At first, Paramount did not specify these, so the producers being sued argued the suit should be dismissed because Paramount failed to list the specific copyright violations. Paramount returned with an amended lawsuit that listed their specific claims, ranging from the use of "phasers" to the appearance of various Star Trek aliens like Vulcans.
4 comments:
I'm no lawyer. My knowledge of copyright laws is limited to basically what I read on this blog. But I do realize, as a rational human being, that trying to sue someone over copying the "mood and theme" of a TV show-- not to mention an insanely popular and universally iconic one-- is pretty ridiculous. How do you decide if something infringes on the "mood and theme" that you and your creative team developed? If so, then what about comedy shows that have similar styles of humor or situations? For example, Parks and Recreation and The Office both use a fake documentary style and similar camera angles to achieve their respective signature brands of humor, not to mention the fact that they both play on the humor of a comedically inefficient workspace and a slight suspension of disbelief when it comes to the characters and situations they find themselves in. That sounds like they have a similar "mood and theme" to me, so does The Office get to sue Parks and Rec for copying its style?
Isn’t it way too late to try to make a move on copyrighting these things? Star Trek has been around since 1966. It’s been 50 years. I feel like if they were going to get mad about the copyright infringement they should have copyrighted these things a long, long time ago. Especially the Klingon language. It’s a commonly known thing that if you're a really passionate Star Trek fan, you’re going to learn Klingon because it was made into a real language (not just nonsense sounds), so can you really copyright a language? Also, suing them over using pointed ears (or are they suing them over having Vulcans? The article is not very clear) is pretty silly considering that many other fantasy/sci-fi movies use pointed ears especially for elves.
This situation is going to be touchy and is really unfortunate because it was a fan film. So of course they used things from Star Trek- that was the point. It’s also unfortunate because it was probably made out of the simple love of the franchise, not out of malice.
I was wondering when there would be another story about ridiculous lawsuits on this blog. Paramount’s claims range from things that actually make sense and seem like they could be defendable all the way to things that make it seem like who ever is in charge of their lawsuit went crazy and just started making things up. This is especially true of the part about the “mood and theme” of the show and about how they apparently hold the copyright to pointed ears (unless they actually mean the Vulcans, in which case I guess they could probably get away with that). But if they actually are claiming to own the idea of pointed ears then what’s next, suing every fantasy film to include elves ever? What’s next, suing the makers of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit? Towards the end of the article Paramount’s claims start to make a little more sense, I would imagine that if they wanted to they could make a good argument for owning the ideas behind the technology, logos, and specific races, of Star Trek. But even then the question remains, why would they want to? It’s a crowd funded fan film they’re suing, not some giant blockbuster that could actually affect their profits.
Really, I mean come on, really? If Star Trek has taught me anything, it’s that no matter what you can either charm your way out of any confrontation, or you can just use the good old double fisted hammer hit. But in seriousness, Star Trek shouldn’t be something you sue people over, especially fans who are creating a crowd funded movie (lord knows how much money those make). I can only speculate, but I doubt that this sort of thing would be an issue if CBS wasn’t putting out a new series (one that can only be viewed by those who pay for a separate subscription to CBS All Access). Maybe the execs are seeing the success of the reboot movies and want to squeeze every drop of money out of the franchise as they can, but if you ask me, Star Trek is something that a lot of people love, and even if you can make the argument over copyright infringement on a fan made film, which in all fairness is something that you definitely could do, it doesn’t mean you should sue the fans of the franchise that has been iconic for it’s use of the metaphor of the future to deal with current and (still) relevant issues that wouldn’t usually be discussed on a television show. You might as well sue everyone who puts on pointy ears and tell people to “live long and prosper”.
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