Star Trek Lawsuit
- Thread starter Delance
- Start date
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
The lawsuit is a negotiating tactic -- following the box office failure of Nemesis, Paramount is charging a lot less for a Star Trek license than Activision paid in 1998. Activision, a company in dire straights financially, is looking for a quick settlement to make a much needed buck. They're also using this "lawsuit" as cheap PR... especially to promote their new Star Trek game. (Legal disputes over franchies are a *constant*... you wouldn't have heard about this one if Activision hadn't decided they wanted you to.)
Besides, Activision's claim isn't even that Star Trek has gotten *bad* -- it's that Star Trek isn't being promoted properly. Interweb denziens are simply ignoring that minor fact since it appears initially to be an excuse for them to belt out their own stupid opinions.
Ehh, this is such... 'message board chic'. It's certainly popular to blame Mr. Brannon and Mr. Braga for the state of Star Trek (heck, it's their *job* to take the blame for such things), but I've never seen any indication outside the rantings of very, very bitter internet dweebs that they're bad people. Before you attack someone personally, no matter how popular it is to do so, I think you have to look into the facts -- and every time you trace someones 'hatred' for Star Trek producers, it invariably leads back to something stupid like blaming them for using the wrong kind of Klingon ship in an episode.
The Enterprise Borg episode ('Regeneration'?) was one of the best uses of the Borg in a long, long time. (Spoilers ahead)---> It was a direct followup to 'First Contact', with scientists on Earth discovering the remains of the Borg sphere dealy that the Enterprise shot down in the past.
Besides, Activision's claim isn't even that Star Trek has gotten *bad* -- it's that Star Trek isn't being promoted properly. Interweb denziens are simply ignoring that minor fact since it appears initially to be an excuse for them to belt out their own stupid opinions.
Ehh, this is such... 'message board chic'. It's certainly popular to blame Mr. Brannon and Mr. Braga for the state of Star Trek (heck, it's their *job* to take the blame for such things), but I've never seen any indication outside the rantings of very, very bitter internet dweebs that they're bad people. Before you attack someone personally, no matter how popular it is to do so, I think you have to look into the facts -- and every time you trace someones 'hatred' for Star Trek producers, it invariably leads back to something stupid like blaming them for using the wrong kind of Klingon ship in an episode.
The Enterprise Borg episode ('Regeneration'?) was one of the best uses of the Borg in a long, long time. (Spoilers ahead)---> It was a direct followup to 'First Contact', with scientists on Earth discovering the remains of the Borg sphere dealy that the Enterprise shot down in the past.
Delance
Victory, you say?
Bandit LOAF said:
Wow, and I posted that link here for free. BTW, I wonder if they paid the guys at PA for doing that strip.
It's a good thing, however, that you know about Activision's evil frivolous lawsuit and evil internet marketing scheme. Perhaps you could tell that the Viacom's lawyers.
Bandit LOAF said:
That's possible, I haven't seen it. But it's still an odd out of place thing... Like bugs showing up on a WC prequel.
But yeah, that sort of thing is common on ST, with time travel happening all the time. <G>
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
This is a lawsuit that will never go to court, though. Viacom will either settle quickly or make clear that they will not settle, at which point Activision will withdraw the claim as they can't match Viacom in the money-thrown-at-lawyers department.
Both you and the guys at PA are victims of a deliberate PR scheme, though -- they put out a press release about this (released to genre-outlets!) with the specific intent of stirring up public interest. Activision can now point to the thousands of conversations just like this one going on right now and go "Hey, look, this is adversely affecting your franchise, you'd better settle". It's not some kind of evil scheme... it's just part of how this game is played.
Delance
Victory, you say?
Bandit LOAF said:
Wow... So they made a PR with *specific intent of stirring up public interest*? What a scheme! Is that legal?
I understand what you are saying. It's not like Actvision is the paladin of the trekkies.
Bandit LOAF said:
Now you said it. Legally speaking, Activison might have a good case. If they settle, it's their option, but what they are doing is not some devious plan, but rather just a valid action within the game.
dextorboot
Spaceman
For the record, it was announced earlier today that Lee and Viacom have settled and they will now be allowed to change the name of TNN to SpikeTV.
It would be possible for bugs to show up in a WC prequel. A bug ship wanders in and blows away a few ships or something, no survivors. No one can explain the disappearance. It ends up being blamed on the Kilrathi. No one is the wiser.
This plan of Viacom's may be working. I was going to wait for the price of EF2 to come down to about $20 before buying it. But if they decide to stop making it anymore, I may have to buy it before then so the stock doesn't run out and I end up empty handed.
It would be possible for bugs to show up in a WC prequel. A bug ship wanders in and blows away a few ships or something, no survivors. No one can explain the disappearance. It ends up being blamed on the Kilrathi. No one is the wiser.
This plan of Viacom's may be working. I was going to wait for the price of EF2 to come down to about $20 before buying it. But if they decide to stop making it anymore, I may have to buy it before then so the stock doesn't run out and I end up empty handed.
Delance
Victory, you say?
When it comes to stupid lawsuits, there have been worse. Like when FASA sued SimTex (or their parent companies) on that game "Mech Lords" because of the "Mech Thing". It was renamed to "Metal Lords" and later cancelled.
Simtex and FASA eventually went out of business.
Of course lots of Simtex game took to long to work and got cancelled, but this is just part of the end of that company which produced some great games. Mech Lords had the potential of a Master of Magic in Space. No, wait...
Simtex and FASA eventually went out of business.
Of course lots of Simtex game took to long to work and got cancelled, but this is just part of the end of that company which produced some great games. Mech Lords had the potential of a Master of Magic in Space. No, wait...
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
To wit, the bugs are mentioned several times in WC's prequel novel Action Stations.
I wouldn't worry about that -- they're not going to stop pressing EF2 because they want to drop the Star Trek license (well, they've probably already pressed the full print run, anyway...). A game costs millions of dollars to develop - and they've already spent 99% of that money developing, promoting and mastering it... they won't throw a fit and give up any chance of making it back.
t.c.cgi
Vice Admiral
Delance said:
Funny, because a very similar same thing happened to FASA over their Battletech franchise. A long time ago, they got "new" art man to come in and work on Battletech. Turns out he came from the company which made Robotech, and he used pretty much the same art that he had already made for THEM (he must not have been very creative). Needless to say FASA got burned in court because their new artist was a moron...
You know, I always assumed that was the Mantu, but I guess the Nephilim would make sense too. So who do you think the Kilrathi were more concerned with, Nephilim or Mantu? The Nephilim the Kilrathi seemed to demonize and make them into the Kilrahti equivalent of Lucifer or their version of the second coming, in any way, part of their religion. The Mantu it seems the Kilrahti still consider "mortal" or "just another enemy" they could actually defeat, even though the Mantu were far superior to them at the point of their first contact. The Nephilim actually fought the Kilrathi at one point though and the only reason they took off was to face another, more pressing enemy, I think (same thing the Kilrathi sortof did with Confed throughout the War according to some sources). Anyway, who do you think is the larger threat in the Kilrathi's eyes?Bandit LOAF said:
Quick question, teh Nepilim are form somewhere extremely remote in the universe (at least that's the feeling I get), but where are the Mantu in relation to the Kilrathi/Confed Border? Are they on the other side of Kilrathi space closer to the core (past Hari space-where they were concerned with an invasion in the Fleet action Novel)?
C-ya
dextorboot
Spaceman
Yes, the mantu are supposed to be from the other side of the kilrathi empire. They mention them being from that side (closer to the core/center) in almost every novel.
Did they actually use the name Nephilim(sp) in any of the novels? The only name I remember seeing was Mantu.
Did they actually use the name Nephilim(sp) in any of the novels? The only name I remember seeing was Mantu.
Dragonflight
Spaceman
T8H3X11 said:
Never got interested enough in Nemesis to go watch it. A friend however said there was a point where the evil Rom supership spent about ten *minutes* deploying the superweapon. I had a sudden image of Riker standing impatiently on the bridge looking at a watch, then looking up at the screen and calling out, "Will you finish the damn transformation so we can blow you up, already?" As that friend pointed out, you'd think Picard's clone had brought Mega-Maid to the movie by accident.
As for best Trek movie? Trek 2: the Wrath of Khan. Why? The acting was a level above most of the later films. There was a sense of scale at work too. Plus, Khan and Kirk had an incredible synergy going with their private war that the later movies lack.
On top of that, I'll point out that it's the only movie which showed the ships as HUGE STARSHIPS. In all the other movies, they fly like fighters (or maybe bombers), and are incredibly dextrous. They turn on a dime, and give back nine cents change. In Trek 2 however, you had a real sense of what it would look like to fight two huge warships against each other. The sense of scale was absolutely theatric (in a good way), and added immeasurably to the movie.
Dragonflight