Online Star Trek Film No Fan Film, Say Paramount, CBS
Defending an independent Star Trek film as a fan film "is a legally irrelevant designation" since fan films don't receive special treatment under the Copyright Act, said CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures in a motion (in Pacer) for partial summary…
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judgment filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Prelude to Axanar, distributed free online by Axanar Productions and principal Alec Peters, doesn't even qualify as a fan film -- that being an amateur work created by fans simply for fun -- since Axanar is making professional productions intended to be unlicensed independent Star Trek films targeted at the same audience as Paramount/CBS' Trek movies and TV shows, said the plaintiffs, who are suing for copyright infringement (see 1609300002). The motion asks the court to enter a judgment against Axanar and Peters on liability on the copyright infringement claims and enjoin them from further infringement, such as completing filming of a full-length Axanar motion picture. In the motion, Paramount/CBS said Peters repeatedly referred to the Axanar works as professional productions. They also argued against the Axanar works constituting fair use, since making "an authentic and 'independent Star Trek film' that stayed true to Star Trek canon down to excruciating details" falls well outside Section 107 of the Copyright Act, which covers fair use. Counsel for Axanar and Peters didn't comment Friday.