AMVs at GameStop.

x_rex30 · Post by **x_rex30** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:12 am

Wheee_It's_Me! wrote:Somehow I doubt ANYONE working at Circuit City could be THAT dumb. You know pirating data, making AMVs, shit like that, it's not such a big deal when it's done behind mostly closed doors, under the table, but when you start doing shit like that in a retail chain...yeah that's just lawsuit city waiting to happen. I would imagine that if that guys boss at Circuit City had known what he was doing, he probably would have been fired, just to save them the bad publicity.

And despite your naivete in the matter, it does boost their sales. Cause let's see, how many of your tweeny bopping lil friends did you go around and say, "Hey guess what, they let me burn a music CD over at Circuit City!" Which then gets all you lil squirrely headed tweens poppin into their store lookin for the goods. And hey, can't burn if ya don't got CDRs and, huh, guess what they sell at Circuit City?

Now maybe you're right, maybe the employee who did it was just a completely fuckin idiot looking for a convenient way to get himself fired, however that REALLY wouldn't hold up very well in a court room, child. Circuit City would have to take responsibility to an extent for it's employees and their actions...no matter how stupid they are.

Yah I was just kidding when I asked them, and them saying yah made me go

. The music they had on the computer was just white labels, and rare remixes. If it was some sort of mainstream music, I wouldn't have, and sure as hell wouldn't think about taking them, especially in some public store.

I know you may think that AMVs, and MP3s are only put up for sales, but you got to put yourself in their shoes. If you worked at lets say best buys, and it was boring a lot of the time and you wanted to listen to some music, wouldn't you want to put up some songs on a computer. I wouldn't even see that as a big deal if I was a boss, and what, do you think some playlist is suppose to bring up computer sales or something. I don't think anyone would put up music just for sales, but for there enjoyment, and same thing goes for AMVs.

EBwiz · Post by **EBwiz** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:13 am

Alot of people are talking about them using AMVs to market products without even giving proper credit to the original creators, and I agree, that's a pretty bad thing... if that's what they were doing.

Now, I know alot of the guys down at my local GameStop... and from what I've seen out of town, they aren't too different from anyone else who work at other GameStop's country wide... They are ordinary guys, who work at a gaming store (And chances are that's because they are gamers) who hold down a minimum wage job that they like to complain about when they aren't talking about gaming or some other related fandom (Which includes anime)... Sometimes they get bored on the job and put other things on display other then the required video game preview tape that's usually running. I've seen them put in movies just to watch them when they aren't busy.

My point is that I really doubt those guys were playing AMVs to market off there wares... they were probably bored and one of the guys made a VCD or somehting of AMVs to show his fellow employees to relieve the monotinous work atmosphere.... Don't really see anything wrong with that, being it's really no different from someone downloading it off of their computer, and showing friends that come over to their house.

That's my opinion, anyway.

x_rex30 · Post by **x_rex30** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:24 am

EBwiz wrote: Now, I know alot of the guys down at my local GameStop... and from what I've seen out of town, they aren't too different from anyone else who work at other GameStop's country wide... They are ordinary guys, who work at a gaming store (And chances are that's because they are gamers) who hold down a minimum wage job that they like to complain about when they aren't talking about gaming or some other related fandom (Which includes anime)... Sometimes they get bored on the job and put other things on display other then the required video game preview tape that's usually running. I've seen them put in movies just to watch them when they aren't busy.

That's for sure. They play regular Mainstream Music Videos for crying out loud.

Wheee_It's_Me! · Post by **Wheee_It's_Me!** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:38 am

You guys are missing the point. It's NOT about what they THINK they're doing, it's all about the people who might suddenly get an itching to sue them. And they've got a pretty good case if they wanted to take it to town. Whether store employee X does something with intent purpose Z does not change the fact that effect Y will also occur because of it. Effect Y being a possible increase in their sales because people passing by will peek in and think, "Hey, cool!", pop on in and then maybe decide, "Oh hey, why don't I buy somethin while I'm here!"

Like I said, it isn't about your interpretation of it all, or the purpose and intent of the employee, it's the EFFECT that it has and the possible will of any number of copyright holders who might suddenly get the idea to sue. If they did, well, ignorance doesn't hold up too well in a court room. It's not like you can just say, "Oh, I didn't KNOW I wasn't supposed to drive over the speed limit". Ignorance is never an excuse.

EBwiz · Post by **EBwiz** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:41 am

The only people I can see caring enough to sue are companies that produce the anime companies (MAYBE The music industry, but seeing something placed to music that the company happens to own is not enough evidence to convict anyone) and if they did, this site would've went down a LONG time ago, and conventions wouldn't have such big showings for AMVs... but I believe this has all been discussed before in a previous topic.

Apeotheosis · Post by **Apeotheosis** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:44 am

Wheee_It's_Me! wrote:You guys are missing the point. It's NOT about what they THINK they're doing, it's all about the people who might suddenly get an itching to sue them. And they've got a pretty good case if they wanted to take it to town. Whether store employee X does something with intent purpose Z does not change the fact that effect Y will also occur because of it. Effect Y being a possible increase in their sales because people passing by will peek in and think, "Hey, cool!", pop on in and then maybe decide, "Oh hey, why don't I buy somethin while I'm here!"

Like I said, it isn't about your interpretation of it all, or the purpose and intent of the employee, it's the EFFECT that it has and the possible will of any number of copyright holders who might suddenly get the idea to sue. If they did, well, ignorance doesn't hold up too well in a court room. It's not like you can just say, "Oh, I didn't KNOW I wasn't supposed to drive over the speed limit". Ignorance is never an excuse.

It's pretty obvious that you're right. And YOU'RE missing the point. When all these lawsuits start happening because some guys were dicking around with the display tape a couple of times - then you can bitch. Because to be blunt, I doubt anything will come from it. Now if they start playing them on a regular basis and then listing games or deals they have at the store in the middle of the AMV, or incorporating it in another way. THEN there might be a problem. Until then, I'm sorry, I don't think some copyright holder is going to walk in the store and go: "HEY! WTF? That's increasing your sales?! And that's infringing on the anime produced by the studios I work for! YOU'RE GOING DOWN CHUBBS!"

My opinion

Wheee_It's_Me! · Post by **Wheee_It's_Me!** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:46 am

EBwiz wrote:The only people I can see caring enough to sue are companies that produce the anime companies (MAYBE The music industry, but seeing something placed to music that the company happens to own is not enough evidence to convict anyone) and if they did, this site would've went down a LONG time ago, and conventions wouldn't have such big showings for AMVs... but I believe this has all been discussed before in a previous topic.

No offense, but you have absolutely NO IDEA about whose getting sued and who isn't. Hell *I'VE* been threatened with lawsuits on numerous occasions and I'm not even TRYING to make money off any of the shit I do.

And conventions, while popular amongst us in the know, don't even fucking EXIST for mainstream America, they just don't, sorry to burst bubble but our interest really isn't all THAT popular outside of Pokemon sales.

At conventions they sell anime DVDs and since AMVs directly support buying DVDs, those who own the DVD distribution rights don't mind. HOWEVER, I would suspect that if the RIAA was a lil more aware of anime conventions and the nature of AMVs, they would throw a shit storm over it! Fact is though, if you e-mailed the RIAA and asked em about AMVs they'd probably be like, "AM-whats?"

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:50 am

Wheee_It's_Me! wrote:HOWEVER, I would suspect that if the RIAA was a lil more aware of anime conventions and the nature of AMVs, they would throw a shit storm over it! Fact is though, if you e-mailed the RIAA and asked em about AMVs they'd probably be like, "AM-whats?"

"AM-what?" exactly. Until they hit on the 'copyright infringement' angle, which would likely take under a minute, even as clueless as they are. Of course, this is assuming that th email actually got read, and not ignored completely.

Wheee_It's_Me! · Post by **Wheee_It's_Me!** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:53 am

Kalium wrote:
Wheee_It's_Me! wrote:HOWEVER, I would suspect that if the RIAA was a lil more aware of anime conventions and the nature of AMVs, they would throw a shit storm over it! Fact is though, if you e-mailed the RIAA and asked em about AMVs they'd probably be like, "AM-whats?"
"AM-what?" exactly. Until they hit on the 'copyright infringement' angle, which would likely take under a minute, even as clueless as they are. Of course, this is assuming that th email actually got read, and not ignored completely.

Indeed. And I don't know about everyone else, but I'd like it to stay that way for as long as possible. And retarded employees at Circuit City, GameStop, etc are NOT helping because they're showing off AMVs to your average white, suburbanite, cracker, slob (ie mainstream America).

EBwiz · Post by **EBwiz** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:54 am

Ahem... I know that conventions don't exist to the outside world... But you also have to remember that the inside world (IE: The Anime commute) also includes those people who actually have grounds to sue (IE: Anime companies such as Pioneer, Bandai, The Right Stuf, 4Kids, ADV, Etc. Etc. Etc.) But they do not sue. Why? AMVs are good publicity. Hell, AbsoluteDestiny has one of his AMVs hidden on a disc of a licensed Anime DVD.

If (for example), a pioneer rep walks into a Gamestop and sees an AMV playing, chances are they aren't going to dial their high priced lawyer from their 300 dollar, color screen cellphone with personalized ringtone. Hell, they'd probably give the retailer a thumbs up and tell him to keep up the good work, soldier.

That's an exageration, but the point still stands.