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—gofundme [2016/11/04 17:55] – Carlos Pedraza
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 +{{::gofundme-axanar.jpg?nolink|}}
  
 +====== Crowd Fund for Axanar Expenses Abruptly Ended ======
 +
 +**//Peters Cancels Campaign After Blogger Admits Axanar is Out of Money, Sought $45,000//**
 +
 +{{TOC}}
 +<WRAP>
 +//**__ __**// <wrap lo>**By [[user>cpedraza|Carlos Pedraza]]**</wrap>
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +A GoFundMe campaign aiming to raise $45,000 to pay three months' worth of rent, utilities and salaries at Axanar's studio abruptly ended on November 3, 2016, just a few days after launch and following numerous complaints in its comments section and reports to GoFundMe itself.
 +
 +Titled "We Stand With Axanar," the project was launched October 29 by glogger Jonathan Lane, whose pitch confirmed producer [[Alec Peters]]' statement in May that the project was [[axanar_finances|broke]]:
 +
 +> Already, Alec has put more than $150,000 of his own money into "keeping the lights on," but he is nearly out of money now. I wasn't supposed to tell you that. (([[https://www.gofundme.com/helpaxanar|We Stand With Axanar, GoFundMe]], retrieved 11/3/16.))
 +
 +Lane posted in a comment on his blog that he took down the page at Peters' urging: 
 +
 +> Alec asked me to take down the GoFundMe site. It is now down. Not wanting him to be involved with it in any way until it was officially launched, I didn’t tell him I’d put it up online in the first place. When he found out about it, I got a call very quickly.((Jonathan Lane, comment, [[http://fanfilmfactor.com/2016/10/29/alec-peters-attorney-fires-back-hard-at-cbsparamount-legal-team-in-axanar-lawsuit/#comment-1676|"Alec Peters' Attorney Fires Back Hard at CBS/Paramount Legal Team in Axanar Lawsuit"]], 11/3/16.))
 +===== Independent Fundraising Effort =====
 +
 +As a formally independent crowdfund, controlled by Lane, this new money might very well have been beyond the reach of any damages or monetary settlement stemming from the [[copyright infringement]] lawsuit Peters faces from [[CBS]] and [[Paramount Pictures]].
 +
 +[{{ :jonathan-lane.jpg?nolink&300|**GOFUNDME** Fan Film Factor blogger **Jonathan Lane** was looking for $45,000 via GoFundMe to help Axanar pay its rent, utilities and salaries.}}]
 +
 +Lane insisted he set up the campaign without Peters' knowledge:
 +
 +> Alec Peters does not know I am doing this.  He will learn about it when I take this live. Alec himself can't do any more crowd-funding while a lawsuit is going on, but I can.  WE can.(([[https://www.gofundme.com/helpaxanar|We Stand With Axanar, GoFundMe]], retrieved 11/3/16.))
 +
 +Lane portrayed Axanar's struggle with CBS and Paramount as a "David and Goliath story.  The studios' strategy is to intimidate and make things too expensive for a fan to outlast the seige [sic]."
 +
 +Oddly, Lane set up the GoFundMe page on October 29, yet on November 2 he posted this reply to a supporter's suggestion that he'd be willing to contribute $10-20 a month to help Axanar:
 +
 +> Hmmmm… Not a bad idea! Alec can’t really crowd-fund right now. Well, technically, he can do whatever he wants. But it would look a lot like he was poking the bear … especially if this case still goes to court. But I’m curious: <wrap hi>if a fan set up a “Save Axanar” campaign, would people contribute if it was simply raising money just to pay the rent</wrap> on the studio until the verdict comes down? Show of hands, people.((Jonathan Lane comment, [[http://fanfilmfactor.com/2016/10/29/alec-peters-attorney-fires-back-hard-at-cbsparamount-legal-team-in-axanar-lawsuit/#comment-1577|"Alec Peters' Attorney Fires Back Hard at CBS/Paramount Legal Team in Axanar Lawsuit"]], 11/2/16.))
 +
 +Of course by the time of that posting, his GoFundMe page had been up for four days.
 +===== Axanar's Financial Status =====
 +
 +The notion that, after accumulating $1.4 million from [[crowdfunding_platforms|crowdfunding]] and [[merchandise]] sales, Axanar was out of money raised questions about Peters' spending and financial records, something his attorney, [[Erin Ranahan]], worked to [[order_fact_check#loosening_restrictions_on_financial_information|keep from public view]]:
 +
 +> Defendants produced the financial information … in an effort to be cooperative and avoid wasting the Court’s time on discovery disputes. <wrap hi>Defendants fully intend to seek to exclude these expenditures before trial</wrap>.((Defendants’ Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Ex Parte Application for Order, p. 7, 10/28/16.))
 +
 +<WRAP right round box 50%>
 +//**__«But we’re so close to the finish line! If we can just keep the lights on for a few more months, this case can play out in court.»__**// — //Blogger Jonathan Lane//
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +<wrap lo>//See also: [[order_fact_check|Loosening Restrictions on Financial Information]]//</wrap>
 +
 +For their part, the studios' attorneys claimed Peters' effort to restrict who can see his financial records stemmed from [[missing_emails#financial_disclosure |questionable spending]] on personal expenses, such as car insurance, tires and travel:
 +
 +> The material in that document may embarrass Mr. Peters by showing the ways in which he spent funds that were raised from Star Trek fans. This is not a proper basis for designating a document as Highly Confidential.((Plaintiffs’ Ex Parte Application for Order, Memorandum of Points and Authorities, p. 3, 10/27/16.))
 +
 +==== Where the Money Went ====
 +
 +As of January 2016, when Axanar’s Indiegogo campaign was shuttered by the lawsuit, **AxaMonitor** [[ambition_vs._achievement#budget gap|estimated]] the production appeared to have $565,330 on hand (minus expenses between July 31 and December 31, 2016). At the time, the shortfall between money raised from both Kickstarter and Indiegogo and the production budget for Axanar stood at $745,566 — 66 percent of the film’s production budget.
 +
 +<WRAP right round box 50%>
 +//**__It became apparent Lane began to delete negative comments from the GoFundMe page.__**//
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +=== Burn Rate ===
 +
 +Meanwhile, in its April 2, 2016, FAQ, Axanar explained the amount of cash it has on hand changes by the month:
 +
 +> The amount of money left over from [Indiegogo] changes every month due to the “burn rate” of maintaining the studio while Axanar Productions works through the details of the lawsuit.(([[http://www.axanarproductions.com/our-shiny-new-faq/|Axanar Website FAQ]], 4/2/16.))
 +
 +Lane pegged Axanar's monthly expenses at $15,000.(([[https://www.gofundme.com/helpaxanar|We Stand With Axanar, GoFundMe]], retrieved 11/3/16.))
 +===== Appealing to Fans =====
 +
 +Lane's appeal to fans consisted of painting Axanar as a victim of studio intimidation on the brink of financial ruin, followed by a standard tactic used in election campaign fundraising:
 +
 +> But we're so close to the finish line!  If we can just keep the lights on for a few more months, this case can play out in court and we'll all know the conclusion … good or bad. HELP US REACH THE FINISH LINE!(([[https://www.gofundme.com/helpaxanar|We Stand With Axanar, GoFundMe]], retrieved 11/3/16.))
 +
 +[{{ :propworx-spam.jpg?nolink&300|**DONORS SPAMMED** An excerpt from the Propworx auction advertisement emailed to Axanar donors.}}]
 +
 +==== Using Donor Mailing Lists ====
 +
 +The GoFundMe page didn't indicate how Lane had planned to reach out to Axanar's 12, 000 supporters other than through Twitter and Facebook share buttons, and via his blog, Fan Film Factor, which Peters touted to supporters as "the only legitimate news source on the Axanar lawsuit online."(([[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/194429923/star-trek-axanar/posts/1699282|Alec Peters post, "CBS/Paramount vs. Axanar Lawsuit News"]], Star Trek Axanar project, Kickstarter, 10/4/16.))
 +
 +Since the GoFundMe effort is technically independent of Axanar, Lane should not have had access to donor mailing lists gathered by Peters' first three crowdfunding campaigns on [[axanar_kickstarter_details|Kickstarter]] and [[axanar_indiegogo_details|Indiegogo]] — something that caused trouble before when Peters used the lists to [[propworx-email|spam donors]] to advertise a prop auction conducted by a separate company, Propworx, which he also owns.
 +
 +<wrap lo>//See also: [[propworx-email|Donors Complain Company Spammed Using Axanar List]]//</wrap>
 +
 +=== Earlier Donor Spamming ===
 +
 +Kickstarter's terms of service prohibit projects from using email addresses and other personal information gathered  in one of its campaigns for advertising other endeavors. Though Peters insisted the use of the donor lists was appropriate, his own spokesman, Mike Bawden [[propworx-email|admitted]] the effort may have run afoul of federal anti-spam laws.
 +
 +"There are right ways and wrong ways to go about using email solicitations," Bawden told **AxaMonitor**. "This wasn’t the right way to do it."
 +
 +<WRAP right round box 50%>
 +//**__« [Axanar] is nearly out of money now. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. »__**// — //Jonathan Lane, Fan Film Factor blogger//
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +===== Reactions =====
 +
 +As of this post, the only comments on the GoFundMe page were negative. Axanar donor Rob Roberson's comment was typical:
 +
 +>  I will happily donate to the cause the day after we all get to look at Axanar's books and see "exactly" how each penny of the money I previously donated was spent. This is an incredible amount of arrogance to ask for more money for a product that had already raised more then enough cash to be completed.((Rob Roberson comment, [[https://www.gofundme.com/helpaxanar|We Stand With Axanar, GoFundMe]], retrieved 11/3/16.))
 +
 +==== Deleting Negative Comments ====
 +
 +It became apparent Lane began to [[https://support.gofundme.com/hc/en-us/articles/203853440-How-do-I-delete-a-comment-|delete comments]] from the GoFundMe page on November 3. Roberson's comment quoted above had disappeared from the page, as have others, but they were swiftly replaced by other comments warning people not to contribute, and questioning Axanar's spending of $1.4 million.
 +
 +One commenter reacted to the deletions: "You can delete all the comments you want. More will replace the ones you axe."((James Vergon comment, [[https://www.gofundme.com/helpaxanar|We Stand With Axanar GoFundMe]], 11/3/16.))
 +
 +[{{ ::dennis_bailey.jpg?nolink&300|**CALLING TO ACCOUNT** Dennis Bailey donated so it would be more difficult to delete his comment criticizing Lane's campaign to pay Axanar's expenses.}}]
 +
 +==== Money Raised ====
 +
 +In the first six days of Lane's effort, the campaign had received a single $5 donation — from Dennis Bailey, a former Star Trek writer and fan producer who has been a vocal critic of Axanar. Ostensibly, as a donor, his comment (a statement calling to account [[wp>Joseph_McCarthy|Sen. Joseph McCarthy]]'s for his red-baiting campaign in the 1950s) would be more difficult to delete. {{:axamonitor-ico.gif?nolink|}}
 +
 +----
 +**Keywords** {{tag>commercial crowdfunding}}