CBS Shuts Down Stage 9, a Fan-Made Recreation of the USS Enterprise

[Matrix]

Stage 9, a beautiful fan-made recreation of the Enterprise ship from Star Trek: The Next Generation, has been shut down following a cease-and-desist from CBS. The people behind the two-year-old project tried to reason with CBS, offering to make changes to keep their dream project alive, but the broadcasting giant wasn't interested in discussion.

For those unfamiliar with the project, Stage 9 is a beautiful virtual recreation of the Enterprise ship from Star Trek: The Next Generation for Windows, Mac and Linux.

More experience than game, Stage 9 was built by fans over two years in the Unreal Engine.

“There were two things that we were always pretty careful with,” says project leader ‘Scragnog’.

“We made it as clear as we possibly could that this was NOT an officially licensed project. We had no affiliation with CBS or Paramount and the IP we were trying our hardest to treat with respect was not our own. We were fans, just creating fan art.”

In an announcement this week, Scragnog reminded fans that no one involved in the project was in it for any financial reason and everyone was well aware that throwing money into the mix could be a problem. However, the team says it has always known that they could be shut down at any time on the whim of a license holder because in this world, that’s what can happen.

Unfortunately, that day has come all too soon for the impressive project. Stage 9 was hit with an intellectual property complaint from CBS just over two weeks ago and has now been shut down.

“This letter was a cease-and-desist order,” Scragnog explains. “Over the next 13 days we did everything we possibly could to open up a dialog with CBS. The member of the CBS legal team that issued the order went on holiday for a week immediately after sending the letter through, which slowed things down considerably.”

During this interim period, the team began to consider statements made by CBS Vice President for Product Development John Van Citters, who in 2016 indicated that Star Trek owes so much to fans and that fan creations are of value to the brand.

“We want fans to be involved, very much so,” Van Citters said, as cited by Scragnog. “And it’s going to help us evolve and bring Star Trek to a bigger and brighter future.”

“They’re not going to hear from us,” Citters continued. “They’re not going to get a phone call, they’re not going to get an email. They’re not going to get anything that’s going to ruin their day one way or another and make them feel bad, like they’ve done something wrong.”

After noting Van Citter’s friendly approach, the Stage 9 team reached out to him twice to see if Stage 9 could be kept alive in some form. Sadly, the exec did not respond to the team “in any way.”

However, thirteen days after receiving the cease-and-desist, Stage 9 was able to speak with their original contact in the CBS legal department. It proved a complete waste of time.

“We were hoping, perhaps naively, that the elements of Stage 9 that CBS did not approve of would be highlighted to us, so we could be sure to remove these elements from the project and create something that met with, if not their approval, then at least their acceptance,” Scragnog explains.

To keep the project alive, the team were prepared to make any changes ordered by CBS. Sadly, CBS said that the project could not continue in any form, no matter what changes were made. They provided no further details and, as noted by Eurogamer, did not indicate how Stage 9 had violated the fan art guidelines previously published by CBS and Paramount.

“It’s a truly horrible situation to be in when something that tries to respect Star Trek can be eliminated without any opportunity for open dialog,” Scragnog concludes.

 

source

[Matrix]

What just happened? Another day, another cease and desist letter aimed at a fan-made project. Unusually, it wasn’t a game that incurred the license holder’s wrath on this occasion; it was a virtual recreation of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

As reported by Eurogamer, the Stage 9 project was the creation of a British Trekkie going by the name ‘Scragnog,’ who had been working on the Unreal engine-powered piece for two years. “I originally created Stage-9 in 2016 as a piece of fan-art,” he explained. “To be able to walk around on the Enterprise-D always excited me.”

Stage 9 could be experienced on PC and supported the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive VR headsets. Users were able to explore the ship, travel to various decks using the turbolift, enter different rooms, and interact with objects. It was all pretty impressive.

Scragnog had emphasized that Stage 9 was not an officially licensed product—in his words, the project was always just fan-art. “We had no affiliation with CBS or Paramount, and the IP we were trying our hardest to treat with respect was not our own,” he said. And there was no money involved; the team that helped with the project consisted of volunteers.

But this didn’t save Stage 9 from the CBS legal department, who sent the cease and desist letter on September 12. The team tried to reach a compromise with the company’s lawyers, offering to change everything from the use of the Enterprise-D, dropping VR support, and altering the name, but to no avail.

For fans making Star Trek films, CBS and Paramount Pictures say they will not object to, or take legal action against, productions that are non-professional and amateur, provided they meet the guidelines. But it seems they do object to virtual recreations.

Earlier this week, a fan-made Spyro game was also hit with a cease and desist letter, though it will be reworked as a new title that doesn’t infringe on any IPs.

 

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[stylemessiah]

So heres the thing, plenty of people like me had never even heard of it....

 

But of course now we have

 

So last night i downloaded it from a torrent, one of many im sure will now appear

 

So that worked well for them didnt it