Today was Day 1 in the case of Alec Peters/Axanar Productions V Paul Jenkins/Meta Studios. Here is a quick recap of what went on in court today. Plaintiffs(Alec Peters) filed a motion objecting to a request to film in the courtroom due to the fact that Videotaping of court proceedings MUST be granted prior to the start of the trial. Georgia Superior Court Rule 22 requires at least 24 hour notice to the court, although the Judge has final discretion. After filing the motion, https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:01445170-073d-4c59-9a09-dc7b1af1c95d
The Judge made the decision to allow for filming with restrictions placed on the videographer. He can ONLY frame the witness box, He cannot disrupt the court proceedings, he cannot share ANY personal information or violate anyone’s privacy, he also cannot film the Jurors. Instead of bringing in a professional videographer, Paul is using his son. While I will not cast aspersions on a young adult, I do expect these rules to be violated and brought up before the court.
Alec Peters also dismissed his claim of Defamation and request for declaratory judgement, WITHOUT Predjudice, this means Alec can always refile this charge and request at a later date. This was done for the sole purpose of streamlining the trial and to NOT waste valuable court time getting bogged down in the minutia of “what context was this said in”. It also allows for the Plaintiffs Attorney to focus on the charge of Fraudulent Copyright.
There were 6 objections to Defense behavior and tactics by Alec’s lawyer and all of them were Sustained(meaning the judge agreed with each point raised by the plaintiff). The 12 Jurors and 1 alternate Juror were chosen, I will not share their names to allow for them to retain their privacy.
During opening arguments, the Judge was not happy with the defense lawyer, as he tried to introduce evidence via a powerpoint presentation. When the defense attorney tried to argue with the Judge, he was warned, when he continued to try and insert new evidence into his opening statement, the Judge got fed up, ended the day early, and dismissed the jury until tomorrow morning.