Last year Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios launched a legal battle against the makers of a Star Trek inspired fan film, accusing them of copyright infringement.

The case, which revolved around the well-received short film Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar and the planned follow-up feature film Axanar, put the future of the crowdfunded project at risk.

In the original complaint, the rightsholders claimed ownership over various Star Trek related settings, characters, species, clothing, colors, shapes, words, short phrases and even the Klingon language.

In a pre-trial order earlier this month the court decided that the fan-film is not entitled to a fair use defense. In addition, it found that there is an objective substantial similarity between the fan-film and the original Star Trek works.

This meant that Axanar was about to head into trial with a significant disadvantage, but in the end it didn’t come to that. Instead, both parties agreed to a settlement while asking the court to dismissed the case.

“Paramount Pictures Corporation, CBS Studios Inc., Axanar Productions, Inc. and Alec Peters are pleased to announce that the litigation regarding Axanar’s film Prelude to Axanar and its proposed film Axanar has been resolved,” reads a joint statement, published by HWR.

With a settlement, the Axanar team avoids having to pay a high amount in damages if they had lost. However, it also means that the planned film for which it raised over a million dollars through crowdfunding, will look substantially different.

Although most of the settlement terms remain confidential, it is clear that the film’s length will be significantly shorter. Instead of a planned 100-minute feature, Axanar will be reduced to two fifteen minute segments.

“Terms of the settlement agreement include an agreement to allow Axanar Productions to continue showing Prelude to Axanar commercial-free on YouTube and to allow Axanar Productions to produce the Axanar feature film as two fifteen-minute segments that can be distributed on YouTube,” Axanar announced.

While the films are allowed to appear on YouTube, they can’t be monetized through ads. Also, several copyrighted elements will be removed from the original script to satisfy the movie studios. One of the hot irons was the use of Klingon language, but it’s unclear whether that is still permitted.

Many fans who backed the project financially are disappointed with the outcome, but in comments on social media the filmmakers are clear that they really had no other viable option.

“And your solution is? Maybe you haven’t been following the multi-million $ lawsuit that we have been going through the past 13 months,” Axanar commented after someone suggested they had caved-in to the movie studios’ restrictive demands.

In response to the lawsuit, Paramount and CBS issued a set of fan film guidelines last summer, hoping to avoid similar legal battles in the future. While this comes too late for director Alec Peter and his crew, they are glad that their project can continue in an edited form.

“Axanar Productions was created by lifelong Star Trek fans to celebrate their love for Star Trek. Alec Peters and the Axanar team look forward to continuing to share the Axanar story and are happy to work within the Guidelines for Fan Films for future projects.”

“Live Long and Prosper,” the Axanar team concludes.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

This week we have two newcomers in our chart.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

This week’s most downloaded movies are:

Movie Rank	Rank last week	Movie name	IMDb Rating / Trailer
Most downloaded movies via torrents
1	(4)	Jack Reacher: Never Go Back	6.3 / trailer
2	(5)	Arrival (DVDscr)	8.3 / trailer
3	(7)	La La Land (DVDscr)	8.8 / trailer
4	(8)	Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Subbed HDRip)	7.1 / trailer
5	(1)	The Girl on The Train	6.6 / trailer
6	(…)	A Monster Calls (DVDscr)	7.6 / trailer
7	(2)	The Accountant	7.6 / trailer
8	(3)	Patriots Day (DVDscr)	7.6 / trailer
9	(…)	Hacksaw Ridge (DVDscr)	8.5 / trailer
10	(6)	Doctor Strange (HDTS)	8.0 / trailer

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

While Emmy-award winning director Casey Tebo is no stranger to movies, he’s only ever uploaded one video to YouTube. Unusually, it featured him committing a crime.

After discovering that pirate copies of his movie Happy Birthday (starring Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler) were being given away in a local store, Tebo decided to turn the tables.

Camera in hand, he documented himself stealing clam chowder ingredients from the same store. If they can steal from his industry, he can steal from them, he argued.

What most people didn’t know at the time is that the video was mostly a bit of fun. Many commenters on the YouTube video certainly didn’t notice, attacking Tebo with the kind of venom only YouTubers can.

“You look like a fucking asshole, you fucking asshole,” said one.

“That’s obvious. Never denied that!” Tebo responded.

Throughout Thursday, Tebo fended off much of the same from several directions, even posting on Twitter that he’d received death threats.

But despite the negative comments, not once did Tebo bite. In fact, one person who decided to provoke the director by posting links to downloads of his movie was won over by his charm and voluntarily took them down. They now follow each other on Twitter. Might he actually be this friendly in real life?

“One thing we could use in this modern day is people being nicer! I honestly don’t understand some of the hate and insults on the web, holy shit, my god people!!!” Tebo told TF.

Noting that he’d been called a ‘Rob Zombie Wanna Be’ and even a ‘Duck Dynasty Asshole’ this week, Tebo says he’s always wanted to make movies since he was really small.

“I took that same path, making movies with my video camera etc. Then worked my way up doing small music videos, then bigger music videos, then live events, then live tv. Then a short film (one that all the people on YouTube cursing me out now seem to love?) and eventually my first feature, Happy Birthday.”

So how does Tebo, who has directed for Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest and Run DMC, end up in a grocery store on a piracy protest? Has he been that badly affected by the phenomenon?

“I honestly can’t say it has affected me, a lot, yet. But I like to take risks, and I was quite angry at the time when I found out that a guy I knew was getting pirated copies of movies at work, that’s all. Adam [Tebo’s friend] came up with the idea and it was funny to me,” he said.

“There are arguments for and against piracy, and I can totally see both sides, I really can, but it seems to be a generational split. My kids will NEVER know what it’s like to pay for music – but I will never let them download movies, we buy everything. It goes into the work and money spent making movies.”

While not endorsing piracy in any way, Tebo seems to draw a somewhat wavy line between the effect piracy has on big movies versus the effect on smaller independent productions. Nevertheless, not even he’s 100% sure.

“I think if a hundred million people go see Avengers, then does [piracy] hurt? No. Because those people pay for tickets. But a movie like mine, it’s $500,000 – we sold it for less than that. It doesn’t mean go and steal Avengers, or does it? I’m not sure.”

Casey is in his forties now, so probably quite a bit older than the average YouTube comment assassin. As a result, he can still remember the days when cassette tapes ruled the waves and, more recently, when the CD was king. These days, the former is all but dead and the latter is about to join it. Does holding something physical give content more value?

“I really think it’s a generational thing. We LOVED tapes and CDs. We loved the art, the liner notes, the photos. Kids today will NEVER know that. They just play it on YouTube, and the quality is terrible, so to them, they’re doing nothing wrong,” he explains.

“If you went to a town beach for your whole childhood, then suddenly some asshole bought it and wanted to charge, you’d be like ‘Fuck this guy!’ – and so would I. Trust me, I get it. I really do.

“I guess my argument is, mine was a small film, and if the investors on an indie film lose money, guys who did it strictly for the passion, that kind of sucks for everyone involved. Once you see Transformers 5 make $400 million, if you’re okay with it, download it.”

The whole grocery store stunt began because people downloaded Tebo’s movie Happy Birthday for free. It’s available in a number of places, such as iTunes and Amazon, but there are issues.

When TF tried to buy a copy on Amazon, the US version of the site wouldn’t allow an overseas purchase. Equally, when we asked the US movie industry’s WhereToWatch site for advice, we got nothing. Same result for the UK industry’s FindAnyFilm site. Nothing on Netflix either, which is a shame since Tebo sees services like that as part of the solution.

“I think subscription-based is the way of the future. If Netflix has the best selection, why would you download stuff? Although, people probably like being a little naughty, you know? Like smoking a joint or doing a line of cocaine. This doesn’t mean you’re going to become Escobar – but, hey, have a little fun,” he says.

Grocery video aside, what pushed us to speak with Tebo was the way he handled his critics this week. Is he really this calm in real life when the haters let loose?

“There are homeless people, vets with missing limbs, Donald Trump is going to be our president when you post this. People have family members with cancer, etc. Life is fucking hard, it’s stressful – I honestly don’t understand that kind of hate, I really don’t,” he says.

“People calling me an asshole, haha, okay. I worked my ass off for five years getting coffee and stuff in the music industry, and in 2015 I won an Emmy Award, call me an asshole all you want. I read bed time stories to my kids, I hold the door for people.

“What I’ve experienced in real life, is that you think you hate someone, then you have a few drinks and dinner, and you’re laughing about how much you thought you hated them. Everyone has something negative to say. Take all that time, and go down to the homeless shelter and help out, put some things in perspective. The world is scary, but it’s amazing as well.”

And that was the end of our interview – or so we thought.

On Friday, after carrying out our interview and writing all of the above, we contacted Tebo again, with a request for some photographs for the piece, which he sent through. However, he also had a confession to make.

“I have to be completely honest about something as it kept me up last night – as you guys are so nice. The whole video was a prank. The ‘manager’ was an actor friend – and I would never ever steal anything. Who makes a point on stealing by stealing??!?!?” he said.

“My intention was always and only to get both sides of the piracy argument talking and it worked! For better or worse. And to get people talking about my movie. Whatever indie filmmakers can do to promote their movies. With piracy there are great arguments on both sides. And maybe I can help both sides better understand each other.”

From here, we understand that Tebo has another video up his sleeve that will appear in the coming days. While the route was unconventional, his opinions are still valid, and he’s certainly got people talking about piracy. And that can’t be a bad thing.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Every now and then it can be quite amusing to look back at some of the anti-piracy campaigns deployed by rightholders in the past. Especially, when contrasted with newer initiatives.

Last week we reported on a new UK campaign where suspected pirates will get an “educational alert” in the mail if they are ‘caught’ sharing infringing content using BitTorrent.

The initiative breaks with the more aggressive traditions of scaring pirates with high fines, and rewarding snitches who tell on them, although there are still some remnants of this around.

How different was this in the early ’90s when the (now defunct) European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) ran a controversial series of ads, warning pirates of potential jail time.

In an attempt to connect with a predominantly young audience, ELSPA also promoted a series of cartoon PSAs in UK computer magazines.

These ads informed readers that “piracy is theft” and encouraged them to report suspicious behavior to the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST). In return, the informants could look forward to a £1,000 reward.

The cartoons showed teens how they could report suspicious software sellers at a local market, or even teachers who dare to allow students to make copies.

Or what about friends, who ‘gang up’ on people so they can score a sizable reward? It was all possible, if the cartoons were to believed.

If ELSPA’s goal was to be noticed, the ads were definitely successful. Soon after the first ones were placed, angry parents started writing letters to computer magazines, including this one Commodore Format received in the early ’90s.

“I would like to strongly object to the advert which appeared in your magazine,” a concerned parent wrote.

“It encourages young, vulnerable children to think that a phone call will lead to £1,000 very easily. It has caused a lot of ill feeling where I live between boys who were friends and then fell out, and thought this was a way to get back at one boy causing unnecessary upset to the families.”

ELSPA responded in the magazine and argued that these types of ads were needed to counter the growing threat of piracy. While the organization suggested that the cartoons were instrumental in lowering piracy rates, we now know that it certainly didn’t stop the copying.

Not even SIIA’s Don’t Copy that Floppy!, one of the all-time anti-piracy classics that turns 25 this year, could manage that.

In the years that followed many similar campaigns were launched, some more aggressive than others. And while the “piracy is theft” mantra is still in circulation, the general sense is that a ‘scare approach’ is not all that productive.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the latest UK anti-piracy effort relies more on carrots than sticks. Whether that will be successful has yet to be seen, but it’s certainly less “amusing.”

You know who…

—

The advertising images published here were sourced from WoS, where you can find some more examples. The Commodore Format scan is courtesy of the CF Archive.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

This week marked the five year anniversary of the SOPA/PIPA blackouts, an important occasion for free Internet advocates everywhere.

The event was less well-received by those on the ‘losing’ side, with copyright advocate David Newhoff describing the anti-SOPA campaign as “one of the most effective fake news stories of all time.”

Newhoff is one of the many thousands of members that make up the powerful and growing Copyright Alliance. Formed in 2007 in direct opposition to the EFF, Public Knowledge and Consumer Electronics Association, this anti-piracy group claims to represent the interests of more than 1.8 million creators and 13,000 organizations in the United States.

They include 350 record labels (RIAA), six movie studios (MPAA), two sports leagues including the NBA, not to mention 3,000 music publishers. It is an anti-piracy juggernaut that demands attention.

Interestingly, what happened after the SOPA protests is that rather than hearing fierce anti-piracy rhetoric directly from the likes of the MPAA and RIAA, one was more likely to hear it from Copyright Alliance members, Newhoff in particular.

In many respects, people like Newhoff have become a more common conduit for major copyright holder complaints. Meanwhile, the websites of the MPAA and RIAA have remained largely conflict-free, with the battle at least partially transferred to the Copyright Alliance.

This week the Alliance asked supporters to participate in a survey. The group provided little detail but with a title of “512 Study” it was clearly targeted at section 512 of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act which covers copyright takedown notices and service provider liability.

Reform of the DMCA is a hot topic but it appears that the Copyright Alliance expects copyright holders to be taking down content from the Internet for some time to come. Questions included:

– Have you ever monitored the internet for copyright infringement of your work?
– Have you ever found infringing copies of your work online?
– Which websites have you found infringing copies of your work on?
– How do you monitor infringement of your work online?
– How often do you monitor for infringement of your work online?
– On average, how many hours weekly do you spend monitoring for infringement of your work online?

At this point in the survey, it became clear that the Copyright Alliance was guiding respondents towards the notion that the DMCA takedown process can be somewhat laborious, which indeed it may well be. With that in mind, it was no surprise when question 14 asked the following:

If the Copyright Alliance does create its own anti-piracy service, it will join dozens, perhaps hundreds of others, operating in the same space. Currently it’s a flourishing business but ironically, if the Copyright Alliance gets its way, takedowns could become less prevalent in the future.

The U.S. Government’s Copyright Office is in the middle of a consultation which seeks guidance on the future of the DMCA’s takedown process and safe harbor for service providers.

Groups like the Copyright Alliance want a “takedown, staydown” regime, to ensure that, once deleted, content doesn’t pop up elsewhere. Opponents believe such a mechanism would be impractical and could stifle free speech.

Whatever the outcome, there will still be significant demand for a takedown service, should the Copyright Alliance choose to form one. And, with potentially close to a couple of million creators to represent, it could be very busy indeed.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.