Update Oct 2nd 2007: We surpassed 500 signatures but never got Paramount to respond. 7 years after my open letter to them there is still no legal way to watch full episodes online.
Loyal trekkers all around the globe are uniting to move for persuading Paramount Pictures to make all past, present and future episodes of the Star Trek series available on the internet. The underground already transfers new episodes to the Internet and digitizes old ones. Using modern codecs like MPEG4 DivX ;-) can reduce shows to a size that lends itself for distribution while retaining acceptable quality. What's not acceptable to us honest fans is the legal aspect: it is not legal.
This underground interest and some polling of my own has shown that a large amount of people would be willing to pay a justifiable price to be able to legally obtain digital copies of Star Trek episodes or to watch streamed episodes. Having to wait for the video cassette to be released is not compatible with the attitude and lifestyle of generation @.
We believe that all technical difficulties which have made such an endeavor impossible in the past have been washed away by the tides of time. Paramount should be presented with the idea and nudged to execute on it.
The Petition
- We believe that it is technically possible to deliver the Star Trek experience over the Internet by means of streaming digital media and/or downloadable files.
- We believe that there is enough demand worldwide to justify an effort by Paramount to fulfill it.
- We believe that the existing strong underground demand for current episodes must prompt Paramount to offer a legal alternative. It has to be made just as easy to obtain legal copies of episodes from Paramount as it is to get illegal ones.
- We believe that Paramount needs to earn money for on-demand episodes because this money is what finances new additions (episodes, movies etc.) to the Star Trek universe.
- We believe that Paramount needs to protect their copyrighted material by the state-of-the-art technologies available and it needs to employ licensing to validate the pay-per-view endeavor.
- We would be willing to pay a realistic price for viewing.
Please join our cause by signing the petition. Your e-mail will be saved and once critical mass is reached the bulk will be presented to the responsible people at Paramount Pictures and the media. Comments are appreciated.
The first open letter to Paramount can be read here.
Don't forget to spread the word.