Thursday, December 31, 2015

Star Trek Fan Fiction



This is a major missed opportunity for Paramount and CBS.  It is such a no-brainer that I am amazed at how foolish and narrow-minded these companies are.  If you don’t want to click through – they are suing a bunch of fans for creating a prequel to the original Star Trek without copyright permission.

This is the same mistake that the music companies made back in the early days of Napster, but exponentially worse.  At least in those cases, the users were copying the music exactly.  At the time, the music labels could logically (although incorrectly) think that it was a one-to-one loss of sales.

But this is fundamentally different.  Fan fiction is clearly a pathway to more purchasing, not less.  More movie tickets sold.  More themed video games sold.  More TV streaming (subscription or ad-based). More action figures sold.  More talk on social media (free publicity).  More engagement with the brand.  More advocacy of the brand.

What the hell are they thinking?  Bunch of idiots !!

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