Star Trek New Voyages (and Star Trek Continues, to a lesser extent) were beautiful, and I'm so glad that they existed and I'm deeply upset with Paramount for fucking them up.

(There are 3! Episodes of Star Trek New Voyages that will never get finished because between them being shot and being released, they became explicitly illegal.)

Of course, this is because they were always illegal. They were copyright infringing, it just didn't matter until Paramount decided that fan films had gotten too good, and posed a real threat to their bottom line.

I don't think I can fully explain how much Paramount's capricious fan film guidelines radicalized me w/r/t my views on copyright.

Of course, both New Voyages on occasion and Continues in most (every?) episode featured Vic Mignogna as Captain Kirk.

I have heard from credible sources that, in addition to being a first class creep ( see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Mignogna#Legal_battles_and_sexual_harassment_allegations ) he was also probably a thief!

I feel like I shouldn't continue this discussion without acknowledging that.

Anyway, problematic people aside, the concept of these Star Trek fan films was beautifully naive: "let's do Fan Fiction but for Television"

Fan fiction is also illegal, and usually tolerated at best. (It shouldn't be illegal, but that's another story!) and that's while most Fan Fiction could not possibly supplant the work who's copyright it is infringing. Who would read Fan Fic without reading/watching the thing its based on?

At the time that Star Trek New Voyages started coming out there hadn't been any Star Trek on TV or in cinemas for years, and the early episodes of NV... Well, they are a little unpolished, rough around the edges.

But, by the time the later episodes were released, and by the time Continues hit the scene, two things had changed:

1) these fan films became absolutely as good as or better than many episodes of Star Trek that had aired on television (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4TC5wl0IzE&list=PL5h4ur_aSq8NxKIK0TWk6puXu4E1RjT8y&index=5 or any of the later episodes for example.)

2) J.J. Abrams' Star Trek film was released, and quickly became a blockbuster trilogy of ... well, shall we say "Flashy" films?

In short, there was money on the line.

And the reception of the Abrams films was mixed. You wouldn't know it looking at their reviews today, but opinions were Divided.

Casual viewers ate them up, but hardcore fans absolutely hated it. And they were Loud. They weren't critics, they weren't viewers. They didn't make the films fail, but they did Talk. A lot. On youtube, and in comic book shops, and in letters to Paramount.

And, I can't speak for every one of those nerd, but at least the ones around me were *firmly* of the opinion that the true spirit of Star Trek lived on, not in the cinema but in the fan films on youtube.

I'm not talking about Axanar, because I frankly don't know enough about it to talk about it cogently.

I know this: They raised $638,000 on Kickstarter to make a feature length film based on IP they didn't own. They had various alumni of previous Trek projects involved.

Somehow, they thought this wouldn't attract the attention of the *people who owned and were actively making movies with the same IP*

I can't fathom being that reckless.

In the wake of that, it is unsurprising that Paramount chose to publish rules governing fan films.

What is slightly more surprising is that the rules they published also explicitly banned Star Trek New Voyages / Continues, etc.

It isn't *that* surprising, Paramount wanted to make money and New Voyages / Continues were both good enough that they could be seen as viable competition to the things they were producing,.

And it would have been difficult to write rules that excluded Axanar that didn't also exclude NV/Continues, but they didn't even try.

They used Axanar as an excuse to axe all fan films.

And, should you think I'm exaggerating, here are the official guidelines:

- 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.

Some of those guidelines are very reasonable!

Some of them are explicitly disallowing things that would otherwise be legal, which makes me angry.

For example:
- You can't register the copyright of the things you've produced, because you produced them in service of Star Trek? Bullshit, that I hate.

- You can't sell merch for your fan production, even if you don't use any Paramount owned shit in it? Bullshit that I hate.

- No physical media? Fuck that!

- You can't pay anyone involved? That's fucking bullshit!

- Anyone who has ever been in a Star Trek thing can't participate. Why? (Specifically to exclude Tim Russ and George Takei, presumably, but also perhaps to exclude James Cawley and others who were involved in existing fan productions who had *also* cameoed in various actual Star Trek productions.)

And then, of course, no more than 15 minutes per thing, and no more than two things per group. No sequels, no series, no seasons, nothing of proper episode length.