"Star Trek" Fan Film Is Finland's Most Viewed Movie
According to Reuters, "A spoof of science fiction classic Star Trek has become Finland's most viewed movie, relying on free distribution over the Internet to reach more than 3 million viewers in less than two months." Made by students and other amateur film makers, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is a low-budget Finnish feature with English subtitles. It has been downloaded some 2.92 million times. Evidently, the film makers are more concerned about publicity for their film than piracy: It is distributed under a Creative Commons license that allows copying.
Meanwhile back in the U.S., as detailed in the December issue of Wired (not yet online), another group of fans is working on Star Trek New Voyages, a continuation of the five-year mission that began with the original Star Trek TV show back in the 1960s. The latest episode includes writer D.C. Fontana and actor Walter Koenig. A telling line from the Wired article: "But Star Trek has always welcomed the contributions of its fans in a way that other science fiction franchises have not." A copyright regime that cannot accommodate the impulse to share deserves no respect.
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