Fan cultures have existed for decades and have produced their own versions and variations of expression as they drew upon pre-existing genre fiction elements. Star Trek is perhaps one of the best examples of this. Fan fiction production went on without the concern of the entities that owned the material. It was largely seen as harmless expressions of fan devotion, and it no doubt helped keep the material alive and contributed to the ongoing financial income of those that owned the copyrights to the materials as fan fiction pointed toward merchandise that could be purchased from the copyright holders.

Things have changed. Technology has leveled the playing field between fans and Hollywood studios. Now crowdfunding on the Internet enables fans to raise large amounts of money for use in fan fiction production, and film making technology for special effects available for amateurs rivals that of multi-million dollar budgets for big name studios. This has come to a head with Paramount Studios suing the makers of Star Trek: Anaxar. As NEWSWEEK reported:

Axanar’s budget and boasts may have been too much for Paramount and CBS, and in December, the two companies sued Axanar Productions, claiming that its work “infringe[s] Plaintiffs’ works by using innumerable copyrighted elements of Star Trek, including its settings, characters, species, and themes.” The suit named the production company, studio head Alec Peters, and “Does 1-20,” an unnamed group that could expand to include personnel such as director Robert Meyer Burnett, an industry professional who had previously produced featurettes for CBS’ Star Trek Blu-ray releases.

I appreciate Paramount’s concerns over various copyright elements, but given the quality of the trailer for Axanar in contrast with J.J. Abrams’ franchise reboot, in my view the studio’s real fears are that this fan fiction effort has surpassed Paramount’s own production efforts.