Axanar, CBS, and Intellectual Property: My View

Unless you've been living under a metaphorical rock – or don't care at all about IP issues, which is admittedly a fairly large number of people – you've probably heard of the Axanar-CBS lawsuit. Axanar is the title of a fan-produced Star Trek-based film, intended to show a portion of the TOS (The Original Series) universe history which was only alluded to in the actual series – the Battle of Axanar. The team producing Axanar had produced an extremely high-quality short as a sort of proof-of-concept, titled Prelude to Axanar. A Kickstarter for [ Continue reading... ]

Musings on “Internet Piracy”

       I have something of an unusual perspective on intellectual property infringement of the type that's called "piracy". First, I put that word in quotes because I dislike it. It is an inadequate and inaccurate description of the problem which both romanticizes and exaggerates it.        The word "piracy" in modern ears usually (especially in the sheltered civilized areas where real pirates, who still exist in some of the seas of the world, don't prowl) evokes a dashing, romantic imagery of swashbuckling action and cheerful [ Continue reading... ]