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Sub Space 9205_C02
"Bill's Bogus Star Trek Journey"
or
"What's Wrong in American Business and How to Fix It"
by William Stone, III
Copyright (C) 1991 by William Stone, III
Star Trek(TM) and Star Trek(TM): The Next Generation(R) are registered
trademarks of Paramount Pictures Corporation and are used without
permission. No infringement is intended.
Permission to download, upload, reprint, or otherwise freely distribute
this article is hereby granted and encouraged, provided the author's name
and all copyright notices are retained.
_________________________________________________________________________
A couple of years ago, I had an idea.
I talked it over with a lot of people, and they agreed that it was a good
idea. It seemed that it was potentially very lucrative Let's see what you
think.
My idea was a Star Trek database not unlike THE STAR TREK CONCORDANCE by
Bjo Trimble.
Ms. Trimble's book is an excellent work, the definitive Star Trek
reference of its time. Since it was written, five (shortly six) Star Trek
movies have premiered and we're about to enter the fifth season of Star
Trek: The Next Generation. The book can't help but be woefully out of
date. Additionally, there is a whole new generation of younger Star Trek
fans who've never heard of it. It has been fifteen years since it last
saw print.
I first imagined simply an updated printed Concordance, but quickly
dismissed the idea. Such a book could easily weigh five or ten pounds,
and I simply wasn't up to the task of producing something that large.
( Much later, while reading FidoNet's TREK echo, I discovered that
moderator Marshall Presnell had been thinking along similar lines. Where
I had turned away from a book in abject terror, he had embraced it. In
fact, his version of the project - different from mine in many important
respects - might be more inclusive of certain items. The sheer size and
enormous work he took on in writing a printed work astounds me to this
day. )
A computer database seemed far more workable. I have a lot of experence
with problem-solving, though little with languages beyond BASIC - which I
judged to be inappropriate for the task.
I taught myself C - at least as much as I could. I started getting
FidoNet's C_ECHO as a source for tutors. I wrote a lot of code. Just
when it began to look like an impossible task, I stumbled over a copy of
Matrix Layout, a desktop programming environment and code generator.
Layout reduced my coding problems to simple logic errors. If you can find
a copy, I heartily recommend grabbing it as fast as you can - if for no
other reason than its impressive DOS shell. My father-in-law (a Mac GUI
die-hard who works for Motorola) actually had something nice to say about
my computer when he saw the Layout shell.
But I digress. Suffice to say that using Layout, the interface for an
object-oriented, fully relational database was up and running flawlessly
in less than two months of spare time work.
I call it "Memory Alpha - The Star Trek Encyclopedia on Disk".
Here's how it works: from the DOS command prompt, simply type "MA". An
opening screen (which can be cirumvented if the user so desires) pops up
showing the Federation seal from NextGen. The program name appears,
followed by the PC speaker whistling a couple of bars from the original
Star Trek fanfare (I intended to add SoundBlaster and/or Adlib support in
future versions).
Using the pull-down menus, you can select browse or search options from a
variety of database files. For example, the "Episode" file contains a
complete episode listing (original, movies, and NextGen) current to the
release date of the program. It shows stardates, original air dates,
running times, etc. Accessable from the "Episode" file (either by using
the pull-down menus, hotkeys, or clicking an icon) are the "Credits",
"Synopsis", and "Encyclopedia" files. "Credits" opens a window showing
the prodoction credits for the episode, "Synopsis" gives a
60-lines-or-less description of what happened in the episode, and
"Encyclopedia" displays any new or interesting props, hardware, software,
people, places, or things used or mentioned in the episode. Attached to
the "Encyclopedia" file (by menu, hotkey, or icon) is the "Illustrations"
file. By simply clicking on an icon, you could get a VGA-resolution
picture of whatever the encyclopedia was describing (if applicable).
For example, there are nine different VGA-level resolution pictures
attached to the Encyclopedia entry on "Phaser": the phaser used in "Where
No Man Has Gone Before", the phaser rifle from the same episode, hand
phasers type one and two from Classic Trek, the phaser from ST-TMP, the
phaser used in ST2-4, and the three types of phaser seen to date in
NextGen.
You can access any of the different datafiles at any time for search or
browse. You can search by any number of criteria: episode name, air date,
stardate, item name, illustration name, a name in the credits of an
episode or movie. "Memory Alpha" will come up with the closest match and
display it.
Memory Alpha will run on any MS-, PC-, DR-DOS computer with 256k of
memory, Hercules, CGA, EGA, or VGA graphics and a hard drive. You'll not
appreciate the full quality of the graphics without VGA.
My father (realizing that I was serious about the project after I spent
last Thanksgiving scanning over 200 images with his handscanner) bought me
a Logitech ScanMan Plus for Christmas. I now have several hundred
graphics files in the database. They've all been meticulously "cleaned
up" and colored using PC-Paintbrush IV+.
Early this year, I was at a point where I had a working Beta-test copy of
Memory Alpha. I decided it was time to contact Paramount about a
merchandising license. After all, none of this work would do me any good
if I was unable to market the program.
I originally concieved of Memory Alpha as being marketed as Shareware.
For anyone who may be new to computing, Shareware involves the author
uploading a copy of their program to a computer bulletin board service or
mainframe (such as CompuServe). The potential user downloads it, uses it
for some period of time, and if they find it useful or enjoyable, registers
it with the author. Registration is usually a minimal fee. In Memory
Alpha's case, I intended to set the registration fee at $20-$30.
Shareware has been responsible for such unqualified success stories as
PKWare (authors of the PKZIP compression programs), Buttonware (PCFILE,
PCWRITE, PCCALC), and Datastorm (PROCOMM).
When I contacted Paramount, I learned that a Chicago-based company -
Konami, Inc. - already held exclusive license to all Star Trek software.
However, the Paramount merchandising attorney with whom I spoke told me
that when he spoke with Konami, they were enthusiastic about the
possibility of making a deal with me to publish Memory Alpha.
I spoke with Konami representatives several times, culminating in a
meeting in which I gave them my beta-test copy of Memory Alpha for
evaluation. I also signed a legal document which said that they wouldn't
steal my idea.
About three weeks of silence followed. By talking with Paramount and a
couple of people at Konami, I discovered that until my program Konami's
sole focus had been game software. I had recognized their name as one of
the largest producers of Nintendo games. When Paramount gave them the
software contact, they assumed Konami would only be selling games. Konami
assumed they could sell whatever they wanted to. Paramount (and I) didn't
think Memory Alpha could really fall under the heading of "game", though
it is clearly recreational. Paramount, therefore, wanted to negotiate a
whole new contact with Konami - which would involve another licensing fee.
Konami wasn't too keen on this idea. They eventually compromised. It was
a compromise I didn't like.
Konami claimed that their market research showed little interest in a Star
Trek database. I claimed that if this was true, their market research was
flawed. After all, Konami has a lot of expertise in selling Nintendo
games, but no experience at all in selling databases. The two markets are
decidedly separate. Nintendo games are played mostly by young kids and
teenagers, and Memory Alpha would be targeted at teens and above.
In any case, Konami's compromise with Paramount was that they would
continue under the current contract, but Paramount would recieve a new
licensing fee. Konami was unwilling to pay that fee, ostensibly on the
basis of their market research. They were willing to market Memory Alpha
if I paid the licensing fee.
The fee was $10,000. That's slightly more than half of my total income
for 1990. When I told Konami this, I was politely told they were no
longer interested, but I should see them again when I have a project that
doesn't require such overhead.
I didn't give up at this point. What I needed was some kind of angle to
get around Konami's contract to market Star Trek software. Since my
minimal legal experience tells me that 90% of the contract is in the
wording, what I needed to do was come up with a way to call Memory Alpha
something other than software.
I called it a hypertext document.
In fact, the line between straight database and hypertext document was
already somewhat blurred, considering Memory Alpha's interface. With a
little modification, I could make that line extremely hazy. Hazy enough
to get me my own merchandising contract.
When I thought about it, I realized that there was no reason to limit
myself to publishing just this one hypertext document. Theoretically,
there was no reason I couldn't ask for a license to sell ANY Star Trek
hypertext (or for that matter, straight-ASCII text) document, as long as
it remained in electronic form. As far as I knew, it wouldn't interfere
with Pocket Books' contract to publish printed Star Trek material.
I pitched the idea to Paramount: I would start an electronic publishing
house, S3 Enterprises. I would sell original Star Trek books,
short-stories, electronic artwork, etc. I'd pay my authors. Memory Alpha
would be the flagship of the line. I worked up a couple of new story
concepts which would be indiginous to this line. All this would be
marketed as Shareware, thus allowing Paramount an inroad to fan fiction.
Paramount was ecstatic about the idea. The Paramount attorney had
expressed his dismay with Star Trek fans from producing fiction, artwork,
models, etc. all these years and not paying a licensing fee. On one
memorable occasion, he was rather vulgar in his choice of adjectives about
Star Trek fans. This seemed a somewhat short-sighted attitude, but as I
was in a business negotiation, I kept my mouth shut.
( Aside: At this point, some people are going to wonder whether or not
this attorney was Richard Arnold. He was emphatically NOT. I never met
with Richard Arnold and never spoke with him. His name was never
specifically mentioned. When we briefly spoke about how much creative
control Paramount would have over the projects, I assumed that Arnold
might be one of the reviewers that would be assigned to me. It was never
specifically stated, and I didn't feel it was important to ask. It is my
understanding, confirmed by my negotiations with Paramount, that Richard
Arnold's duties do not include the granting or denying of merchandising
rights. )
The Paramount attorney suggested I do a bit of test-marketing. With that
in mind, I announced the project's intentions on America Online and sent
out a few flyers. The response was immediate and very positive. I
started getting story and article submissions immediately.
The idea was pitched to a larger body consisting of Paramount's
subsidiaries and sister companies. This included Simon and Shuster, the
publishing firm that is the parent company of Pocket Books.
Simon and Shuster thought the idea of electronic publishing was good.
They thought the idea of anyone other than a Simon and Shuster firm
publishing them was bad. Paramount's attorney reported to me that S&S
showed "HUGE" resistence to the idea.
That was that. Maybe.
I contacted a Chicago copyright attorney and asked him if there was a way
I could publish Memory Alpha without violating Paramount's copyright. He
felt that I'd definitely have to dump all the copyrighted graphics files.
That wasn't an insurmountable problem, because I could add a function to
Memory Alpha that would allow the user to add graphics files themselves.
If they happened to add copyrighted images to their own personalized
database for their own use, it wasn't my fault.
A Library of Congress search revealed a list of items as long as my arm
that are either trademarks of or copyrighted by Paramount. These include
such esoteric things as the words "Captain James T. Kirk", "Starship USS
Enterprise", "Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy", "Mr. Spock", "Star Trek", "Star
Trek: The Next Generation", etc. The list of items I'd be forced to leave
out of Memory Alpha or face possible legal action was tremendous.
You should understand the implications of some of the copyrights Paramount
holds. For example, any U.S. citizen named James T. Kirk (an unlikely
event, I grant you, but possible) who attains the military rank of
"Captain" would be in violation of Paramount's copyright. Whether such a
suit could be won is doubtful. Nevertheless, Captain James T. Kirk, USMC
would theoretically be in violation of Federal copyright statutes.
Similarly, if Dr. Benjamin Spock's son wishes to be addressed as "Mr.
Spock", he would theoretically be in violation of Federal law.
While wading through the complicated morass of copyright entanglements, it
occurred to me that this was a serious problem. Copyrights were
originally intended to protect inventors from people or companies who
might steal their inventions. They were intended to keep people from
getting hurt, and thereby encourage invention and innovation.
What happened is that large corporations such as Paramount (or Microsoft or
Apple) convinced the Federal government that corporations were the same as
people. Since they were people, they should be allowed to hold
copyrights. Hence Paramount's list of copyrighted/trademarked words and
the Apple/Microsoft "Look-and-feel" suit.
A corporation is NOT a person. Allowing a coporation to hold copyrights
DIScourages innovation rather than ENcourages it. I'd never risk writing
a GUI that "looks-and-feels" like the Mac for fear of being sued by Apple.
They'd slaughter me. They're a billion-dollar-a-year company, and I'm a
$20,000-a-year employee.
The same is true of Memory Alpha. Paramount can't be hurt if I published
it. I'm not even using the characters in an innovative way. I'm simply
reporting things that have already been seen on public airwaves.
I'll never risk publishing Memory Alpha because I don't have the resources
to fight a copyright suit from Paramount. I'd be slaughtered.
If the Federal government wants to make copyrights work properly, they
should only allow the originators of an idea to hold the
patent/copyright/trademark. This includes employees of large
corporations.
Who came up with the underlying code behind Mircosoft Windows? Bill
Gates? No. But he's the guy who makes the most money from the product.
Why? Because Microsoft - not the inventors of Windows - hold the
copyright. All they have to pay the people working on Windows is fifty to
a hundred k a year.
It's wrong. It discourages innovation, invention, and imagination.
In my particular case, it means that I'm going to do one of two things
with Memory Alpha. I'm not happy about either option.
1.) Release it into the public domain with a request for donations.
2.) Forget about it.
As this point, I'm tired of the fight. I'm inclined to forget about the
whole thing and move on to something easier. The idea of making it
freeware galls me, because two years worth of hard work went into it, not
the least of which was learning a new computer language.
Additionally, I look like an idiot on America Online. On the basis of
Paramount's suggestion, I asked for suggestions and submissions for an
idea I'll no longer be able to follow through on.
My next project is a nice integrated package designed for use in a
psychology practice. My father (a clinical psychologist with his won
practice) is paying me to use it himself, and he seems to feel that I
might be able to cut into the integrated medical package market with it.
Most medical packages are overkill and overspending for psychology
practices.
Most importantly, I don't have to deal with any legal restrictions. The
idea and implementation is mine alone.
William Stone, III
137 Golfview Drive
Glendale Heights, IL 60139
FidoNet: 1:115/439.4
America Online: WRStone
