[ChristopherPike]

What's the legal position for this? Say we could put together a DVD containing the alternate titles (my Direct-to-DVD campaign video), music videos and trailers promoting an ENT project to CBS/Paramount? The disc could partly consist of that, footage from the Save Enterprise rally in 2005 (assuming anybody camcordered the event), together with DVD-Rom content - postcards to print out and send, browser links to SE.com, petition and so on. Using any copyrighted material is a big no-no, but is there a grey area here because its fans publicising the show and an advertisement that costs the studio nothing? Say for instance no profit was made from it? Or fans obtained such a DVD in exchange for a donation to charity?

[Aussie Trekkie]

Interesting question, i hope somebody has an answer for it because it sounds promising

[John Doe]

As long as you don't use any copyrighted material, there shouldn't be any legal issue.

I think I understand what you say about the "grey area"... if any profit is made, it would be a legal issue, as you'd be making a profit from the show's name.
On the other hand, if you give it away in exchange for a donation to charity, you'd be paying yourself the production costs for such DVD.

So, unless you (or a group of people) are willing to spend your (their) own money on this to give it away for free (or in exchange for charity, which from this side is the same, as they wouldn't be paying for the dvd), the only money that could be asked for it is exactly the production cost (the dvd itself, any printed cover or information, shipping and packaging in case it's needed, stuff like that); that way, there's no legal issue as you're not making profit out of something that's not yours (the show).

This is a good idea for fan meetings or any Star Trek related events, at least the ones where you know there won't be Trek fans who hate ENT.


A good alternative to start, would be to put together an online platform for it. That way would be freely available to the public, the only "cost" to "pay" would be the hours spent by you or anyone else involved on making it happen.

Video footage could be uploaded to YouTube; postcards and links could be posted at a blog that you can set up yourself for free at Wordpress or Blogspot, and even the videos can be embedded there after they're uploaded to YouTube.

In a few words, it would be like setting up an online platform for your idea. Yeah, I know - online is not the real world, but nowadays it's a solid ground to start and just another base to cover alongside with the real (offline) world.


P/S: I'm not a lawyer, so what I'm saying here is just common sense.

[ChristopherPike]

Thanks John Doe, Aussie Trekkie.

Howabout if the final DVD is given away with every purchase from Trekunited's store? Just a thought...

Something I'm excited about at the moment, is Amazon. In the last few days, I've found that I'm able to embed the Direct-to-DVD video in their product pages. So you click on an Enterprise DVD box-set's listing, go where buyers have uploaded images and see a promotion for the campaign.

[ChristopherPike]

Another idea is to simply buy a $1 DVD recordable, design a label and use that for a new mail-in campaign to the studio.

[ChristopherPike]

Quote

Something I'm excited about at the moment, is Amazon. In the last few days, I've found that I'm able to embed the Direct-to-DVD video in their product pages. So you click on an Enterprise DVD box-set's listing, go where buyers have uploaded images and see a promotion for the campaign.

Cancel that idea. Turns out the embedded video only appears for a few minutes, before the HTML code is rejected. Naming the web address will have to do. Just have to hope some enterprising fan remembers that Google is their friend. Pity it doesn't allow links either, but there you go...

Amazon.com - Enterprise DVD Complete Season 4

[ChristopherPike]

Would be it possibly to collect back issues of HFO for inclusion on the disc? Who should I contact to ask permission?

Producing the actual disc I'm willing to do and outside of my own distribution, the final project can always be obtained by someone who has it and willing to burn one.

[ensign edwards]

Quote

Would be it possibly to collect back issues of HFO for inclusion on the disc? Who should I contact to ask permission?

I think Kirok would be the one to ask about that.

[John Doe]

As "ugly" as these words are going to sound, I'll say do not get Trek united into the mix. They stopped their campaign some time ago. Actually, it wasn't even Trek United, it was just Ensign Edwards all by himself who was campaigning.

I'd say that, if you want, you should include in one way or another the past efforts made by Save Enterprise in first place and later by Trek United, but not beyond that. The key to ANY new campaign is NOT to be attached to the past. The scenario has changed.

[Aussie Trekkie]

I think a retrospective DVD would be interesting to make, The History of SE 2005-08 would be interesting hearing or seeing opinions and old banners, promos and all that but it is probably wishful thinking.

[Captain59]

I think it's a great idea!

[Aussie Trekkie]

My reasoning is we thought hard for Enterprise so let's show the people how we battled through good days and battle days and show them why we did everything we did like what inspired us to do say Direct-to-DVD or E-Day or any of those SE project we undertaken instead of a person just reading through an ton of archived posts

Also the last bit could always be about what we want to see in the future like more game titles or a steady supply of new books of great Enterprise adventures or a DVD movie or whatever we want to been seen then it shall be shown, of course this would be a massive undertaking the whole project if CP wants to expand on his idea like somebody will have to collect all the voice clips and video clips and structure it and turn it into a DVD movie etc.

[Khalifa]

Great Idea ChristopherPike

[ChristopherPike]

Just to let you know, I'm still committed to doing something with this. Even if the documentary idea is ambitious, it'll still go toward a photo gallery, or montage for inclusion on the disc.

Anything considered (assuming more than just one SE participant replies). Home movie recordings of the Paramount Studios rally in late February 05. Photos. Newspaper clippings. Off air interviews from TV or radio station segments.

Send copies (not originals, unless willing to take risk with registered mail) to:

Christopher Roberts
P O Box 625
Telford
Shropshire
TF3 2ZR
United Kingdom

Email me before sending, to let me know what you would like considered and why. You'll be sent a showreel disc of past work done up until know... and the final production, should it ever be completed. No guarantees every submission will be included, but I'm happy to hear your stories of the campaign to Save Enterprise.

[ChristopherPike]

I'm especially interested in hearing from an old member, who went by the name Giggles.

[Kirok]

ChristopherPike, on Apr 3 2009, 09:27 PM, said:

Would be it possibly to collect back issues of HFO for inclusion on the disc? Who should I contact to ask permission?

Producing the actual disc I'm willing to do and outside of my own distribution, the final project can always be obtained by someone who has it and willing to burn one.

Just quickly, 'cos I've got 95 pages to write in 12 days ...

• I've spoken to Bill about this and he would be delighted to allow historical issues of HFO detailing the campaign be included as supporting material on a DVD.
  
• I know someone who is a wizz at Bittorrent and has in the past offered to webmaster P2P distribution for me, This would make it so that your distribution costs would effectively become zero
  
• Depending upon your deadline I should be able to format a novel sized fan fiction as a PDF similar to "A Leap Of faith" Which I can probably get permission for you to reprint as well. Note: I'm not offering to copy edit it.
  
• I think you've said you've got permission to reprint "Dispatches From The Romulan War"
  
• Although you might not get permission to carry a full episode of the fan film, "The Romulan Wars", you could almost certainly get permission to carry a trailer for it
  
• I could almost certainly get some downloadable card models of the NX-01 and the Surak class ships.
  
• I'll wager you could get a screenshot gallery of material from Ent: TCW, the Computer Game Mod

All of this is added value for your DVD but as I've said to you, this is your baby and you have the say on what goes in and what doesn't. What you are talking about doing, a multimedia digital collection has been mooted as the future of the book! Have a look HERE, forget the emphasis on the DVDs being a "book" and imagine if you were providing video, audio and text.

I would actually suggest that what you are doing would make a great regular disc showcasing the work of fans. Don't be too ambitious to start off with and you should have a do-able, sustainable project.

K

[ChristopherPike]

Wow, Kirok. Unbelievable!

You've offered me a lot of envaluable help there. I only hope the project can live up to all this.

Frankly, I wouldn't want to turn anything down and why not help as many ENT projects as possible? I'd be willing to include trailers (supplied for accessing on a PC/Mac) or playable on DVD, providing I can convert them or find room. At the very least, perhaps ask them to design an image and caption to go onscreen... telling a viewer there's more content to explore as DVD-Rom files. Some of those done already include shortcuts to favourite places online.

Plenty to think over here. First step is give me some feedback, when the prototype reaches you. There'll be some Trek, not directly connected to ENT on the disc. Just disregard. Not part of the final line-up. It's one of my past editing efforts. Purely there so I can see how much space, I've got to play with. It'll take a week or so by snail mail to reach you.

[Kirok]

ChristopherPike, on Apr 20 2009, 03:07 AM, said:

Wow, Kirok. Unbelievable!

You've offered me a lot of envaluable help there. I only hope the project can live up to all this.

Frankly, I wouldn't want to turn anything down and why not help as many ENT projects as possible? I'd be willing to include trailers (supplied for accessing on a PC/Mac) or playable on DVD, providing I can convert them or find room. At the very least, perhaps ask them to design an image and caption to go onscreen... telling a viewer there's more content to explore as DVD-Rom files. Some of those done already include shortcuts to favourite places online.

My pleasure, Chris!

What you are doing could be ground-breaking. A lot of people have complained that they want to watch a fan film on their loungeroom TV or that the quality of a video on TouTube is disappointing or that the high-quality versions of an audio drama take too long to download. A high capacity DVD would have the space for all of these. As an ISO file it could be placed on the Peer2Peer network and downloaded by someone anywhere in the world for free who could then make free copies for all their friends, to be distributed by hand, by mail or by fans at cons.

Gota go - 88 pages left

K

[ensign edwards]

I gotta say, I'm warming to this idea. This could be a great way to push Ent. fan productions and Enterprise in general.

[Aussie Trekkie]

Imagine if we could get a fan group who uses green or blue screen to talk about how an Enterprise fan film could be made on the cheap? pretty much a quick tutorial without them going to whole nine yards we could even suggest a few standard home cameras to use and programs like iMovie 09 on the Mac etc