Where no lawyer has gone before:
The Star Trek copyright battle
October 29, 1997
Web posted at: 4:20 p.m. EST (2120 GMT)
(CNN) -- There are countless Web sites devoted to the
science fiction phenomenon "Star Trek," but only one of
them is official. Therein lies the basis of a copyright battle
being fought in the final frontier.
The official site, Star Trek Continuum,
is open to
everyone, but to see all of it, you have to join the Microsoft
Network, which requires a monthly fee. The MSN membership
requirement protects the "Star Trek" franchise, says Paramount, the
movie studio that owns film rights based on the original "Star Trek,"
a 1966-69 television series, and the subsequent series "Star Trek:
The Next Generation," which debuted in 1987.
"The 'Star Trek' world is full of rumor, and a lot of it is
unsubstantiated," says David Wertheimer, president of Paramount
Digital Entertainment. "So what we try and do is give people the
source to get live, up-to-the minute information on what's going on in
the 'Star Trek' universe and bring the fans closer to the show."
But thousands of those loyal fans have created their own
Internet sites devoted to Star Trek. Paramount and its
subsidiary Viacom say many of them illegally contain
copyrighted material. Star Trek: WWW
is one of the
most comprehensive and popular fan sites. Its creator,
Italian Webmaster Luca Sambucci, discovered a
number of site developers were getting letters from a
Paramount/Viacom lawyer saying their sites were in violation
of copyright laws.
Sambucci responded by forming OFF,
the Online Freedom
Federation. "If you have a 'Star Trek' Web site, and somebody asks
you to take off all the 'Star Trek' material you have, this means you
have to shut down your Web site," he told CNN.
"We're willing to do whatever it takes to protect the franchise," says
Wertheimer, who posted an open letter to fans on the official "Star
Trek" Web site.
Paramount and Viacom say their stand is something they
owe to "Star Trek" fans. But OFF volunteer legal counsel
John Pisa-Relli believes the studio risks losing fan loyalty
"by not permitting fans to make what we believe is a fair use
of certain copyrighted materials on their home page."
OFF has an online a petition
with more than 10,000
signatures that will soon be submitted to Paramount/Viacom
asking for concessions.
Meanwhile, if you want to see more of what's out there,
visit Webring and do a "Star Trek" search. You'll find
rings of linked sites full of Trekker lore.
