Axanar Lawsuit Settled, What Does It Mean For Fan Films?

The legal battle between CBS/Paramount and Axanar has ended in a settlement, here’s what it means for Star Trek fan films.

The legal battle of Axanar is now over. CBS/Paramount and Axanar have come to terms and settled their lawsuit. The basis of the lawsuit was of course that CBS and Paramount own the rights to Star Trek and they sued because they claimed that Axanar was too professional and infringed on their copyrights.

Last week Axanar sought to get the case dismissed, but failed, and it looked liked we were headed to trial. Then today word came that Axanar and CBS/Paramount had settled. The settlement basically says that Axanar will change its plans to avoid infringing on the Star Trek copyright and that any future productions will abide by the rules and guidelines that CBS and Paramount have set for fan films.

The short and long of this is that CBS and Paramount have won. Axanar may be able to keep the money they have made and raised up to this point, but they are agreeing to change their production to avoid things CBS owns. Some of the things claimed to be copyrighted were Vulcan ears and the Klingon language.

What this means is that from this point forward fan films will have to live by the rules set by CBS and Paramount. It’s extremely doubtful that any other fan film would have the backing or funds to fight this issue like Axanar. So with Axanar go fan films, as they were once known.

Now I’m not Axanar fan, I think some of the things Axanar did and spent crowdfunded money on are outside the lines, but you can’t help but feel a little sad.

As one Ferengi said though “the cost of peace is at an all time low.” CBS wanted to avoid this dragging out and being an issue as they try to get fan support up for Star Trek: Discovery, and Axanar wanted to protect the money they had already made off YouTube and crowdfunding. In the end this was bound to happen. For fan films though the space they are flying in now truly is an undiscovered country.

NEXT: Alien Species We Want To See In Star Trek Discovery

So what do you think? Is this the end of fan films as we know them? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below.