LESS A straitjacket, more of a belt.

That seemed to be the message from John Van Citters, CBS vice president of product development for CBS Consumer Products regarding the studio’s fan production guidelines, the source of controversy and consternation since announced on June 23, 2016.

Van Citters emphasized that CBS and Paramount tried to provide a framework to encourage fans’ creativity while reining in growing commercialization among some larger fan productions.

Van Citters appeared on the hour-long program, Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast, which was released June 28, to explain the studios’ intent behind the guidelines, why they’re guidelines instead of rules and to clarify some of the guidelines’ specific restrictions regarding run-times, audio dramas, props and costumes.

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“We know these [fan films] come from a place of very deep love of Star Trek,” Van Citters told Engage, the official Star Trek podcast, but:

CBS vice president John Van Citters

For many years we used a simple guideline, CBS and Paramount in cooperation on this, which is, a Star Trek fan film is a fan creation that is non-commercial. Well, we thought this was simple enough, and helped filmmakers understand the separation we need to keep between professional content and fan films. It’s become increasingly clear not everyone is clear where that line is.¹⁾

“With the explosion of crowdfunding, we know abuses have very definitely crept into the process,” Van Citters said, creating an impetus for the guidelines, which include a ceiling for crowdfunding on platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo of $50,000.

Crowdfunding campaigns ended up becoming more about the physical items being offered in exchange for donations instead of “supporting a fan production for its own sake,” Van Citters said. The guidelines prohibit the offering of physical perks in exchange for backing crowdfunding efforts.

Van Citters observed that fan productions had spiraled into something “larger and larger,” that had become “something of an arms race about how many Hollywood names could be attached. … That’s not really in the spirit of fan fiction.”

The guidelines, by prohibiting that kind of competition for involving industry professionals, level the playing field for newer and smaller fan productions, he added.

Van Citters disputed some characterizations of the guidelines as a means to end fan films. Instead, he said they mark the first time a major copyright holder has ever given any guidelines for unfettered use of a major piece of its intellectual property with just guidelines.

He noted that while the guidelines’ restrictions may seem counterintuitive, they are meant to protect fan films into the future.

Van Citters addressed questions submitted to the podcast producers about the 10 guidelines in the days following their release. More than two dozen fan productions announced suspension