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 !!