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Official Star Trek Fan Film Guidelines

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  • Official Star Trek Fan Film Guidelines



    CBS and Paramount Pictures are big believers in reasonable fan fiction and fan creativity, and, in particular, want amateur fan filmmakers to showcase their passion for Star Trek. Therefore, CBS and Paramount Pictures will not object to, or take legal action against, Star Trek fan productions that are non-professional and amateur and meet the following guidelines.

    Guidelines for Avoiding Objections:

    The fan production must be less than 15 minutes for a single self-contained story, or no more than 2 segments, episodes or parts, not to exceed 30 minutes total, with no additional seasons, episodes, parts, sequels or remakes.

    The title of the fan production or any parts cannot include the name “Star Trek.” However, the title must contain a subtitle with the phrase: “A STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTION” in plain typeface. The fan production cannot use the term “official” in either its title or subtitle or in any marketing, promotions or social media for the fan production.

    The content in the fan production must be original, not reproductions, recreations or clips from any Star Trek production. If non-Star Trek third party content is used, all necessary permissions for any third party content should be obtained in writing.

    If the fan production uses commercially-available Star Trek uniforms, accessories, toys and props, these items must be official merchandise and not bootleg items or imitations of such commercially available products.

    The fan production must be a real “fan” production, i.e., creators, actors and all other participants must be amateurs, cannot be compensated for their services, and cannot be currently or previously employed on any Star Trek series, films, production of DVDs or with any of CBS or Paramount Pictures’ licensees.

    The fan production must be non-commercial:

    CBS and Paramount Pictures do not object to limited fundraising for the creation of a fan production, whether 1 or 2 segments and consistent with these guidelines, so long as the total amount does not exceed $50,000, including all platform fees, and when the $50,000 goal is reached, all fundraising must cease.

    The fan production must only be exhibited or distributed on a no-charge basis and/or shared via streaming services without generating revenue.

    The fan production cannot be distributed in a physical format such as DVD or Blu-ray.

    The fan production cannot be used to derive advertising revenue including, but not limited to, through for example, the use of pre or post-roll advertising, click-through advertising banners, that is associated with the fan production.

    No unlicensed Star Trek-related or fan production-related merchandise or services can be offered for sale or given away as premiums, perks or rewards or in connection with the fan production fundraising.

    The fan production cannot derive revenue by selling or licensing fan-created production sets, props or costumes.

    The fan production must be family friendly and suitable for public presentation. Videos must not include profanity, nudity, obscenity, pornography, depictions of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or any harmful or illegal activity, or any material that is offensive, fraudulent, defamatory, libelous, disparaging, sexually explicit, threatening, hateful, or any other inappropriate content. The content of the fan production cannot violate any individual’s right of privacy.

    The fan production must display the following disclaimer in the on-screen credits of the fan productions and on any marketing material including the fan production website or page hosting the fan production:

    “Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.”

    Creators of fan productions must not seek to register their works, nor any elements of the works, under copyright or trademark law.

    Fan productions cannot create or imply any association or endorsement by CBS or Paramount Pictures.

    CBS and Paramount Pictures reserve the right to revise, revoke and/or withdraw these guidelines at any time in their own discretion. These guidelines are not a license and do not constitute approval or authorization of any fan productions or a waiver of any rights that CBS or Paramount Pictures may have with respect to fan fiction created outside of these guidelines.
    I'm not fond of the length or the restrictions on ongoing stories but there's really nothing wrong here that I'm noticing...

    Jan
    "As empathy spreads, civilization spreads. As empathy contracts, civilization contracts...as we're seeing now.

  • #2
    Well, it does seem to make pretty much every fan production so far unacceptable. Now, I didn't really enjoy most of those, and I'm not really that interested in fan productions, and in our current economic system the rules are what they are... but this doesn't seem like a great move.
    Jonas Kyratzes | Lands of Dream

    Comment


    • #3
      I'm kind of hoping that those productions who already had good relations before toes were stepped on might be able to make a deal for exceptions...quietly and down the road a ways.

      Just an optimist, I guess...

      Jan
      "As empathy spreads, civilization spreads. As empathy contracts, civilization contracts...as we're seeing now.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Jan View Post
        I'm kind of hoping that those productions who already had good relations before toes were stepped on might be able to make a deal for exceptions...quietly and down the road a ways.

        Just an optimist, I guess...

        Jan
        Good question - what will become of existing fan films?
        Are they to be pulled to avoid lawsuit?

        There is such a small percentage of people who work on Trek fan films or enjoy them that I find it hard to believe that their rules be so limiting.

        It would seem enough to just say nothing over X amount of money can be raised for production, and stop pilfering our past actors.

        Of course it is their right to put a stop to virtually all current semi-pro fan films.

        I will be excited to see a new crop of "Space Adventure" films as a result.

        Okay, just to be safe -
        “Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.”

        Comment


        • #5
          You may find Peter David's response interesting.
          Star Trek Fan film Guidelines
          So thanks mostly to the efforts of the "Axanar" people, the guys who raised a million bucks to produce a "Star Trek" based film which re ...

          Since I did not receive his permission to re-post, I'm only posting the link.

          My assessment of the situation:

          As a reminder, if a patent, copyright or trade owner does not defend their intellectual property, they may well loose their intellectual property rights. For instance, "Cellophane" is in many countries a registered trade mark of Innovia Films Ltd based in Wigton, Cumbria, United Kingdom. However, Innovia Films Ltd did not defend their trade mark in the United States and the term, cellophane, became public domain in the United States. In contrast, 3M corporation vigorously defends its intellectual property. If you use the term Post-it Notes(TM) or Scotch Tape(TM) without the TM (trade mark symbol) in a publication, you are likely to receive a polite reminder from 3M's legal department to use the trade mark symbol in the future. If you continue to use 3M's trade marks without the TM symbol, 3M's lawyers will escalate their reminders and will eventually sue the person violating their intellectual property.

          Disney is much more draconian in their defense of their intellectual property. There are cases of churches and schools who painted the walls of classrooms with Disney characters without permission. As soon as Disney finds out about this violation of intellectual property, they will threaten legal action unless the images are removed.

          Paramount and CBS has been much more liberal in enforcing their intellectual property so as not to alienate their fan base. However, “Axanar” forced Paramount and CBS to issue guidelines in order to protect their trade mark of Star Trek. These guidelines are still more liberal that what you would see from most corporations.
          Last edited by Dan Dassow; 06-24-2016, 02:31 PM. Reason: Additional thoughts

          Comment


          • #6
            I'm with Peter. It was a lot of fun until somebody pushed way too far. And while I understand he's a great guy, the Axanar leader (whose name always escapes me) really shot himself in the foot with his overactive mouth when this all started.

            The owners of Trek have been VERY generous over the years letting people play with their toys which has given people an unfortunate feeling of ownership/entitlement that's just not reasonable.
            "As empathy spreads, civilization spreads. As empathy contracts, civilization contracts...as we're seeing now.

            Comment


            • #7
              So I guess this is kind of bad news for Star Trek Continues.
              Susan Ivanova, "I'll be in the car."

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Jan View Post
                I'm with Peter. It was a lot of fun until somebody pushed way too far. And while I understand he's a great guy, the Axanar leader (whose name always escapes me) really shot himself in the foot with his overactive mouth when this all started.

                The owners of Trek have been VERY generous over the years letting people play with their toys which has given people an unfortunate feeling of ownership/entitlement that's just not reasonable.
                Originally posted by Looney View Post
                So I guess this is kind of bad news for Star Trek Continues.
                Jan and Looney,

                I realized after reading your posts that what I wrote may have been confused with what Peter David wrote. Out of deference to Peter's intellectual property rights, I simply included a link to his blog entry. What appears below is my take on the situation.

                I'm sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I wasn't confused by what you said. I was just commenting on the fact that the "Official Guidelines" seem to conflict with what Star Trek Continues is doing - firstly being that STAR TREK is specifically used in their title. My confusion comes from these guidelines vs. that show because it seems like that show might have some loose acceptance by Paramount/CBS due to very specific guidelines they were following that these guidelines seem to have conflicts with.
                  Susan Ivanova, "I'll be in the car."

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Thanks, Dan, but no confusion here. I clicked on the link and absolutely agreed with what Peter said.
                    "As empathy spreads, civilization spreads. As empathy contracts, civilization contracts...as we're seeing now.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I think I've seen an episode of Star Trek continues. Kirk had a kid with an alien woman and the little girl's ghost kept showing up on the enterprise?

                      I know I've heard the word Axanar, and judging from this thread, it was apparently a fan movie that raised too much money so they got sued and can't make it now?

                      Is this a thing that I missed? I hate missing things. *pouts*

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        "Renegades" have come up with the first answer to CBS/Paramount's guidelines :
                        http://renegades.show/home/a-message...lm-guidelines/

                        Removing references to Star Trek does not seem to be the easiest task in the world, but I think they can do it, and they will end up with their own movie, and they can do (almost) whatever they want without asking CBS/Paramount.

                        I am not sure all the ST fan projects can do this, but some can.
                        Jan from Denmark

                        My blog :

                        http://www.babylonlurker.dk

                        "Our thoughts form the Universe - they *always* matter"

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          It appears that small modifications to characters and sets will avoid lawsuit.
                          One Trek fan film comes to mind, 'Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning', sold on iTunes and Amazon.

                          A Finnish Star Trek parody, 1 hour 44 minutes, released in 2005 by Revolver Entertainment.
                          Features Babylon 5 and TNG characters.

                          In what I think is a bait-and-switch tactic, the youtube trailer for Star Wreck features perfect replicas of the ships while the purchased movie uses modified versions.

                          Still, it's nice to see that federation shields don't work in the B5 universe

                          Last edited by DaveNarn; 06-25-2016, 12:07 PM.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by DaveNarn View Post
                            It appears that small modifications to characters and sets will avoid lawsuit.
                            One Trek fan film comes to mind, 'Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning', sold on iTunes and Amazon.

                            A Finnish Star Trek parody, 1 hour 44 minutes, released in 2005 by Revolver Entertainment.
                            Features Babylon 5 and TNG characters.

                            In what I think is a bait-and-switch tactic, the youtube trailer for Star Wreck features perfect replicas of the ships while the purchased movie uses modified versions.

                            Still, it's nice to see that federation shields don't work in the B5 universe

                            https://youtu.be/7ft9WYbq83o
                            Parodies generally are considered fair use of a work.
                            In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, - Copyright Overview by Rich Stim

                            What Is Fair Use?
                            ...
                            Parody

                            A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way. Judges understand that, by its nature, parody demands some taking from the original work being parodied. Unlike other forms of fair use, a fairly extensive use of the original work is permitted in a parody in order to “conjure up” the original. ...
                            However, professional parody artists, such a Weird "Al" Yancovic, usually ask permission before making parodies out of respect for the originators of the works they parody.
                            Last edited by Dan Dassow; 06-25-2016, 06:59 PM. Reason: post munched

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              We love our parodies, right?

                              Spaceballs, and Dark Star, come to mind. Mmm, Hardware Wars too.

                              Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.


                              The bomb has failed to release after being armed. Doolittle tries to talk it out of detonating.


                              Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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