Fair use?

[Mass Distraction]

To what extent is copyrighted content actually available for fair use? I've seen videos and other projects getting taken down online when it sometimes is only for the smallest thing. I'll give you a couple of examples here from the last year, spanning from relatively obvious to absolutely ridiculous.

Some abridged series have been taken down on YouTube recently, which is kinda understandable since they are indeed using the original content on the video as the basis. One guy whose videos I follow managed to make a deal with YT where he is able to upload the episodes on his own channel IF he hosts them on his own website. He did that but I have no goddamn idea how that even works.

Fan games. Apparently it's dirty and wrong to make non-profit games from a copyrighted franchise, as the recent letters from Hasbro to makers of MLP games have proved. Even if the animations, programming, engine and basically the whole game has been created from scratch you still can't use characters and/or locations from a known franchise.

Fan animations. One of the more ridiculous examples to this is a Finnish guy who was making short parody animations, created with Paint and Movie maker, about the Moomin characters, even naming the whole thing "Tales from Hippovalley" and having ridiculous names on the characters. They all got taken down by the copyright owners, multiple times and from multiple accounts.

Now, this here is the rotten cherry to top it all off. Screwattack was unable to post new videos on YouTube for a while because one of their videos got flagged by CBS, the American TV network. The flagged video was an old news flash with a member, who hadn't even worked in the place in ages, making an impression of Horatio from CSI:Miami as an ending joke. Even joking is now apparently illegal. Fancy that.

Then there's the fact that you shouldn't even have a copyrighted song playing in the background on your video, even if it's coming from the radio etc. which in itself is total bullcrap.

I suppose I don't even have to remind anyone of the Megaupload fiasco.


Phew... Now that I got all of that off my mind, what is your opinion on all that?

[T.H.E.E.]

All Rights Reserved

Meaning... Everything belongs to the author... Everything! It is only a question if he wants something taken down or not.

[Mass Distraction]

That is true but it's kinda sad that artistically showing your appreciation towards something can backfire like this. Worst case scenario and it all goes to extreme censorship, like all those SOPA and PIPA things would've done a year back.

[Ga2sert]

I honestly think that if no one is profiting, there's no problem. It's true that everything belongs to the author, but you just can't stop the internet. And just to be as clear as water: I'm not talking about things like uploading full movies in the internet, and by doing so, "preventing" people from watching it in the cinema, just about fan-made things.

Usually, "indie" authors don't care if fans are making stuff about their work because it actually helps them to be more known.

Big corporations usually hate fan-made things because they're afraid that someone might use their work to get money(which is indeed wrong), but most of things taken down are totally harmless. Of course, the corporations just take everything down because they won't look what is harmless and what is not.

Here in my country, a lot of fandubs are taken down. Ok, it's wrong to upload all the content in the internet, but, usually just series that have no chance of being released here are fandubbed. Furthermore, if(by miracle) the serie is announced to be released here, the fandubbers just stop(if they've already fandubbed the whole thing, they are the first ones to tell people to watch and buy the official stuff).

I also think the Copyright Laws are old. They were made long time ago and they need to be reviewed because times changed, and a lot.

OBS: Why were the Finnish videos taken down? If he wasn't using original content, theoretically, he isn't copying anyone. If I'm not mistaken, people are allowed to make parodies.

[Mass Distraction]

(02-17-2013 07:05 AM)Ga2sert Wrote:  OBS: Why were the Finnish videos taken down? If he wasn't using original content, theoretically, he isn't copying anyone. If I'm not mistaken, people are allowed to make parodies.

If I remember correctly, it was just about using the characters. Not sure if the fact that the parodies were more focused on dirty jokes had something to do with it.

He didn't use any real names or locations either and the characters were barely recognizable. I think the only actual use of copyrighted material was a Venonat sprite in one episode. Here's an actual picture:

[Psychospacecow]

(02-17-2013 07:53 AM)Mass Distraction Wrote:  

(02-17-2013 07:05 AM)Ga2sert Wrote:  OBS: Why were the Finnish videos taken down? If he wasn't using original content, theoretically, he isn't copying anyone. If I'm not mistaken, people are allowed to make parodies.

If I remember correctly, it was just about using the characters. Not sure if the fact that the parodies were more focused on dirty jokes had something to do with it.

He didn't use any real names or locations either and the characters were barely recognizable. I think the only actual use of copyrighted material was a Venonat sprite in one episode. Here's an actual picture:

Man, I bet Disney hates Dolan for that.

A bad example would be :

[T.H.E.E.]

Simply put... You can't expect a lot of fairness from big corporations :/ They have money and lawyers and that's where the story both starts and ends I'm afraid :/

[SERIOUSLY THOUGH]

As far as I see it, if it's under copyright, then companies are well within their rights to say what can and cannot be used.
That being said, companies should be a bit more lax with people who use their material without making money out of it.

[BumblebeeCody]

(02-17-2013 08:51 AM)SERIOUSLY THOUGH Wrote:  As far as I see it, if it's under copyright, then companies are well within their rights to say what can and cannot be used.
That being said, companies should be a bit more lax with people who use their material without making money out of it.

So simple but it's about the moneh moneh. This happened recently with SEGA taking down Shining Force videos so that their own SF videos could gain more popularity. Or SEGA(again) who told the Street of Rage remake team to stop production on a game. I know Nintendo and Square have also stopped fan made movies and games. Recently the MLP: Fighting is Magic recieved a cease and desist on the fan game.

I see two sides to it which makes sense. When you get companies that see fan made games for example Streets of Rage, I understand the frustration of gamers getting pissed over companies stopping their hard work. But for SEGA the game could represent the game/characters/sound etc in a way they don't want. They don't want these (their property)characters to be remade into a new game incase it it doesn't represent the SoR series in way that SEGA wants. I agree with a lot of people getting annoyed with their fan-made video/game/song etc being taken down. But it is understandable from that company perspective.
Other side is that companies like the idea and get behind it like the recent Street Fighter x Megaman fan game. +1 for Capcom(for once).

There are other times when there is no excuse when SEGA went on a flagging rampage and flagged Shining Force videos just to make sure attention isn't drawn away from their own video. It's bullshit and I hate that.

It's dumb because it all comes down to money. Back in 2006 when YouTube was getting big, EVERYTHING was safe to be viewed and was created by the community and still is related to their own content but mostly from content that's already been created; Minecraft videos for example). Since YouTube was bought in by Google, we've had a massive amount of copyright bullshit from companies even with fair use policies. It's money, once you make something big on YouTube that uses company created content (fandubs/lets plays) those companies then want a slice of that cake. On my channel for example, I can't put ads on videos that has content from owned by companies like Namco(Ranked Matches on Tekken 6), so they run ads with nothing going to me (before I got partnered).

As Ga2sert said, the laws are old and should be updated. I do think crediting the source is important though. I had to issue a copyright on someone because they stole one of my videos with no permission but it wasn't for review or educational purposes either. It was a straight forward steal which is what I don't like. The same goes for Animes/Films/TV shows/Music(is a grey area) that are directly uploaded to YouTube without the purpose of reviewing/critiquing and such.

But doing a parody, review, dubbing etc shouldn't be punished.

@Psychospacecow
Damn her boobs are BIG!

[Mass Distraction]

This all kinda makes me wonder (especially the Horatio joke) do companies actually have a dedicated person/department just for checking viral videos one by one in case they just might possibly maybe have something theirs.

(02-17-2013 09:19 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote:  Recently the MLP: Fighting is Magic recieved a cease and desist on the fan game.

I kinda figured you'd bring this up at some point

[T.H.E.E.]

Here is a link from a guy that makes a lot of YT Copyright tutorials and stuff

http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkLordofDebate

http://fairusetube.org/

[BumblebeeCody]

(02-17-2013 09:28 AM)Mass Distraction Wrote:  This all kinda makes me wonder (especially the Horatio joke) do companies actually have a dedicated person/department just for checking viral videos one by one in case they just might possibly maybe have something theirs.

(02-17-2013 09:19 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote:  Recently the MLP: Fighting is Magic recieved a cease and desist on the fan game.

I kinda figured you'd bring this up at some point

Hmm. I don't care for MLP (for or against) but it's still one of the latest stories to come out of this. Again I don't think it's right that companies just put a stop to their work. For MLP I don't watch the show but I'd assume it's about friendship and rainbow ...stuff. So I can sorta understand why they shutdown MLP: Fighting is Magic. They don't want a game in which [insert pony name here] is dragon punching [insert pony name here] as it's not "friendly" and therefore, doesn't give the franchise a good name. I'm on the fence about stuff like this. I understand the companies (outside of money making). But then again with Fighting is Magic, it comes down the user to consider whether it effects the Hasbro brand(which is doesn't).

(02-17-2013 09:31 AM)T.H.E.E. Wrote:  Here is a link from a guy that makes a lot of YT Copyright tutorials and stuff

http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkLordofDebate

http://fairusetube.org/

Cool thanks. Square-enix also got pretty pissy with their content in 2010 in which they claimed any Square-enix videos are theirs, especially with cutscenes. I uploaded the final boss battle last year which was blocked everywhere. Yet I found other people who uploaded the fight (with NO commentary) at the same time with thousands of views. S'all stupid.

[Mass Distraction]

I was mainly thinking that because you are into fighters and that game seemed to have a lot of potential

[BumblebeeCody]

(02-17-2013 10:42 AM)Mass Distraction Wrote:  I was mainly thinking that because you are into fighters and that game seemed to have a lot of potential

Yeah true. I probably would've given it a go at some point. It be about ponies and sparkles but they were really making it into a solid fighting game. They had all the fighting game staples like hitboxes, frame data etc and had plenty of tournaments. Some of the combos looked pretty cool too so I had respect that the team were taking their work seriously.

To relate this back to the topic, I still think it's unfair on the team with all the work they put in but again, it's a fighting game.

[Mass Distraction]

(02-17-2013 11:05 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote:  To relate this back to the topic, I still think it's unfair on the team with all the work they put in but again, it's a fighting game.

For sure. They could've contacted them a liiiitle sooner instead of waiting until the game had been in production for almost two years. The game wasn't exactly a secret anyway. Oh, and it's not just because it was a fighter. Hasbro also shut down an MMO project based around the series.


As for Fighting is Magic, Lauren Faust (the creator of the new series) did show her support to the team and even said that she could create them some original characters for the game if they are still into finishing the project.