Tech Monks Teacups

While I think Axanar is being a little greasy (I contributed a small bit to Prelude to Axanar, but it was clear early on they wanted this to be their fan-funded livelihood) I could rant on and on about the USA copyright laws.

I think it's a question of what copyright laws should/are about. I was told once that originally copyright laws were designed to protect creators and encourage them to keep creating. Modern copyright laws seem to be much more about protecting corporate rights than protecting creators or creativity.

I had the kind-of impression that filing a lawsuit against the Axanar production was more about being jealous that a fan-film is so much closer to the original source (the TV series) in look, feel & story than (at least) the last two big production official movies that it made Paramount look bad in comparison.
Have a look at "Star Trek Continues": it looks exactly like the original series and even has Chris Doohan (the son of James) as the chief engineer "Scotty".
It's a bit sad when low-budget (Even Axanar, at least in Hollywood terms) fanflics are figuratively lightyears ahead of the official Paramount productions.