The Legalities of MaSTAR Media. Plagiarism?

[Geekdom101]

Also from what I understand, his goal is to make his own custom animations and custom stories.

How do you suppose he would do that, seeing as his current method is tracing?

His words, not mine. I'm not justifying it, I'm just telling you my experiences with him.

[TheQuazz]

Whether someone traces animation or not, if they use Patreon or other such means to get money to create videos containing copyrighted material they're breaking the law. Make all the fan videos you want, as long as there is no way for you to gain anything from it. Somebody needs to sue this guy's ass.

[rereboy]

Whether someone traces animation or not, if they use Patreon or other such means to get money to create videos containing copyrighted material they're breaking the law. Make all the fan videos you want, as long as there is no way for you to gain anything from it. Somebody needs to sue this guy's ass.

TeamFourStar also has a patreon as far as I know, and they also use copyrighted material and even the footage of the Dragon Ball anime (and Hellsing, etc). Using that logic, they would need to be sued.

Things shouldn't be nearly as "black and white" as that. We need gray.

[Kanassa]

Whether someone traces animation or not, if they use Patreon or other such means to get money to create videos containing copyrighted material they're breaking the law. Make all the fan videos you want, as long as there is no way for you to gain anything from it. Somebody needs to sue this guy's ass.

It's only illegal if the profit is directly from those videos. That's why for TFS's patreon they have to make sure to state clearly that the money recieved will not affect DBZA.

[Yomi]

Hey, no need to be so harsh. Surely there's a better term than "piece of garbage" you could use.

Hmm... "dude with a bad attitude" instead of "Good Guy" Mastar who traces everything.
Hmm, "Good Guy" probably isn't the best descriptor.

[Shad73]

Just look up 'Dragonball Absalon Off-icial' on Facebook and scroll down.

[TheQuazz]

TeamFourStar is doing something illlegal, though. If Toei decided to sue them, they'd be completely in the right.

[ParkerAL]

TeamFourStar is doing something illlegal, though. If Toei decided to sue them, they'd be completely in the right.

I don't think it would be that unambiguous. Fair use has an entire pillar dedicated to parody, and defendants have won against corporations by using it as a defense. TeamFourStar might run into trouble due to the sheer amount of the copyrighted work they repurpose, but calling what they do flagrantly illegal goes a little too far.

A similar argument wouldn't be of much help to MaSTAR, though.

[Geekdom101]

Hey, no need to be so harsh. Surely there's a better term than "piece of garbage" you could use.

Hmm... "dude with a bad attitude" instead of "Good Guy" Mastar who traces everything.
Hmm, "Good Guy" probably isn't the best descriptor.

But Good Guy is subjective. You don't know him. I don't even know him. If this guy traces some animation... is he doing wrong? Sure. But what if he has a family and a wife whom he loves? (I'm not sure if he does). What if he does things for the poor. What if he's super kind to his friends?

I dont think good guy or piece of garbage is a fair judgment of a person online whom you don't know. We are ALL shades of gray.

[rereboy]

Hey, no need to be so harsh. Surely there's a better term than "piece of garbage" you could use.

Hmm... "dude with a bad attitude" instead of "Good Guy" Mastar who traces everything.
Hmm, "Good Guy" probably isn't the best descriptor.

But Good Guy is subjective. You don't know him. I don't even know him. If this guy traces some animation... is he doing wrong? Sure. But what if he has a family and a wife whom he loves? (I'm not sure if he does). What if he does things for the poor. What if he's super kind to his friends?

I dont think good guy or piece of garbage is a fair judgment of a person online whom you don't know. We are ALL shades of gray.

Tracing is "wrong" when people try to pass it up as original art.

In this case, the dude seems pretty open about it so he's not actually trying to deceive anyone about his originality. So, does his art lack quality and originality when compared to a good artist that doesn't trace? Most definitely. But that's pretty much it. Criticizing more than that doesn't seem to make sense since he doesn't really hide what he does. Calling him a piece of garbage or someone who can't be a good guy doesn't make much sense.

TeamFourStar is doing something illlegal, though. If Toei decided to sue them, they'd be completely in the right.

As it's been said, it's not that simple, even legally speaking. Copyright and such is limited by the notions of fair use, parody and similar. Most of the time, the companies and corporations win not by pursuing the legal issue but simply because they have way more money to burn in legal proceedings than the average joe and so very few people are actually willing and able to go all the way and exhaust all the possible legal options against the companies/corporations, not to mention that companies/corporations are able to get armies of excellent lawyers, while the average joe isn't. So, most of the time, the average joe just folds.

Legally speaking, situations like Teamfourstar and similar are complex legal cases that depends greatly on the circumstances of the case and on the inclination of the judge/jury. It's not a clear and open case that we can say it would always go in favor of the companies/corporations.

[Yomi]

is he doing wrong? Sure. But what if he has a family and a wife whom he loves? (I'm not sure if he does). What if he does things for the poor. What if he's super kind to his friends?

Tracing is "wrong" when people try to pass it up as original art.

In this case, the dude seems pretty open about it so he's not actually trying to deceive anyone about his originality. So, does his art lack quality and originality when compared to a good artist that doesn't trace? Most definitely. But that's pretty much it. Criticizing more than that doesn't seem to make sense since he doesn't really hide what he does. Calling him a piece of garbage or someone who can't be a good guy doesn't make much sense.

I didn't call him a piece of garbage, I called him a good guy first, then said "maybe that's not the best descriptor" cause I don't know him. SO I don't know what that's all about. Also, he's deleted drawing streams, he's deleted comments of people calling him out, and now he releases one example of him poorly drawing some background characters on his own, only to super impose traced drawings of Trunks and PTS Naruto over it, as if he did those too. (Can't animate a demon spreading his arms but you can animate a fish eye lenses, foreshortened, run cycle? please...) So by some measure he is trying to cover up. It's what you gotta do when raising money to open up an official "animation studio". On the back of Demon Rush.

Also when responding to that first guy, I should have said it doesn't matter if YOU think this guy is a piece of garbage, as long as he has talent. Instead i said," it doesn't matter if he is a piece of garbage, or a good guy like mastar". So I see how you guys got confused, but I haven't really made any unjustified judgements or name calling here.

[Brian4205]

I usually don't jump in on these types of threads, but the title piqued my interest because of the two episodes of Goku vs Saitama I watched where basically all shots from DBZ movies and OPM with different character designs. It really turned me off, but that being said, I don't think it deserves the witch hunt that this thread is trying to be.

For all we know he's just using these traced animations that he can produce quickly to build a fan base. Yeah, maybe he's an ass, don't watch his stuff then. I don't. That doesn't mean we as a community should try to bully him from moving forward.

We as a community should try to be better than this, If he tries to break the law and make money off of other peoples animation, then the proper authorities will take care of it. God knows Youtube loves to shut people down.

Please, please, for all of our best interests, lets just calm down and try to be civil. Instead of talking shit on this guy, maybe we should offer him support, and try to help each other improve.

Who knows, maybe you guys will get along.

[Yomi]

Please, please, for all of our best interests, lets just calm down and try to be civil. Instead of talking shit on this guy, maybe we should offer him support, and try to help each other improve.

Who knows, maybe you guys will get along.

Community aye? I never viewed it that way. I don't think he deserves support just for being a creator on youtube.
It's like when all those DBZ youtubers were calling out the "click-baiters" (not illegal), getting all angry and cursing at their mics about it.
I was wondering where the backlash was towards this plagiarism? I saw that everyone was just saying he was "inspired" and it urked me; but I ignored it.

It also urked me when other youtubers said things like. "DBS and OPM animators take like months to do this and you do it in days, much talent. Guys go support his patreon, he deserves it." The ignorance annoyed me, but I didn't care enough to post about it. Just Kept watching, Sai vs Goku, in a "so bad it's good" kinda way. Then he started talking about collecting money to start an animation studio. And I wanted to know if it was even legal.

The more I researched the more I saw that he's well aware of his wrong doings, and he has a big ego about his "animation." There was something secondary that I also wanted to know, if I was the only one who see's this for what it is. I don't see it in the comments, and why are all these long time DBZ youtubers who watched Dragon Ball "493" times fan-gazming over this guy, calling him the best DBZ fan-animation talent. Yet I watched it about 4 times and can spot frame by frame each traced shot.

But yea, wanted to know if it was legal, and wanted to know if I was the only one who saw this for what it was.
Don't know why it's considered "witch hunt". I haven't said anything about him personally. I've only been criticizing his actions on youtube.

Anywho, I hope this thread dies soon.

[Draconic]

The fact that the guy is basing a whole paetron, trying to make money, by first proving his talent trough STEALING other people's work is alarming. I don't care who he talks to and what he does in his free time. He is stealing work from talented animators, who are underpaid as it is, in order to make a quick buck from people who think his piece of garbage series is worth anything. More than that, he is trying to hide the fact he is a hack. As long as he doesn't make money off of the show directly, by monetizing the actual videos, it doesn't really qualify as plagiarism, in a legal sense, but it is morally bankrupt since we've seen the guy can't draw/animate by himself and even his traced series is only good enough to only qualify as "at least it's not shit". The fact that people are defending him is downright absurd since what he does is clearly a scam.

Geekdom, I seriously can't believe you are defending this. If one guy took your scripts, modified them to fit his own illiterate topics then asked people to donate money to him themselves, since he knows monetizing would get him in trouble as his fraud is obvious to anyone with a half brain, would you just sit there saying "well, in his free time the guy maybe walks an old man's dog, so I shouldn't judge him", or you would take action to alert naive people of the fraud that is happening?

If this was a couple hundred view series at least, it would be somewhat passable, since no one would donate, but it has millions of views! Some naive Dragon Ball fans could actually give their hard earned money to this guy and we shouldn't really stand for that. Yeah, maybe in his real life the guy is alright, a good person even, who saw the envoirment created by Super's problems and thought he could take advantage from it. That's smart, but the way he went on about it is disgusting.

Legaly what the guy is doing might not qualify as plagiarism, but that's just because he is exploiting a loophole in the law, not because it's any less of a fraud, because it 100% is one.

[Kanassa]

That doesn't mean we as a community should try to bully him from moving forward.

Calling people out on their bullshit is not bullying, to call it as such is an insult to actual bullying.

[rereboy]

The fact that the guy is basing a whole paetron, trying to make money, by first proving his talent trough STEALING other people's work is alarming. I don't care who he talks to and what he does in his free time. He is stealing work from talented animators, who are underpaid as it is, in order to make a quick buck from people who think his piece of garbage series is worth anything. More than that, he is trying to hide the fact he is a hack. As long as he doesn't make money off of the show directly, by monetizing the actual videos, it doesn't really qualify as plagiarism, in a legal sense, but it is morally bankrupt since we've seen the guy can't draw/animate by himself and even his traced series is only good enough to only qualify as "at least it's not shit". The fact that people are defending him is downright absurd since what he does is clearly a scam.

Geekdom, I seriously can't believe you are defending this. If one guy took your scripts, modified them to fit his own illiterate topics then asked people to donate money to him themselves, since he knows monetizing would get him in trouble as his fraud is obvious to anyone with a half brain, would you just sit there saying "well, in his free time the guy maybe walks an old man's dog, so I shouldn't judge him", or you would take action to alert naive people of the fraud that is happening?

If this was a couple hundred view series at least, it would be somewhat passable, since no one would donate, but it has millions of views! Some naive Dragon Ball fans could actually give their hard earned money to this guy and we shouldn't really stand for that. Yeah, maybe in his real life the guy is alright, a good person even, who saw the envoirment created by Super's problems and thought he could take advantage from it. That's smart, but the way he went on about it is disgusting.

Legaly what the guy is doing might not qualify as plagiarism, but that's just because he is exploiting a loophole in the law, not because it's any less of a fraud, because it 100% is one.

Like I said, the only problem is trying to pass the work as completely original. If it's not passed as original, but people are still entertained enough by it to want to contribute towards him, that's just up to them. You obviously wouldn't, but someone else might enjoy it enough to want to see more, even if it's not completely original art. At that point, it's no different than something like Abridged which doesn't use completely original art, it actually reuses it from the series, but people want more of it anyway.

So, criticize the fact that he tries to pass it as original if that's the case. Other than that, it's going overboard.

[Bansho64]

Like I said, the only problem is trying to pass the work as completely original. If it's not passed as original, but people are still entertained enough by it to want to contribute towards him, that's just up to them. You obviously wouldn't, but someone else might enjoy it enough to want to see more, even if it's not completely original art. At that point, it's no different than something like Abridged which doesn't use completely original art, it actually reuses it from the series, but people want more of it anyway.

Wait, we're putting this guy on the same level as the Abridged crew? I wouldn't even put him on the same level as Mellavelli. The difference between the Abridged crew and this guy is huge. The whole point of Abridged is to parody DB and throw in their own jokes and dialogue along with the footage. No one's trying to hide that. This guy's literally tracing off things and trying to pass it off as his own product. Not to mention, he's calling it "inspiration". If you're gonna trace, say you're tracing. Don't sugarcoat it. He's taking the work of underpaid artists and trying to pass it off as his own. Even worse, he's getting people to fund him to do it. Yes, TFS has a Patreon, but none of the money they get from it goes to DBZ Abridged. I don't hate Mastar, but putting him on the level of TFS or even trying to equate their work is a big leap.

[Brian4205]

Except that nobody here is actually doing anything except complaining among other fans. Youtube has a report system. If your so offended by his plagiarism than you could have reported him without ever coming here to start this thread. This is just creating a mob mentality and getting everyone all fired up and arguing over someone who really doesn't deserve it. Goku vs OPM is more than likely the only thing he will produce that will ever be popular. I don't see him continuing to make popular videos (I was trying so hard to avoid bashing the guy).

You're absolutely right though, I was pretty busy with other thing during that entire clickbaiter war thing so I really didn't learn about it until recently, and that's why I am posting to see if we can all calm down. Things got shitty and people I respected said some dumb shit. Instead of pointing the finger and using it as an excuse to wallow in fan rage, lets bury the hatchet, please.

The law will catch up with MaSTAR if he continues to trace and make money off of illegal activity's, but we are not the law, so sitting here complaining is not doing anyone any good, it's just getting everyone all fired up and pissed off. For everyone's mental sanity please, lets just cool off, and let it go. Which was more of what I meant with my last post.

[rereboy]

Wait, we're putting this guy on the same level as the Abridged crew?

Regarding the point I was making, it's comparable. DBZA could have been a parody made totally with new animation like some short parodies I've seen on youtube but they chose to reuse the existing art/footage of the series due to the obvious advantages. People are aware of that and they want more. And they have a patreon.

[Draconic]

But that's the problem. He is trying to pass everything as him making it, deleting comments which call him out on it and expressing no regard to the original material. DBZA is a parody, their footage is the original recut, but they have new scripts, new voice work, different soundtrack, all making it a new product. And the have a disclaimer at the beginning of every single video. This MaSTAR guy doesn't allow any kind of observation that he is not doing original work. He is lying to make himself look better than he truly is to make money off of naive people. The difference between the two are astronomical.
There is a lot of stuff on YT of people mashing up footage to make new interesting stuff, like what Drandosk (the guy who makes what if battles like Beerus vs Omega Shenron and such) and no one has any problem with it, because he isn't trying to make it seem he is doing everything from scratch.

People can give money to whoever they want and that's no problem, but you can't just trick them into it. As long as you are honest about what you are doing and everybody knows everything that goes behind the scenes in creating such a video, for all intents and purposes, get as much money as you can. Then it's the company's problem if you are breaking their law, but as it stands, he is scamming people into giving money into the creation of an "animation studio", when the guy can't draw one half-decent cut by tracing, not to mention by himself.

He is getting money by LYING/DECEIVING/TRICKING! That's a problem and we as a community shouldn't stand for it. I can't do anything, as I am one anonymous guy on the internet and people would just call me a hater if I try to say something, but people like Geekdom who have a huge influence on the internet part of the fanbase could point this stuff out and reach a large amount of people, yet for some reason are here defending the guy.