Toei deleting Dbz videos issue

[Silkman3003]

As you all know, Toei has been deleting Dbz videos whenever they can. They've deleted full Dbz episodes, Full Dragonball Z fights, and even Dbz clips (5:00 minutes).

So actually, I was wondering a few things.

1. Does putting disclaimers actually work in the end?
An example is this: Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z, all characters are copyrights of TOEI funimation, and their respective companies.

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

2. some user claimed that filing a counter notification against videos, Toei deletes, works. Adn that he was able to get back his dbz videos. Can anyone confirm this?

Here is the site:http://www.youtube.com/t/copyright_counter

And the biggest bit :After we send out the counter-notification, the claimant must then notify us within 10 business days that he or she has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on YouTube. If we receive such notification we will be unable to restore the material. If we do not receive such notification, we may reinstate the material.

So I'm assuming the guy was BS'ing right? I mean, reading the site, it claims that you have to include personal information. But what if you just put up a fake address? Has anyone here ever filed counter notifications?

All in all, I'm just curious on the whole situation. Like, why do people put disclaimers? What does it prevent? And do counter notifications really work against toei? Or will you be screwed even more if you counter notify them? I know that flipping your videos makes it so that Youtube doesn't automatically take them down due to their ID system. But then I've noticed that toei takes them down their selves once in awhile(or orders youtube to personally target these clips)

Edit: Also, if this is in the wrong board, sorry. Put it to the appropriate section if it's really an issue.

[VegettoEX]

Ignoring all personal feelings, Toei are well within their domestic and international rights to delete/remove any unauthorized duplication and distribution of their creative works -- including folks uploading material to YouTube (be it clips or entire episodes).

Adding a disclaimer does not do anything. YouTube works with partners and rights holders in different ways. Many are enrolled in a program that "fingerprints" aspects of the video and audio streams to automatically detect them and have them removed almost immediately after upload. Those that are not can simply ask YouTube to remove individual or batches of uploads at their own discretion.

At this point, it's incredibly helpful to understand what the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is. Long and short of it is that (with a few exceptions that continue to be added over time), (1) it is against the law to break encryption and distribute creative works that are not your own, and (2) online service providers are granted "safe harbor" (that is, they won't get sued) so long as they remove unauthorized clips when they are brought to their attention -- there's of course WAY more to it than that, but that's the layman version.

In these cases, Toei (or in some cases the folks that license stuff from them, such as FUNimation) ask YouTube to remove the clips. Due to the DMCA, YouTube is *required* to immediately comply with the request and take down the material, no questions asked. After this point, the individual/group that uploaded the supposedly-unauthorized clip may file what is called a "counter-notice" or "counter-claim" if they feel they have reasonable cause to have uploaded the clip (either it is actually theirs and someone else is wrongfully claiming to own it, or they believe it falls under "fair use").

You'll start noticing, from what I would consider a common-sense viewpoint, how there are some bat-shit crazy things about this law. First off, yes, it's "act first, ask questions later". There are already hugely important cases that have gone to court over groups KNOWINGLY WRONGFULLY requesting take-downs on materials they simply don't like, rather than actually owning the rights to them -- here is where we get into free speech issues. You can't demand something be taken down just because you don't like it, you have to actually own the rights to it... but hey, it happens. Additionally, cases where something may actually be "fair use" can be requested to be taken down, and you have no immediate recourse other than to wait to appeal it.

Now you get into what "fair use" is, but that's beyond the scope of your question -- you're talking about clips and full episodes. Maybe there's a discussion about short clips, but we'll ignore that for now. Just know that there's no set rule about how much or little counts; much like the "delete this ROM within 24 hours" statement, it's all bullshit.

So your shit gets taken down under a DMCA notice. At that point, you can file a counter-claim saying you DO have the rights to have uploaded it. Here's where the recent news about TV Tokyo and Crunchyroll comes in: when you file that counter-claim, you've made a legally-bound statement claiming you actually DO have the rights to that material, the take-down served against you was wrong, and you are willing to go to court to defend that standpoint. Well duh, in those cases that was so far beyond incorrect it's laughable. These folks did NOT have the rights to upload entire episodes of Bleach and Naruto, and are therefore being sued by the legitimate rights holders.

These folks aren't being sued just because they uploaded stuff... they're being sued because they counter-filed and therefore claimed to own the legal rights to the material. That's what you call "stupid".

There's obviously a larger discussion beyond this about promotional value, the digital era, genuine "fair use" cases... but unless you want to go down that route, it may not be entirely relevant to your actual questions.

One of our "Inconsistencies" videos was taken down by Toei under a DMCA notice. I believe that we have ground to stand on with "fair use" on that. The problem is that I'm not willing to go to court over it to prove a point. Many rights holders are counting on that fright, and have a willy-nilly good time doing blanket take-downs.

[DanielGClapp]

How does this apply to AMV's ? And wouldn't a comparison, such as a DBox VS. Orange Brick video technically fall under educational purposes? Also, what happens to your Youtube account when things like this occur? I would hate if my account got frozen and I lost all of my videos.

[DarkGokuZ]

Well in AMVs and comparision, you use clips that belongs to Toei. And on youtube, if your videos get taken down 3 times, your account will get deleted.

[DanielGClapp]

Well in AMVs and comparision, you use clips that belongs to Toei. And on youtube, if your videos get taken down 3 times, your account will get deleted.

Oh man. I better not take any risks then.

[Castor Troy]

Well in AMVs and comparision, you use clips that belongs to Toei. And on youtube, if your videos get taken down 3 times, your account will get deleted.

I'm on my 2nd deletion already.

[Blacknite08]

TeamFourStar often gets their videos taken down and they've successfully had them restored. I doubt they went to court when they filed those counterclaims. I think Toei has better things to do than taking people in their teens and 20s to court over some AMVs, remixes, or parodies.

[VegettoEX]

TeamFourStar often gets their videos taken down and they've successfully had them restored. I doubt they went to court when they filed those counterclaims. I think Toei has better things to do than taking people in their teens and 20s to court over some AMVs, remixes, or parodies.

TeamFourStar also isn't uploading full episodes of the series as-is. Whether or not a court will side with them over "parody" remains to be seen.

I just provided an example of TV Tokyo actively suing 11 people... so...

[Fox666]

How does this apply to AMV's ? And wouldn't a comparison, such as a DBox VS. Orange Brick video technically fall under educational purposes? Also, what happens to your Youtube account when things like this occur? I would hate if my account got frozen and I lost all of my videos.

On reality you can't rely on Youtube, it's better to look for an alternative. Youtube became so profitable that it is now obedient to big companies and is more focused on showing advertisements to views than being a good video player.

[DanielGClapp]

On reality you can't rely on Youtube, it's better to look for an alternative. Youtube became so profitable that it is now obedient to big companies and is more focused on showing advertisements to views than being a good video player.

What do you suggest?

[jnj13]

Wow, I hadn't heard of that lawsuit (I guess I don't really keep up with any anime news or anything). Hopefully they just leave it as a "making an example" lawsuit and don't actually try to get a lot of money out of the defendants in the end. There is no way any of those uploaders have (or would ever have) any amount of money that would amount to more than pennies for the companies involved.

[G1Ravage]

My YouTube account was terminated because I had uploaded a Dragon Ball Kai opening sequence in English, and two English One Piece opening sequences. That's all. Opening sequences.

[MCDaveG]

It sounds rather funny, but after adding TOEI account as my friend on youtube, they stopped deleting my world-wide opening collection. But in the end, the biggest bi***ies are AB group. They are deleting DB related material a lot.
Funimation is friendly in this stuff, other then blocking videos to some countries, I never encountered them with this issue, maybe that I have them in friends also? (really.... )

After the AB group skirmish, I just deleted all my videos and started to make up insert song ones, aplicating filters on the footage and after Battle Point Unlimited and Ore Ga Yankara I just got bored.

[SHINOBI-03]

On reality you can't rely on Youtube, it's better to look for an alternative. Youtube became so profitable that it is now obedient to big companies and is more focused on showing advertisements to views than being a good video player.

What do you suggest?

For me, I have two. The first and main one is blip.tv. This is where I make my own works like reviews, rants and top 10s. But if I wanted to upload just a video clip or an AMV, I go to metacafe.com. The only thing I upload now on Youtube are my trailers for what I put on my Blip.TV account.

[Pokewhiz7]

Zippcast and Viddler are also two I really enjoy.

[Silkman3003]

SNIP

thanks for the post, Vegito. The info about Toei being able to sue you if you want, is pretty scary. And in essence, the situation does make sense. I wouldn't want to claim ownership of a video, esp when i know i am in the wrong. The whole thing is risky, so i guess it would be safer to make a new account if you wanted to upload fights/episodes on yT.

Just one question though . Say, you put in a fake address for the dispute. I'm assuming that Toei , or YT can track your IP, and decide to sue you if they wanted to?(hypothetically)( so basically even if you put up a fake address for the dispute, they can track you down)


Also, ,I just realized Vegito1089 got banned on youtube

[caejones]

Just one question though . Say, you put in a fake address for the dispute. I'm assuming that Toei , or YT can track your IP, and decide to sue you if they wanted to?(hypothetically)( so basically even if you put up a fake address for the dispute, they can track you down)

I'm no expert, but I suspect that filing a counter claim with a false address would be fairly illegal, what with it being effectively a legal statement and all.

[xzero]

Just one question though . Say, you put in a fake address for the dispute. I'm assuming that Toei , or YT can track your IP, and decide to sue you if they wanted to?(hypothetically)( so basically even if you put up a fake address for the dispute, they can track you down)

I'm no expert, but I suspect that filing a counter claim with a false address would be fairly illegal, what with it being effectively a legal statement and all.

In most states, every pleading (a counter claim as part of the Answer, which is the response you file to the person's Complaint which initiated the lawsuit) requires a verification. The verification is a signed acknowledgment that to the best of your knowledge, all of the factual information contained therein is true. Small stuff like a different interpretation of the facts doesn't matter. Giving a fake address, and more precisely, knowingly providing a fake address can have serious ramifications.

Also, on the TeamFourStar point above, just as a quick note, a court would almost certainly view it as a parody because it is transformative of the original work. They are the DBZ equivalent of the law school parody favorite, Weird Al. They retain the substance of the original (TFS: the video, some music; Al: the original song, remade) while changing it with very different edits and a vastly different script. They are a parody in the truest sense, and any court that finds otherwise is getting its decision appealed and likely overturned very, very quickly.

[Bussani]

Also, on the TeamFourStar point above, just as a quick note, a court would almost certainly view it as a parody because it is transformative of the original work. They are the DBZ equivalent of the law school parody favorite, Weird Al. They retain the substance of the original (TFS: the video, some music; Al: the original song, remade) while changing it with very different edits and a vastly different script. They are a parody in the truest sense, and any court that finds otherwise is getting its decision appealed and likely overturned very, very quickly.

I dunno... It's not always clear cut. If TeamFourStar created their own animation from scratch, then that's one thing, but they didn't technically own the rights to rip the video and create something out of it. Even a TV show that parodies a movie has to pay for the rights if they use an actual clip from it. They're not doing it for profit, of course, but I think it's still within Toei's rights to force them to be taken down, as much as we might find that pointless and unfair.

[Michsi]

I dunno... It's not always clear cut. If TeamFourStar created their own animation from scratch, then that's one thing, but they didn't technically own the rights to rip the video and create something out of it. Even a TV show that parodies a movie has to pay for the rights if they use an actual clip from it. They're not doing it for profit, of course, but I think it's still within Toei's rights to force them to be taken down, as much as we might find that pointless and unfair.

I always wondered about this. Shouldn't AMV and/or MAD's be just as illegal,in this case ? As far as I know, conventions all over the world hold official AMV contests ( Japan aswell? ) and I have yet to hear of any legal problems.