Shueisha, Twitter and DMCA

[CashmanX]

So apparently there are reports on Twitter of accounts being locked for posting Dragon Ball related images and gifs.

https://twitter.com/DragonBallBLK/statu ... 1561604099

https://twitter.com/BlackScapeRose/stat ... 8399683584

https://twitter.com/bradsmithVR/status/ ... 6448732160

Even some fan art accounts were apparently caught in the crossfire. Threads full of pirated manga scans I could understand, but this? I can't make heads or tails of this besides maybe being DMCA bots.

[SHINOBI-03]

I just got a word on this. What's going on all of a sudden?

EDIT: I also heard they're doing it with One Piece content.

[Chuquita]

Is this related to whatever new copyright law in Japan caused former image board futa board to stop posting screenshots back in December? http://board.futakuro.com/jk2/futaba.htm

[SHINOBI-03]

https://twitter.com/newworldartur/statu ... 6934592513

[Kinokima]

I locked my account over there for now and deleted tons of tweets with gifs and images including tons of replies to people. I even had to delete tweets where I said Happy Birthday to friends because they had DB content . I went back 6 months. Hopefully that is enough

The take downs seem random so it’s probably some copyright bot combing through Twitter looking for any Shueshia related content

But yeah the whole thing is absolutely ridiculous.

[MasenkoHA]

Well this is going to turn into a PR nightmare for Shueisha.

[Alruneia]

A classic.
BINTY PLIS PLEY DMCA, IS GOOD GAME DONTE GET STRIKE AND BEST COPYRITE
I know it's a million years away from changing, and I'm not exactly an expert on this, but copyright law doesn't seem to really match with how the internet works. Shueisha is just exercising their legal rights by doing this kind of thing, but... When does and doesn't fair use come into play? Or, rather, when should or shouldn't it? It's legally okay, but is it morally okay to shut down these (mostly) harmless online posts? Is it smart to do it, based on community response? What a can of worms to open on a Friday night.

[Robo4900]

A classic.
BINTY PLIS PLEY DMCA, IS GOOD GAME DONTE GET STRIKE AND BEST COPYRITE
I know it's a million years away from changing, and I'm not exactly an expert on this, but copyright law doesn't seem to really match with how the internet works. Shueisha is just exercising their legal rights by doing this kind of thing, but... When does and doesn't fair use come into play? Or, rather, when should or shouldn't it? It's legally okay, but is it morally okay to shut down these (mostly) harmless online posts? Is it smart to do it, based on community response? What a can of worms to open on a Friday night.

I am not a lawyer.

However, this is my understanding:

Fair use comes into play for non-profit works produced for the purposes of education or criticism that is reasonably transformative of the original work. Often you can't use an entire copyrighted work under fair use, and it has some other very serious limitations that are best understood by talking to someone who actually is a lawyer, or by doing the reading on it yourself (which I encourage you to do, if you are interested in this subject).

Realistically, most of the internet misunderstands what fair use means. In fact, from what I've heard from people who've done far more research on this than I ever have, the work of Weird Al isn't fair use, because he's copying the original instrumentation and melodies wholesale while not criticising the original work (that's why he always has to get permission to do his parodies), whereas YouTube parody music videos where the lyrics are talking about how stupid the original song and its video are, do classify as fair use. And yet conventional wisdom is that Weird Al doesn't need to ask permission to do his parodies, he just does it because he's a nice guy (though, he is a nice guy). Probably mainly because as soon as people hear the word "Parody", there's an assumption that fair use protects you from any and all litigation.
Again, I'm not a lawyer. This is just my understanding, and it may be completely wrong. Do not take this post (or any other internet rando's casual ramblings/musings) as legal advice.

Posting screenshots of the Dragon Ball manga, I'm fairly sure, does not classify as fair use, unless you're doing so for the purpose of criticism, and even then (and again, I AM NOT A LAWYER), I'm fairly sure you would have to only use pretty much the minimum possible amount of the manga's imagery as is required to make your points.
Interestingly, if I'm right, this does mean that you could probably do an internet blog post series in which you analyse and criticise each and every panel of the Dragon Ball manga in order, and be protected because it's criticism. However, I would advise against anyone trying this unless they do some research of their own, and maybe talk to someone who is actually qualified to give legal advice.

As I say, I am not a lawyer, but to my very limited understanding of copyright law, if your Twitter avatar is a screenshot of Goku from some episode of Dragon Ball, you are not protected by fair use. But most of the time, companies tend to not go after people for just posting screenshots and gifs (in fact, many social media accounts for copyrighted works will share gifs and memes of shows, likely hoping it will help with publicity). Toei/Shueisha have decided to take a different attitude, it seems.

All this said, yes, I agree with you that it seems copyright law really isn't written with the internet in mind. It's in pretty desperate need of updating.

[dbgtFO]

Ah yes, brave new world with censorship everywhere, sure why not give them even more power over what can be shared, nothing can go wrong with that!

I heard about this on Instagram and it's apparently also impacting official artists(fenyo n being the one I heard about)!!

An absolute shitshow, but of course that's only right on time for the world we live in, where freedoms are taken away hilariously easily.

[JulieYBM]

This is a big part of why I advocate for gutting our copyright laws and creating a culture of putting down corporations. These scumbags shouldn't be able to do this over a goddamned gif or art analysis.

Give 'em an inch and they will take their mile and your house, with it.

[Soppa Saia People]

where am i gonna get fresh kurama x hiei art now!!!!!

anyway yeah, super gross.

[Matches Malone]

If they're able to do this, I wonder how long it'll be until they manage to shut down written criticism as well.

Well this is going to turn into a PR nightmare for Shueisha.

If Nintendo and Konami are anything to go by, Japanese companies (at least entertainment ones) don't care at all about what people think of them.

[eledoremassis02]

If they're able to do this, I wonder how long it'll be until they manage to shut down written criticism as well.

Well this is going to turn into a PR nightmare for Shueisha.

If Nintendo and Konami are anything to go by, Japanese companies (at least entertainment ones) don't care at all about what people think of them.

If people still give them money, they have no reason too unfortunatly.

[FortuneSSJ]

This is out of control. Even employers from them like fenyo_n are getting strikes.
Just like 2020, doesn't seem like 2021 will hold back either.

[Chuquita]

I temporarily set my account to private; while my Twitter is easily my least-DB-centric account I still occasionally post DB fan art there and don't want to take any chances. Stay safe everyone!

[SHINOBI-03]

https://twitter.com/Rattlesire/status/1 ... 1802600451

[Cold Skin]

You know, even without Rattlesire stating this on his tweet above this post, you can only imagine it's a bot that's out of control when it impacts so many accounts so suddenly and when it even targets their own employees.

Probably a few things missing (or present when it shouldn't be) in the bot's settings, making it far too "efficient" compared to what is actually wanted from it.

[Kinokima]

You know, even without Rattlesire stating this on his tweet above this post, you can only imagine it's a bot that's out of control when it impacts so many accounts so suddenly and when it even targets their own employees.

Probably a few things missing (or present when it shouldn't be) in the bot's settings, making it far too "efficient" compared to what is actually wanted from it.

Exactly saying people shouldn’t be freaking out isn’t helping. I am not worried about going to jail obviously but I am worried my account on Twitter that I had since 2009 is going to be gutted because god forbid I posted some DB gifs or an image from the manga when discussing the manga.

Do you think Twitter is going to care or do research if you tell them no this isn’t what the law says or this is just a mistake. Even if you can prove it’s a mistake after the fact the whole process can take weeks/months

How long is it going to take Shueshia to fix this mess. Will they even care to fix it quickly?

[Cold Skin]

^ Oh, I never said there was no need to worry. People have all reasons to worry because of this mistake.
Just saying, because of some "is Shueisha going crazy?" comments, that it is probably not something Shueisha is willingly doing, it's probably an ill-programmed bot that's doing its thing independantly of their original intents.

But yeah, the problem IS serious since anyone posting even the slightest picture related to DB (or One Piece apparently) on their accounts can be flagged and lose a lot of data if it is not fixed. So now people are forced to clean up their posts in emergency just in case, not even knowing if it will be enough to prevent risks.

It's a serious mistake that can have consequences ranging far beyond the DB sphere, so let's hope somebody fixes it.
And it's in their interest too, otherwise, if it isn't fixed and it becomes a habit that posting anything looking more or less like DB can make you lose all the rest on your account, people are just going to stop posting DB pics and gifs, which wouldn't be in favor of the franchise's popularity.

[batistabus]

My guess is that they're doing this ahead of the launch of their new website, which I'm sure they want to be your ONLY source for Dragon Ball news and media. Good luck with that, Shueisha.