Jasper-Isis wrote:Are there companies that really dislike AMV's?
Actually in some cases I wouldn't be too surprised, see as how we're really pushing the envelope when it comes to concepts these days...
Honestly, when it comes to US companies (and, for that matter, no small number of Japanese companies), I would say I would be surprised if the people who run/founded them and most of the employees were anything but fans of AMVs. I know for a fact that a number of them love AMVs, and they sometimes occasionally pull talent from the pool of us editors to make videos for them. Many anime companies- both here and in Japan (i.e.: GAINAX)- were started as much because their founders loved anime as they were as a profitable venture. GAINAX essentially got
started because of an AMV of sorts- the Daicon opening. In many cases, their interest and love of all that can and is done with the media still lives on.
The potential problem however comes in the fact that they have to walk a fine line. They own/license the rights to the shows which we use to make AMVs. Assuming I remember it right, there is (outside of potential problems with things like having to crack the DVD encryption assuming you're ripping the footage instead of analog capturing it) nothing at all illegal with your making AMVs. Now distributing them and showing them (which was the question asked) falls far more into the realm of dark grey. As dokool said- it's technically illegal. But there's kind of a completely unspoken agreement between AMVers and the companies- they look the other way and we don't try and charge anything for what we make with their licensed products. Their IP lawyers doubtless would probably prefer they put the smack down and put an end to it, but they don't, probably for several reasons. First off, as I said earlier- many of the people who actually run the companies (and go to the cons where AMVs are shown) are fans like the rest of us, and enjoy the videos. Second- it's essentially free (at worst- and realistically, they make money when we buy the DVDs we need to make the videos) advertising for them for their shows. I'd hazard a guess that almost everyone here has had at least one instance of where they've seen a show used in an AMV that they'd never seen or possibly even heard of before and gone, "I've gotta get that, it looks good!". I've done it a number of times myself. And finally, though this is probably a distant last- they know the congoers love AMVs. Though since people are fickle it probably would fade fairly quickly, there would likely be at least a bit of backlash from the anime fan community as a whole against the company that got AMVs kicked out of conventions.
We keep up our own side of it by not making a profit from using their footage. There are grey areas even within this, such as charging for DVDs and such. And there have been more limits put in place these days- many conventions will not allow videos that use audio from the English dubs of shows, because this is something
wholly owned by the domestic companies (as opposted to licensed, like the footage & original soundtrack are), so it's a bit thornier and best avoided. So for now, there's a fairly happy balance, and I've at least not seen any particular moves for it to be upset.
Truth told though, if there is going to come a Doom to our abilities to show videos at conventions and such, it's likely going to come from the RIAA for our usage of the
music, not from the anime companies for the video. Which I think would be stupid, because I've gone out and bought almost as many albums due to hearing songs in AMVs as I have series from seeing shows...
