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Stage 9 Fan Project: Shut Down

Stage 9, an ambitious fan project recreating the Enterprise-D, has been served with a Cease and Desist by CBS.

By Elnian Wed 03 Oct, 2018 11:59 PM
Stage 9. The initial thought to anyone's mind would be one of the sound stages where Star Trek was filmed. Located in Burbank, California, the sound stage was home to many iconic Star Trek sets from many Trek shows and movies, including:

  • Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country (Main Bridge)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Main Engineering)
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation (Corridors)
  • Star Trek: Voyager (Corridors)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise, "In a Mirror, Darkly" (TOS Style Main Bridge)
  • Stage 9 Roof in "These Are The Voyages..."


The Stage 9 project was a fan project aiming to faithfully recreate the NCC-1701-D's many rooms and corridors. In the latest version that was available for download, players can visit places like the Main Bridge, Picard's Ready Room, Phaser Range, and the never before seen Main Shuttlebay. Players also had an opportunity to fly shuttlepods and Runabouts around the Enterprise-D, as well as fly the Enterprise herself.

The project quickly gained momentum as one of the primary goals of the project was to bring the Enterprise-D to VR. Over the project's 2 year lifespan, more and more features were added as the developers streamed Q&A sessions over YouTube, and held AMA (Ask me Anything) sessions on the project's subreddit. The developers had many interviews with online news outlets, causing the project to gain more traction and gather more attention.

The type of attention the project finally gained in the end was the wrong type of attention. CBS' legal team quickly sent a formal Cease and Desist order to Stage 9's lead developer. This resulted in the project's website being replaced with a simple "Live Long and Prosper" note. The project's subreddit and Discord server were locked down, and all of the videos were removed from their YouTube channel.

Not much was known at the very beginning when all of that happened. There were wild speculations that the team had indeed received a Cease and Desist notice, but nothing was being confirmed. After weeks of waiting, the lead developer (Scragnog) had this to say:


As many of you have speculated, the Stage 9 project received a formal cease and desist from CBS Studios. We made every effort to approach them to discuss modifying the project to meet their criteria, but they are refusing to even discuss the matter. As of now, Stage 9 is no more. Live long, and prosper.

CBS does have policy, or guidelines, or works derived from their Intellectual Property (IP). Among the guidelines are the following:
  • 1. The title of the fan production or any parts cannot include the name “Star Trek.” However, the title must contain a subtitle with the phrase: “A STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTION” in plain typeface. The fan production cannot use the term “official” in either its title or subtitle or in any marketing, promotions or social media for the fan production.
  • 2. The content in the fan production must be original, not reproductions, recreations or clips from any Star Trek production. If non-Star Trek third party content is used, all necessary permissions for any third party content should be obtained in writing.
The project did indeed meet the requirements for the first point, however they did violate the second point, since it was a faithful recreation of the Enterprise-D. It was based on official plans and deck layouts published by Paramount Studios.

Do I agree with the way CBS chose to handle this matter? No, but I see their point.

Plans are currently in the works to use the existing engine created for Stage 9 to come up with something completely original.

There is speculation among the community that the Cease and Desist was issued because the Stage 9 project, which included VR, was direct competition to Bridge Crew. Especially since Bridge Crew had an Enterprise-D bridge included.

The community surrounding Stage 9 has been extremely supportive throughout this entire ordeal. Some fans have offered to provide funds for a legal team to challenge CBS' reach in this regard. However, only time will tell with CBS will negotiate an agreement with Stage 9. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely at this point.

What do you think of this article? Let the News Team know in the article comments. We appreciate your support!

WRITTEN BY Elnian
EDITED BY Infinity (Lewis Holt)
11 Comments
Thu 04 Oct, 2018 12:03 AM
Fantastic article! Apologies it took a couple of days! Smile
Thu 04 Oct, 2018 1:28 PM
Does seem a little more "understandable" but still it does not sway my thoughts of there company and track record to date. Nice Article people just wish CBS would do the same with the recent issue and send out a press release might show that they perhaps give a crap.
Thu 04 Oct, 2018 2:59 PM
It's a shame, really. The fans made Star Trek popular again, only to have CBS rip it away.

The development team behind Stage 9 is looking to take their existing blueprints and systems they developed for the Enterprise-D, and move into other sci-fi areas. Perhaps something completely original, or even maybe venture into The Oreville territory? I'm not sure what policies FOX has regarding fan projects, but I don't think they can be nearly as strict as CBS' policies. Seth MacFarlane would probably get a kick out of it!
Fri 05 Oct, 2018 10:29 AM
I don't like this move from CBS. If they think this is constructive for the Star Trek franchise as a whole, they're wrong.
Fri 05 Oct, 2018 10:45 AM
I don't like this move from CBS. If they think this is constructive for the Star Trek franchise as a whole, they're wrong.
It's heavy-handed yes, but the project was textbook Copyright infringement, it fails all 4 tests under 17 U.S.C. § 107

  1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
    -- A Virtual Tour of the Enterprise D has been released commercially before, and this is basically a Replication of that (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/S...chnical_Manual)
  2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
    -- The Entirety of the Stage 9 project uses content (The Likeness of the Enterprise-D and some of its Crew) that is not their own or licensed for use by CBS/Paramount-Viacom, the copyright holders, or permission from the Actors
  3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
    -- Stage 9 attempts to make a 1:1 recreation of a copyrighted work, and that is not allowed under 17 U.S.C. § 107
  4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
    -- It competes with already released commercial products, the above mentioned Technical Manual and the Bridge Crew TNG DLC.

if you fail 1 of the above, you fail to qualify for Fair Use. It sucks this happened, but it's entirely within their rights to issue a C&D.


Issue explained by a Copyright Lawyer
Fri 05 Oct, 2018 11:13 AM
It sucks this happened, but it's entirely within their rights to issue a C&D.
I'm aware about IPR. Star Trek the franchise has always been an IPR - it's not something that's new and that CBS patented for recently.

Fan-films and such sets were always a thing till CBS suddenly realized that projects like Axanar and ST: New Voyages are "infringing" them and decided to create guidelines which pretty much made it pointless to do fan projects.

And it was honestly projects such as this and fan-films than made Star Trek the franchise it is today, as much as the official shows.

The disappointment is not about them excersizing their right - they've been having this right for as long as Star Trek existed, it's the disappointed of them doing it with intention of all together pushing out all fan projects as a whole prior to launch of Discovery.

CBS execs are not taking the right steps, they can have all the legal justifications on their side - that's another matter all together.
Fri 05 Oct, 2018 11:43 AM
You won't get any arguments from me on that, Mack, CBS is the Electronic Arts of Television. They're fully taking advantage of the fact that Star Trek fans tend to have higher income and thus nickle and dime us all.
Tue 09 Oct, 2018 8:30 PM
They seem to be doing it since the new Disco and the new Picard Trek spin off's have been announced...
Wed 10 Oct, 2018 4:32 PM
They seem to be doing it since the new Disco and the new Picard Trek spin off's have been announced...
Nah, it started way back with Axanar (Before Discovery was announced and it was in the air that Star Trek will return to television)
Thu 18 Oct, 2018 12:37 PM
Oh, it's been going on for longer than Axanar, it's just Axanar was a higher profile issue. Before CBS bought the complete rights, Paramount in the late 90s and early 2000s were going after fan websites pretty hard. They had switched to a new law firm and said firm was trying to prove their worth by actively protecting the IPs they were charged with. Several friends got hit with C&Ds for using screenshots and images without permission. They "corrected" their policy not longer after it caused a huge backlash and came up with a good faith review process. CBS appear(s/ed) to be following the same thing, but Stage 9's whole project was doomed from the start, I'm afraid.

-- Kyuu
Mon 25 Mar, 2019 11:32 AM
I found a petition to save Stage 9: https://www.change.org/p/cbs-save-st...6-e1a2850460bb