Axanar – Page 11 – Fan Film Factor

A closer look at the MOTIONS TO LIMIT EVIDENCE in the AXANAR LAWSUIT (Part 2)

In Part 1, I explained what a motion in limine is, so I don’t need to explain it again, right? Instead I can just jump into the ten motions the plaintiffs made in the AXANAR lawsuit to try to get certain key witnesses (including me!) and pieces of evidence excluded so that the jury will never see or hear them.

Here are all ten motions collected into one document:

Plaintiff Motions to Exclude

To save you from having to read all 63 pages (!!!), I’ll be providing a nice ‘n tidy summary for you of each motion. In a few cases, I might comment on the strength or weakness of a particular argument. But for the most part, I’m going to stick to giving an overview of why the plaintiffs believe each item should be excluded, and also how that item could potentially hurt the plaintiffs if it gets in front of the jury. (After I finish going through all of the plaintiffs’ motions, I’ll do the same for the defense team.)

My apologies in advance for another long blog, but this time, there are TEN motions to cover! Read it in chunks if your eyes start to glaze.

So here’s what the plaintiffs want to exclude…

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A closer look at the MOTIONS TO LIMIT EVIDENCE in the AXANAR LAWSUIT (Part 1)

Now that I’ve indulged my little emotional rant last Saturday, it’s time to sit down and take a somewhat less passionate look at the 19 motions in limine that both sides filed last week to exclude evidence and witnesses in the AXANAR lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are challenging TEN different items of evidence and potential witnesses (including yours truly!) while the defense team is challenging NINE. I’ve consolidated all those separate motions into two huge PDF documents:

Defense Motions to Exclude

Plaintiff Motions to Exclude

In Part 1 of this blog series, I’d like to explore what a a motion in limine is and how and why it is used. In this way, I’m hoping to give you all a better idea of what is going on right now and why it’s so important (and also give myself more time to research and write up parts 2 and 3!).

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NEW MOTIONS filed to LIMIT EVIDENCE in the AXANAR LAWSUIT!

Just when you thought you were out, I pull you back in! Yes, it’s AXANAR lawsuit time again…and I really didn’t expect this part to be quite so significant. Man, was I wrong!

As you may recall, the next major event in the Axanar case was supposed to be oral arguments for the motions for summary judgment in front of Judge R. Gary Klausner on Monday morning. But the judge canceled the in-person hearing and will be making his pre-trial rulings based solely on the documents filed by both parties. (This is not unusual. I’m told that Judge Klausner usually cancels oral arguments and rules based on filings.) This means that the judge’s rulings could come at any time…and this lawsuit could possibly even be over before it begins!

But if this case does go to trial on January 31, then yesterday (Friday) was an important deadline. It was the last chance each side had to challenge evidence and/or witnesses that the other side wants to use in court and present to the jury. This can potentially be pretty big. Imagine going into the big game with a few of your best players disqualified and benched. That could happen if the judge excludes one or more pieces of potentially key or damaging evidence from being used at trial!

The plaintiffs are challenging TEN different items of evidence and potential witnesses (like little ol’ me!) while the defense team is challenging NINE. I’ve consolidated all those separate motions into two huge PDF documents:

Defense Motions to Exclude

Plaintiff Motions to Exclude

You probably don’t want to read all 140 pages (although there’s some interesting stuff in there!), so I’m gonna help ya out and do a summary…later this week. Assuming the judge doesn’t end the case before then, I’m gonna need at least a few days to parse through all this!

Except for the motion about me (starting on page 25). That one I wanna tackle right now because, dammit, it’s my frickin’ blog and I should be allowed a bit of self-indulgent righteous indignation every once in a while!

So let’s take a look at why the plaintiffs don’t want me ruining their case…

Continue reading “NEW MOTIONS filed to LIMIT EVIDENCE in the AXANAR LAWSUIT!”

BREAKING NEWS – ORAL ARGUMENTS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT have been CANCELED for next Monday!

The motions for summary judgment had been filed last month by both parties in the AXANAR lawsuit, followed by opposition briefs and reply briefs from both sides. Next Monday, at 9:00 a.m. at the Ninth Circuit Federal Court Building, lawyers from both sides were scheduled to appear before Judge R. Gary Klausner to argue the merits of their motions and oppose the other side. And I was planning to be there.

Looks like I don’t have to schlep to downtown anymore. The court just sent the following message to the attorneys in the case:

SCHEDULING NOTICE TO ALL PARTIES AND ORDER by Judge R. Gary Klausner. Plaintiffs CBS Studios Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporation’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment [72, 85] and Defendants Axanar Productions, Inc. and Alec Peters’ Motion for Summary Judgment [75], calendared for hearing on December 19, 2016, have been taken under submission and off the motion calendar. No appearances by counsel are necessary. The Court will issue a ruling after full consideration of properly submitted pleadings. IT IS SO ORDERED.

In other words, Judge Klausner will decide the motions based solely on the documents that have been filed. This is not unusual for him. In fact, I am told that it’s unusual for him to NOT cancel oral arguments!

And so his decision could come at any moment–today, tomorrow, next week–and when it does, you can believe I’m gonna post it as soon as I can!!!

A closer look at the REPLY BRIEFS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT (Part 2)

Last time, we took a deep dive into the fascinating world of the Plaintiffs’ Reply to the Defense Opposition to the Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment in the AXANAR lawsuit. (Say THAT three times fast!)

This time, we look at the equally fascinating Defendants’ reply to the Plaintiffs Opposition to the Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment. This is the way the law works, folks, with each side being given a fair chance to rebut the other side’s arguments and then to reply to those rebuttals. It is important to know copyright law even when dealing with owned property. If you are interested in finding out more about copyright law, you might want to check out somewhere like Bonamark to learn more.

As I mentioned last time, the plaintiffs’ latest filing comes in like a wrecking ball, angry and indignant and looking for strong emotion to carry the day. They want justice…and they don’t get particularly specific in describing what aspects of their intellectual property was copied and how. They give some general descriptions, like Klingons being “…a fictional, war-like species, speaking Klingonese, hailing from the planet Qo’noS and are known for engaging in battles with the Federation.” But they don’t go much further.

As you’ll see in a few moments, the Axanar defense team utilizes a very different approach. Less emotional and more (dare I say it?) logical, they go much deeper into the precise elements of copyright law and legal precedent. (As such, yeah, this is gonna be another long blog, folks…sorry.)

It’s the hammer versus the scalpel, and it’s time to see how an intellectual property “surgeon” operates…

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A closer look at the REPLY BRIEFS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT (Part 1)

“Did!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”

We are now at the “Did, too!” point of the summary judgement phase for the AXANAR lawsuit. Motions for summary judgment were filed back in November with each side asking the judge to make certain rulings before the trial even begins…rulings that could actually make the trial (or most of it) unnecessary.

The plaintiffs want the judge to rule that Alec Peters infringed on the intellectual property (Star Trek) of CBS and Paramount and order that he be forbidden to make any more Axanar anything. The defense wants the judge to rule that the Axanar works fall under the protection of “fair use” and so any trial is unnecessary.

The stakes are high. A decision one way or the other could change the world of Star Trek fan films forever!

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LEGAL REPLIES filed by both sides in the AXANAR LAWSUIT!

If it’s Tuesday, that can only mean one thing: new documents in the AXANAR lawsuit were filed at midnight last night!

But seriously, folks, these will likely be the last Axanar filings for the foreseeable future. In two weeks (December 19…a Monday, of course), attorneys for both sides will appear in court in front of Judge Klausner for oral arguments, each supporting their clients’ motion for summary judgement. After that, the next document we will see will be filed by the judge himself…and it’ll either be good news or bad news (or both!) for the two sides in this case as he makes his final rulings on these two motions.

In the meantime, here’s what came in last night: REPLIES. Three weeks ago, both sides filed motions for summary judgment (the plaintiffs filed a partial motion…more on that in another blog). These documents each asked the judge to rule on facts that were not in dispute (in other words, so obvious that any jury would reach the same conclusion, so why even waste the time to argue about it in court?). Of course, neither side agrees on what these “obvious” facts are, which kinda suggests they’re not quite undisputed. However, if the judge is convinced by the arguments of one side or the other, he could, conceivably, end this case before the trial even begins, effectively handing a victory to one side or the other.

After filing their motions, each side was allowed, two weeks later, to provide a second filing in OPPOSITION to what the other side had argued in its motion. And finally, a week after that (which was yesterday), each side could provide a brief REPLY to that opposition filing. Here are links to both of those replies from yesterday:

Plaintiffs’ reply

Defendants’ reply

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A closer look at the OPPOSITION BRIEFS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT (Part 3)

In Part 2, we started looking more deeply into the fascinating points made in the Defense Opposition to the PLAINTIFFS Motion for Partial Summary Judgment. In Part 1, we had looked into the Plaintiffs Opposition to the DEFENSE Motion for Summary Judgment.

Both documents are 20 pages long and intelligently written. However, there’s a lot more to cover in the defense brief, so I had to split that portion into two parts in order to cover everything properly. This isn’t to say one side or the other made better arguments–only that there’s more to go over with the defense.

So let’s jump right back in! First up: profits…

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A closer look at the OPPOSITION BRIEFS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT (Part 2)

Last time, we took a look at what the plaintiffs had to say in their Plaintiffs Opposition to the DEFENSE Motion for Summary Judgment. Now it’s time to flip over to the Defense Opposition to the PLAINTIFFS Motion for Partial Summary Judgment. As I did yesterday, I’m going to conduct my review by gathering together some choice quotations from the filing and commenting on them individually, starting with this very important one…

Moreover, even if the Court were to construe Plaintiffs’ unsubstantiated and self-serving speculation that they could theoretically be harmed by Defendants’ Works as “evidence,” this would only create a factual dispute on fair use.

This shows that the defense isn’t just opting for a “We’re obviously right, and they’re obviously full of crap…” approach like the plaintiffs did. (That’s not an actual quote from the plaintiffs’ filing, but it’s a pretty good summation.)

Instead, the defense is going to also cover their flank and protect themselves against the judge going with the plaintiffs. In other words, yes, they’re saying “We’re right and they’re wrong,” but they are also saying, “But if you think they’re right, then we really need to let a jury decide.” Summary judgments only happen if there is clearly NOT a factual dispute. So pay attention to how many times the defense suggests that a the facts need to be brought in front of a jury. The plaintiffs don’t do that at all.

Two legal teams…two different strategies. Fascinating, ain’t it? (Well, I think it’s fascinating, at least!) So, let’s look at what the defense has to say…

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A closer look at the OPPOSITION BRIEFS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT (Part 1)

Yes, it’s that magical time again! Jonathan is going to play tour guide to take anyone who is interested on a journey through the latest two major filings in the AXANAR lawsuit, each submitted to the Ninth Circuit Federal Court this past Monday.

Plaintiffs Opposition

Defense Opposition

For a better idea of what is going on at the moment, check out my (not so brief!) four-part blog on the motions for summary judgment (start here). In that analysis, I flipped a coin and began with the defense. This time, to be polite, I’m going to begin with the plaintiffs.

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