Yes, CBS is well within their legal rights.
I’m less clear on why I should give a fuck. They made a dick move, that was legal, so they get bad press and irritated fans. I’m not seeing a problem here.
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Agreed. And I think an announcement in advance would have been the bare minimum level of courtesy in this case.
In terms of P.R. I think CBS have made a terrible blunder. And like most things in life, only the lawyers are going to profit here.
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?
(and yes, that is all I have to say even if it is less than 9 characters)
If they copied a recent design, I kind of get it. It’s silly, but copyright laws etc. But if it was Kirk’s ship - don’t the rights run out?
Like, everyone is making replica Gibson Les Pauls now, and Gibson can’t do a thing.
Scribe: one who drafts documents, often in arcane and specialised language, at the behest of others (e.g. contracts, acquisition deals, EULAs).
CYA = cover yer arse. Advising the company on issues like compliance and avoiding lawsuits and helping with negotiations and conflict resolution the company doesn’t get screwed by the other party’s lawyers or sued by its own employees. Protecting IP falls under this category.
There are other functions they can fulfill but these two broad ones are the main value they add. You don’t want to give them the final decision in anything, nor do most legit companies want an in house counsel who’s a litigation specialist.
There are exceptions of course. A legal firm or talent agency will likely need a managing partner or CEO who’s a lawyer, for example. But in general, it’s a bad idea to give real power to run a company to a full-time lawyer.
tldr; lawyers serve a vital purpose for a company , but in most cases “serve” is all they should do.
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I knew what you meant. I just considered your phrasing overly dismissive/glib.
Your explanatory post is a bit better. You do at least concede that lawyers may have some other value. 
TL-DR: If you think drafting and CYA is all your in-house lawyers are good for, then it’s hardly surprising if you think they’re a bunch of useless time-wasters and a value sink.
You obviously don’t think that but that section of your post did come across that way.
Otherwise you’re quite right that your lawyers should advise but not decide.
Like Grand Viziers in that way (usually fewer wise-cracking parrots though which is a shame).
It’s pretty good aside from bending canon into contortions. I truly dig the Paul Stamets homage.
If there’s a panel with Vic Mignogna at a Con, he’s got some stories. (I enjoyed Star Trek Continues, but there is no way I’d ever confuse it with what CBS is producing. And with all the canon reboots, there should be room for both. This is one of the problems of copyright, Star Trek has had enough influence on culture that it’s really a modern mythology, it’s part of Western culture’s DNA. There should be some fair use for that sort of myth, IMO at least.)
CBS went hard on Axanar because the producer of that project was using it as a personal piggy bank, using up nearly $1.5 million of fan donated money to finance his personal lifestyle and business interests, but NOT to make the fanfilm he said he was going to make.
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As to the Stage 9 incident, I feel that they got shut down because they were treading heavily on a license that UbiSoft currently has for their Star Trek Bridge Crew game, which has VR elements, IIRC…
There’s also been some chatter that in addition to issue of using the various actors’ likenesses without permission, Stage 9 had donations and ads enabled on their various platforms, which means that, in CBS’ eyes, there was some monetization going on based on, which would run afoul of CBS fan film guidelines…
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I get that, especially the UbiSoft license. As I see it, when fan projects get so much fan traction and obsessive quality, they start to tread into “defining canon.” That’s the thought I had when I saw areas fleshed out that we never got to see on the TV show, such as the descending stairwell behind the conference room behind the bridge. Someone speculated that they might even bring another Galaxy class Starship (the U.S.S. Galaxy) out of mothballs. I think they only really hit hard if big fan projects overlap with what they are doing right now.
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