About Copyrights?

alternatefutures · Post by **alternatefutures** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 3:10 am

trythil wrote:I'd like to see them get through my setup

Well, depending on where you live if you have anything like a firewall... or even a router, your setup is illegal. Some states accidently came this close to writing language for Super-DMCA that could have outlawed the internet entirely. Gotta love it when politicians pass laws on things they have idea about.[/i]

alternatefutures · Post by **alternatefutures** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 3:11 am

Curse my dislexia, it should be "have no idea about"

alternatefutures · Post by **alternatefutures** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 3:17 am

Oh yeah, and who pushed for the Super DMCA laws? The RIAA! So you can bet that if they try to hack into your computer and they can't and you live in a state that has this law the RIAA will do their damnedest to haul you to court.

Farlo · Post by **Farlo** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 3:38 am

well all the members of the RIAA should taste FLAMING DEATH!!!

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 10:01 am

Indeed. Death to RIAA is what I've been calling for for ages....

As for AMV's - why on earth would the companies not like them? In fact, I'm sure I'm not the only one who was persuaded into buying products by AMV's (most recently, good Spriggan and X AMV's made me go out and buy).

It's like free promotion! The corporate peeps should be happy rather than pissed.

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 10:17 am

In general- they probably are, both for the fact they're fans too and probably enjoy them and the fact that someone might see a video with a series they hadn't seen before and think it looked neat and then go out and buy it. Officially and legally though- they can't condone them. Technically, we're abusing and violating their copyrights, and if they were to officially give us the go-ahead to make AMVs, they stand to lose the ability to pursue people who violate that copyright in a manner that would potentially harm their business (i.e., people selling bootleg copies of their titles).

The music companies on the other hand don't have any real reason to like us (well, except some independant-type ones whose songs get used in AMVs and people haven't heard before). And, these days, I don't see much reason to like them either.

tutterbutter · Post by **tutterbutter** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 10:24 am

AMV's make me buy Anime DVD's. Making Anime Videos, Makes me Buy The CD of the bands song im using, because I get better quality from my own rips then a mp3. I think we are a important part of them making money, dontcha think? And If Ive never heard or seen a anime, and the AMV i see is good.. Ill go buy that DVD cuz i wanna see the whole darn thing. We provide a great service. hehe And we do it only because we love Anime and Music. Its FanArt.

Tutterbutter

SarahtheBoring · Post by **SarahtheBoring** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 10:44 am

Someone in a thread way back when compared AMVing to making mods for games, and I'd invoke that now - lots of fandom-related works are made out there, from AMVs to fanfiction to cosplay (probably), that bend/break/spindlefoldandmutilate copyright.

And I'd say we escape for three reasons, by my guess:

1. As Nightowl sagely said

, we are not the center of the universe.

2. Most of us aren't making money off this, and I think that this really helps to make us less of an irritation. Heck, on many fanwork sites, their only defense is "I'm not making money off this, so please don't sue." If people were making bank off it, I think they'd start caring a lot more.

3. The music industry is busy shutting down P2P (as alternatefutures said), and the anime industry is thousands of miles away, probably doesn't care, and might have a different attitude toward it all because of cultural differences.

#3 is key. People make videos of Western shows too, and I think they are less cavalier about it than AMVers are. I think they have to be. Some companies are so rabid about shutting down fan sites that new slang has developed around it ("Foxed" = "shut down by the powers that be," after the FOX Network).

So those are my guesses.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 10:53 am

Yep, the modding comparison is very apt. You notice that very much when you're actually editing.

I don't suppose it's legal, but it doesn't seem very illegal either. Personally, I'd very much like it if DVD companies were as supportive or at least condoning of AMV's as some game companies are of mods. Then again, there are some companies which are real bitches about that stuff (i.e. unauthorized source-code edits)

kmv · Post by **kmv** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 12:55 pm

I'm with EarthCurrent on the status of AMV's - they are illegal, but I'm also with Sarah on the whole "fanwork" thing.

There are lots of anecdotal stories floating about the web, but here are some news articles from CNN that I think are relevant:

A fan site that's found itself under threat more than once (Feb 2003)

A C&D case by Lucas Film (Oct 2000)

A C&D case by Fox (Feb 2000)

My opinion (FWIW - I'm not a lawyer): We are only "safe" until one of the US distributors takes offence or gets into bed with the RIAA.