Part 2 – Star Trek: Axanar and CBS/Paramount

Well, when I first posted about the Battle between CBS/Paramount and the folks making Star Trek: Axanar, it certainly caused a bit of a row here in My Own Little Shadow.

This morning, thanks to my facebook feed, I was treated to a link to this article:

https://www.inverse.com/article/11905-paramount-must-explain-star-trek-in-court-or-lose-ownership

Now, I’m not a lawyer or anything, but years of watching TV Shows like Matlock, Perry Mason, and Law and Order, along with movies like A Civil Action and A Few Good Men have taught me one thing: if you ask your opponent an unpleasant and or unexpected question, you can score some points. Maybe enough points to win.

Or, at least, greatly mitigate a loss.

How all this shapes out in an actual, non-fictional courtroom remains to be seen, but, as an advocate of common sense, I think that asking the “simple question” of “exactly which copyrights have we violated?” is a perfectly legitimate legal tactic.

The accused has a right to know the charges against them, not have to guess at them, and so CBS/Paramount will be forced to lay out exactly what they consider copyrights that they own, which ones Axanar has violated, and why no one else has violated them.

Again, I’m not a lawyer, but I am pretty smart, and I have found that, generally speaking, making your opponent do the brunt of the work is preferable to doing it yourself, especially if they’re trying to beat you at something.

Full disclosure: I want to see Axanar finished. I think it’s a great project that those who have worked on it can and should be proud of. But, I also believe in law and order. If the courts decide against Axanar, something great will have been lost.

And all the fans will be lesser for it.

That’s my opinion, anyway.