining and tantrums. Time to take his crayons and move along.

  21. Congrats to Alec!!! It would have been nice to see Axanar in long form but given it’s quality, it would have been an uphill battle to keep it in long form because the studios feel that’s THEIR specialty and not a fan film’s. Yes, I know that sucks but it is the terrible truth, unfortunately at least for now. Hopefully down the line, that may change, but that may take a change of management at CBS/P which is not likely in the near future. At least with the settlement compromise there is a ray of light to shine the way. Axanar will get told, a new standard has been set and there’s no going back. So “boldly go where no man, or no one has gone before!!!!

    1. Well, there’s always the SMALL ACCESS campaign over at Facebook. I’m still planning to put pressure on the studios for some guideline revisions, but I need numbers MUCH higher than 1,270.

      1. Perhaps now with the courtcase over, the “haters” might come around to the reality that PSA does not exist as a front for Axanar, but instead for what it actually says on the tin, i.e. to “Put pressure on CBS to revise their horrific guidelines for fan films”. Maybe, just maybe, we can move beyond what ever feelings we had about the courtcase and Axanar in general and come together, to work together, for the greater good.

        1. Well, obviously, I’d prefer actual Trekkies. But if they’re willing to sign up for All Access in groups (as opposed to individually), then that still carries some punch.

  23. I have to say: I’m not happy with the outcome. I would have preferred no Axanar over Alec bending over in front of the studios and making Axanar in line with the draconian guidelines. I also don’t think that we will see Soval again.
    This is a sad day for Star Trek and its fans.

    1. Sorry, Captain, I just can’t agree. 30 minutes of Axanar PLUS the studios’ OFFICIAL permission for Alec to make MORE fan films…you’d really have preferred NO Axanar to that??? C’mon, dude. Where’s the logic?

  24. I can see where both sides might see this as a victory, however I also can see how both sides would see this as a defeat. CBSP doesn’t get to crush Alecs dream like they wanted, but we also don’t get a full length Axanar. I find myself conflicted, on one hand I will likely enjoy what little Axanar we get, on the other hand I would have also enjoyed seeing CBSP throw millions of dollars into a long drawn out lawsuit of their own design, while Mr lane tells us how were going to win the next battle. Much like the rest of life we just have to take what we can get and add salt to taste.

    1. I’ll write more on this next week in a blog editorial that I’m tentatively titling “AXANAR Settlement – Win, Loss, or Draw?” But I want to collect some information from Alec first (and also get some time away from approving and responding to so many comments–which I love, but they’re so time-consuming!).

      Basically, while I think Axanar could eventually have won a “war of attrition”–it would have taken years, at best. Those saying that they wanted a full-length Axanar feature with no penalty for Alec, and that “this settlement sucks!” aren’t really thinking logically…at least in my opinion. Their “best case scenario” (an all-out win in court) wasn’t a likely scenario…despite Moses’ secret strategy. So what was the best case scenario? If one thinks about this more realistically, I personally believe the inevitable conclusion is that this was an awesome deal. No, not the best deal ever…but we were never going to get the best deal ever.

  25. And of course they are already cutting and pasting in the CBS/P group various comments from here, so Jonathan you have made your 3 cents.

    Rand, if you read the press release from CBS, they say “Alec agreed he stepped over the line” that is a big difference than saying “Alec agreed he violated copyright”. If the actual settlement does not say “XXX admits to violating copyright”, than that point is not actually proven. It is like settlements where companies settle without admitting wrong doing. Alec may have to agree he “stepped over the line” but that is way less than the other one.

    But thanks for playing, shouldn’t you be bitching about “losing your money, and no one helping you get it back” or something.

    1. I think the new Axanerd response to the detractors at this point should be, “Thank you for playing. Please enjoy this lovely parting gift.” 🙂

      Oh, and yesterday saw nearly 4,000 page views on FFF!!! And you know how much I made from Google??? Are you sitting down? It’s a VERY BIG number, guys! Okay, remember that this is real money…

      $3.93

      Sushi is on me tonight!!! (Well, at least let me pay for the edamame then.) 🙂

  26. Well Not very good for fans and kickstarter founders since we are down to 1/2 or even 1/3 of original promised length of the film, still it is better than nothing. As it is with most compromises I suspect nobody will be 100% satisfied.

    1. Exactly what I’ve been saying. A compromise means neither side gets everything they want. The studios wanted NO Axanar and a huge financial penalty; Alec wanted 100 minutes of Axanar with all the trimmings and no penalty. They met in the middle.

  27. Oof! There is a bunch of good in the settlement (from what I have seen so far from this page and the email to donors that I read yesterday), but the only part that kind of stings is the 30 minute limit. I would have been perfectly fine with 45 minutes (about five minutes short of the length of a TOS episode), but 30 minutes just seems a bit too short. I really hope they can forego including full credits at the end somehow (two 2.5 minute end credits [the length it was on Prelude] would be a 5 minutes of lost story). Would having the end credits as a separate video be consider not part of the the two 15 minute segments limit, somehow… just label it as a contributors’ “thank you” video related to the project and the previous fund-raising???

    Otherwise, good news.

  28. Hey Jonathan, I don’t know if you remember me at all, but it’s me, Amilcar (Amil) from Facebook (the Fan Film Guidelines proposal that I wrote, if you remember) – Anyway, I just wanted to say that I’m glad we’re getting an Axanar, well something – However, I do feel a little down about this at the same time – I know that can’t happen now or anytime soon but somehow I’m thinking that there has got be a way to get something a little more flexible from CBS/Paramount, if they have any sense of lenience left in them – I know, the something that we got is better than the absolutely nothing that we could have gotten, but the more optimistic side of me is hoping that someday, hopefully within our lifetime(s) CBS/Paramount will allow fans to do something better with a franchise that is well loved and so much a part of our lives – I’m still crossing my fingers for that day, and I will still keep looking for ways to approach CBS/Paramount, maybe on my own, if they’ll hear me – Godspeed to us all, and be safe, Jonathan, alright?… P 🙂

    1. Amilcar, what you ask for will probably only be possible with a change of management at both CBS and Paramount, but especially CBS, since they own the overall copyright, because even Paramount has to get permission from CBS to make the movies.

      2. Hm, you’re probably right Frank, but I’m just not ready to give up yet, ya know?… P

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