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Star Trek Renegades / Star Trek Continues
Some interesting concepts in both series (Renegades gearing up for episode 2, with a lot of ST original actors joining the team).
I had an idea following the events of Renegades. I haven't published a Foundry mission yet, but I've been tinkering for awhile. Has anyone touched Renegades in some form or another, or even ST:C?
Some interesting concepts in both series (Renegades gearing up for episode 2, with a lot of ST original actors joining the team).
I had an idea following the events of Renegades. I haven't published a Foundry mission yet, but I've been tinkering for awhile. Has anyone touched Renegades in some form or another, or even ST:C?
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Actually, Renegades I think fits through a loophole in the EULA. It's not a non-canon licensed source, it's an unofficial fanon source.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
In addition:
"You many not make use of any copyrighted or trademarked material of third parties, and only may use the Star Trek Properties as explicitly defined in this agreement, without irrevocable licenses granted specifically for that purpose"
Star Trek Renegades may not be officially licensed, but it is copyrighted (I looked and it is there on their website). I expect the other fan productions will be as well.
Again, Renegades, as well as all these other fan film continuations, are just fan fiction, the same as what we do here in the Foundry or up in Ten Forward but with a bigger budget. That still holds even in the case of actual ST actors' involvement: neither CBS, Paramount, PWE, nor Cryptic is in any way involved in their creation beyond their benign neglect attitude. That it has a copyright stamp on it doesn't matter: I'm no lawyer but I don't think one can legally claim a copyright on fan fiction, only a "fair use" justification. Furthermore, if we're limited to using only the canon source material from the series, movies, and STO, then 90% of what we've come up with is illegal. Take P_Sutherland's (?) Ask'kaar for instance. Show me the canon where THEY appear.
I would still seek written permission from the Renegades creative team, but there's no contractual justification why we can't use it.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
As for things like Renegades, "Fan fiction" or not, if it is copyrighted (Star Trek: Renegades - Copyright © 2012-2015 - ST Renegades, LLC is listed on the website) it has the same effect as being, say, Babylon 5. It's third party copyrighted material, which we can't use. Now, when I say "use" i mean take specific characters, settings, plots, etc etc from. You could conceivably take inspiration from the material, you can try and make oblique references to it in such a way that your are not infringing, but people who have seen it will know what you're talking about.
"Oh yeah, I think I remember reading a report about a ship that encountered this type of situation. Their solution was to ____." I wouldn't see anything wrong with that.
As for asking them if we can use their material, my interpretation is that we as users are not empowered to negotiate with a third party for use of their intellectual property in Cryptic's game. Only Cryptic can legally do that. This has actually come up before, long, long ago, and an author got into some trouble over it as I recall.
Bottom line on all of this is, if I read the EULA correctly, you really shouldn't bring in any specific outside material that is either not from the specifically listed Star Trek properties, or that you didn't create yourself for your mission. That said, I doubt we get a lot of real EULA complaints on our missions, cause how many people even read it? But I say all this not to be argumentative, i just don't want anyone to get in trouble if it can be avoided
The long and short, its far easier (and safer) to mention things but to not try and emulate, expand and create items that fall outside the bounds of the EULA. You can possibly get away with references, but as far as outright appearances and hard story direction, its get very dicey at that point. (and you dont want appearances anyways because of this being an out and out violation of the likeness rule in the EULA) Its also worth noting while canonically you could say that STC is in the prime universe, Renegades very much would be sideways from STO, as its roughly the same time period but markably different.
That was my intent, nothing more (and nothing concrete, so to speak). Basically a reference to a certain thing that happened, but was never included in official records (Renegades, Section 31, after all).
The story idea kind of fizzled after I thought about the logistics anyway :P lol.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
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Out of curiosity, how would it work if characters you use in foundry missions were already published by you on fan fiction websites years prior to the birth of STO?
Well, I'm no expert, so I did some Googling and found a Copyright FAQ. Mind you this is just US Copyright law, other countries have different laws.
If I read it correctly, you hold the rights to something as soon as you create it in a fixed, tangible form. "Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is not necessary for copyright status and protection, though registration is needed in order to pursue an infringement claim in court."
So, if you're bringing in specific material from your own previous work, technically that could be a EULA violation, since it is copyrighted third party material whether you applied to the US Copyright office or not.
I think a simple way around it would be to just change names of characters and a few details and whatnot.