: Long story short, CBS and Trek fan projects are the very model of how media
: corporations and fandom should co-exist. Roddenberry, if what I've heard
: is true, set up the copyright on Star Trek so that if a work wasn't
: for-profit, it didn't require special permission. Hence the copious
: amounts of Spock/Kirk erotic fiction in fanzines.

: But these Axanar people? Yeah, they crossed the line.

: Make a fanfilm with your own money, and you do all the acting? Just peachy.
: Make a fanfilm and buying professional props? If you can afford it, go for
: it.
: Make a fanfilm and hiring actors, paying the salary out of your own profit?
: If you can afford it, go for it.
: Make a fanfilm with crowdsourced money, and you use all that money to buy
: props and hire actors? That's getting a little close to dangerous waters.
: Make a fanfilm with crowdsourced money, and use that money to build capital
: improvements onto your studio that will be used for future non-Trek
: projects? That crosses the line.

: The Axanar project did the last one. And then they tried to sell merchandise
: thinly disguised as "Retroactive fundraising" or something. Oh,
: and then there was the Axanar Coffee they tried to sell. It's almost like
: they were trying to get sued.

: Tony Todd left the project because it was shady, and they advertised another
: actor who didn't agree to appear.

: I think there was also something about Axanar using Abrams-Trek designs,
: which are not covered by Roddenberry's copyright or something.

: Consult your lawyers before you do that. IP laws are vague and capricious and
: designed to screw someone. Make sure that someone ain't you.

: Ok, Axanar stuff aside, Microsoft has a horrible reputation with Halo mods.
: Halo: Homefront and Sins of the Prophets have been in development for the
: better part of a decade, and they've done just fine. But there was an RTS
: mod that predated them, a C&C: Generals mod called Halogen. The dev team
: was gearing up for their first release when they got a C&D letter from
: Microsoft. A few weeks later, Halo Wars was announced.

: So, Microsoft shut down this project because it sorta might compete with one
: of the official games. The mod survived, the dev team renamed it and
: removed all the Halo art and released it. But the stigma remained. When I
: tried to get a mod for Company of Heroes going, even though I could point
: to mods like Homefront and SPV3, the general reaction from experienced
: modders was "I'd love to work on a Halo RTS, but Microsoft is going
: to shut that down in a heartbeat."

I'm actually somewhat surprised it got featured. From my understanding, 343 employees are instructed to report anything that is a "potential" copyright violation to MS legal. Which SotP could potentially be considered to be, which makes me think MS's legal team did indeed investigate it. Either way, its awesome to see fan projects get this level of attention, I was pretty sure after all the Halo Online drama 343 and MS would want to wash their hands clean of mod communities.