Month: June 2016

Various and Sundry

Fan Entitlement, IP Theft, and Wrath at Cons

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

So between the bombshell that was CBS/Paramount releasing their fan film guidelines yesterday and the upcoming Escape Velocity science-meets-science-fiction convention, this seems like an appropriate topic. Lawyer (and film producer) Seth Polansky gives an overview of common misconceptions and arguments for IP infringement at pop culture conventions… and what we might do about it. I meant to post this earlier (and apparently it’s already caused a modest stir around the Interwebs), but y’know, getting Escape…

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Various and Sundry

Crisis of Infinite Star Treks: The Guidelines Hit The Fan

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This is the 24th entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. Well, I was going to make sure I updated my last post about CBS/Paramount’s response to Axanar’s counterclaim in everyone’s favorite intellectual property (IP) lawsuit, but then CBS/Paramount had another surprise today. They released the fan film guidelines. The announcement is here and the guidelines are here. In terms of timeline,…

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Various and Sundry

Swiss Miss: No UBI for Switzerland Just Yet

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

So, I’ve been really busy working on this convention coming up next week, which means I haven’t been able to blog as much. One of the things I wanted to do was follow up on my occasional posts about basic income. Switzerland voted on whether to give all its citizens universal basic income earlier this month. The vote failed, but as Dylan Matthews mentions in Vox, it might set the stage for progress on basic…

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Various and Sundry

Axanar on the Road to Discovery

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This is the 23rd entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. So, remember an event now way back in May where the Axanar lawsuit was “going away” in a few weeks and some people thought that meant it was being “dropped?” Well, as I indicated when covering Axanar’s response to CBS/Paramount’s complaint and Axanar’s counterclaim, the court of law will tend to move…

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Writing

And There Shall be Enjoyment

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I have to travel a lot more these days (which is usually fun) which also means occasionally sitting and waiting for hours on end (not as much fun). But no matter where I am, there is one phrase that always brings a little joy to my day: “Careful. The beverage you’re about to enjoy is extremely hot” You know it. You’ve seen it on countless disposable coffee cups and the like. Perhaps it makes you…

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Various and Sundry

Continuing to Explore Universal Basic Income (UBI)

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I’ve been following various articles about basic income (or Universal Basic Income – UBI) as I find it an intriguing potential solution as we trundle towards ever-greater automation in every aspect of the economy. Matthew Yglesias over at Vox writes about how UBI could tackle poverty — and indeed for some conservative and libertarian proponents of UBI, its potential to tackle poverty and related ills more efficiently than other social programs is one of its appeals. Ezra Klein…

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Various and Sundry

More on Transportation Disruption

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

A week or so ago, I linked to an article in Vox about the self-driving car and how its wide use will change transportation as we know it. This article, also from Vox, goes into how three different “disruptors” to transportation will really shake up Detroit. As the title suggests, it’s more focusing on Silicon Valley/tech companies shaking up Detroit/car companies, but it follows on some of the same themes, especially where self-driving cars are…

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Various and Sundry

Axanar Lawsuit: The Counterclaim and the Road Ahead

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This is the 22nd entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. So, with the last post all about fan film guidelines, I know many of you were probably thinking, “What about Axanar’s counterclaim and that stuff?” As I hoped, Janet Gershen-Siegel over at the G and T Show did a detailed overview of Axanar’s counterclaim which, if you want to want to…

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Various and Sundry

Awaiting New Orders from Starfleet Command (i.e. CBS and Paramount)

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This is the 21st entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. In April, Marc Perton over at Newsweek wrote a really good article about the Axanar lawsuit which, as much as anything, led me down the rabbit hole because that’s where I first learned of discord within the Star Trek fan and fan film community.  Then things got depressing. Suffice to say, I…

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