The Legalities of MaSTAR Media. Plagiarism?

[Yomi]

If you don't know who MaSTAR Media is, he's the guy who makes Goku vs Saitama. If you don't know what that is.
It's just a bunch of traced DBZ, DBS and One Punch Man footage. I think I've even seen some of the Boruto Movie in there.

Ex: [spoiler] [/spoiler]

This guy has a pretty Big Ego, no arguing that. He's even called himself a "CEO" and constantly tries to reach out to other DBZ Fan Animators on youtube who actually draw from scratch.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
He's now trying to get Team Four Star to dub his series. He's supported by patreon and recently he's stated that he's trying to get enough hype into a kick starter to create his own "animation
studio" and his own series "Demon Rush". In the comments he says that he'll try to pitch it to adult swim and what not.

I just want to know, what does kanzenshuu think of all this. Because it's pretty hard to find negative opinions on this guy in the Youtube Dragon Ball community. So I wanted to know what
the hardcore DB Fans here think of all of that. I personally think it's reprehensible that he calls himself an animator, when all he does is plagiarize the work of others. I've seen him try to draw
in live streams. He's not good at it. At all. I've known 8 year olds who draw better with no practice. So I know that this "Demon Rush" buisness will just be a berserk rip off with berserk tracing.
I know that Kentaro Miura spends months composing his artwork for Berserk, and it just feels wrong to trace all of his stuff to make "Demon Rush" after siphoning thousands of dollars from kids on youtube.

I know that it's going to be a lot harder to find his plagiarism now, since Demon Rush will probably be traced from many different anime. (Since he can't draw.) If he starts a kick starter and ask for thousands of dollars and tries to pitch this onto TV is that Legal? Is it legal to trace frame by frame the animation of other studios and try to sell it as a different product? Does there need to be a bigger backlash so that people know that it's not ok to treat animators like this? Especially when the audience you're feeding this to is absolutely ridiculous?

[Bansho64]

It is illegal to sell a product that was plagiarized. No doubt about that. If he does, he's gonna have a big problem on his hand. And about TFS, I doubt they'd work with him.

[Geekdom101]

For the record, I've only talked to him once or twice and he seems like a decent guy; the reason he calls himself "CEO" is because he is legitimately starting an animation company and he is the founder of it. He is starting a legitimate business - no arrogance here. I call myself the "Executive Producer" of Geekdom101.

He definitely was inspired by frames from the anime. I have no clue what the legalities are.

[ParkerAL]

From what I can tell based on your post, this guy does not have the skill, patience, or humility to start his own animation studio. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I'd like to assume his intention isn't to scam people or plagiarize material maliciously. Just as likely, I think MaSTAR is simply incredibly ignorant about what he is doing. But that just makes this a very sad situation. He's charging forward with an unrealistic dream, and it's all likely going to fall apart in the end.

And yes, what he's doing is very likely illegal. I don't see how tracing animation is any different from Kenji Yamamoto plagiarizing music for Dragon Ball Kai. Besides that, you can't rightfully claim fair use when actively trying to directly profit from your derivative work. Fan works don't (or at least they shouldn't) work like that.

[Yomi]

the reason he calls himself "CEO" is because he is legitimately starting an animation company and he is the founder of it. He is starting a legitimate business - no arrogance here. I call myself the "Executive Producer" of Geekdom101.

He definitely was inspired by frames from the anime. I have no clue what the legalities are.

No disrespect, but is this really what you consider "inspiration" I've seen other people call it "inspiration" but it's flat out plagiarism.
[Of course he deleted his "draw with me" streams"] I'll just have to find another example.

Okay so he had an idea. For Trunks vs Guts. This is what it looked like when he didn't trace.


And here's the process of him tracing to get the results he really wants.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I don't know what you would call that, but I wouldn't call that Inspiration. If you don't believe me that's fine. But there were other live streams that he's taken down, where he's actually working on Saitama vs Goku, and trust me, the techniques used here are the exact same ones used on that series. And if i can make a reasonable extrapolation. Demon Rush is just going to be the same thing.
So I don't know if it's safe for a bunch of people to just throw money into a series and an animation "studio" that's just going to employ illegal tactics like this.

[Ajay]

I don't think there's much to be done.

Yes, like a large majority of fan animation on YouTube, it's plagiarised from various shows. Yes, he deliberately deletes all accusations and 'evidence' of it occuring. There's really nothing you can do there.

If he goes out of his way to form a studio, then it'll either sink due to lack of talent, or he'll face a nasty lawsuit from the rights holders.

I don't know the guy, but I think these actions actions say a lot about his character. Probably not someone worth drawing attention to.

[Anime Kitten]

I personally haven't watched any of his videos, but I'd say there's no way this will turn out well for him. I hope he stops all this and tries to practice his own art instead of stealing from other people.

[Kanassa]

It's only illegal if he in anyway tries directly profit from it. SO, if he attempts to get a show of traced animation in offical channles, he will be devouered by lawyers. I'm not an expert on how kickstartes work, so I don't know if that would count. Also, does he monotise the videos he traces in? Because if he does, lawyers already have a chance.

[Scorpio Kardia]

This is no surprise if you take into consideration what type of trash is popular on Youtube. I mean if you look at a big group of the DB community on Youtube, what do they seem to like? They're a bunch of gullible idiots, who watch click-bait videos with badly photoshopped pictures or pictures of some female Dragon Ball character with her breasts sticking out, who feel personally insulted if someone even dares to say that "Goku's power level isn't maximum", and who, for the most part, can't formulate a sentence without sounding like a bigoted homophobe/racist/xenophobe idiot. So when you take that into consideration is it really that big of a surprise that this MasTAR (lol) is so popular with what he does?

I mean look at Youtube's most popular channels, you can argue preferences all you want, but do they bring any type of intelligent, properly made, and original content to the table? I would say that for the most part they don't. Youtube caters to the bigoted homophobe/racist/xenophobe idiots. Best you can do is try and ignore it, and sooner or later I'm sure this MastAR guy will get a copyright claim on his tracing videos and get taken down, to me what he does should not constitute fair use. I mean if TeamFourStar can't monetize their videos why should this guy be allowed to do it?

[Kanassa]

Youtube caters to the bigoted homophobe/racist/xenophobe idiots.

Youtube doesn't cater, it just pisses everyone off.

[Geekdom101]

the reason he calls himself "CEO" is because he is legitimately starting an animation company and he is the founder of it. He is starting a legitimate business - no arrogance here. I call myself the "Executive Producer" of Geekdom101.

He definitely was inspired by frames from the anime. I have no clue what the legalities are.

No disrespect, but is this really what you consider "inspiration" I've seen other people call it "inspiration" but it's flat out plagiarism.
[Of course he deleted his "draw with me" streams"] I'll just have to find another example.

Okay so he had an idea. For Trunks vs Guts. This is what it looked like when he didn't trace.


And here's the process of him tracing to get the results he really wants.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I don't know what you would call that, but I wouldn't call that Inspiration. If you don't believe me that's fine. But there were other live streams that he's taken down, where he's actually working on Saitama vs Goku, and trust me, the techniques used here are the exact same ones used on that series. And if i can make a reasonable extrapolation. Demon Rush is just going to be the same thing.
So I don't know if it's safe for a bunch of people to just throw money into a series and an animation "studio" that's just going to employ illegal tactics like this.

No disrespect taken. LIke i said I don't know what the legality is for animation, so you have me beat when it comes to that knowledge. What I do know is that I have spoken to him and he seems like a decent fellow. If this is illegal, well, he will be made aware about it once he gets legal council to start up his studio. He's def gonna do it and he's definitely working long hours to put these together. Hopefully he will understand.

[Geekdom101]

Also from what I understand, his goal is to make his own custom animations and custom stories. This is just more sample showcase work. So if he ever does monetize, I presume it would be his own stuff.

[Anime Kitten]

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?

[Yomi]

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?

I've shown that he has no grasp on animation or how to draw, and he has made original stuff before which was also traced, if he wants this to look good then there is a 99.99% chance it will be traced. Knowing his history and knowing he's never published non plagiarized work. It's unlikely this won't be traced. It's his method. It's what he's used to, and for every hour he spent on this, the real animators have done 20 fold

[Anime Kitten]

I've shown that he has no grasp on animation or how to draw, and he has made original stuff before which was also traced, if he wants this to look good then there is a 99.99% chance it will be traced. Knowing his history and knowing he's never published non plagiarized work. It's unlikely this won't be traced. It's his method. It's what he's used to, and for every hour he spent on this, the real animators have done 20 fold

I sure hope he tries to improve his own skill. Even if he turns out as a bad artist at first, it's better than plagiarizing.

(Also, I've been saying this frequently as of late, but nice avatar. )

[Kanassa]

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?

I've shown that he has no grasp on animation or how to draw, and he has made original stuff before which was also traced, if he wants this to look good then there is a 99.99% chance it will be traced. Knowing his history and knowing he's never published non plagiarized work. It's unlikely this won't be traced. It's his method. It's what he's used to, and for every hour he spent on this, the real animators have done 20 fold

Is he really stupid enough to offically publish and sell plagiarized work? If he is, just sit back with your popcorn and watch the dogs eat him alive.

[Shad73]

If you don't know who MaSTAR Media is, he's the guy who makes Goku vs Saitama. If you don't know what that is.
It's just a bunch of traced DBZ, DBS and One Punch Man footage. I think I've even seen some of the Boruto Movie in there.

Ex: [spoiler] [/spoiler]

This guy has a pretty Big Ego, no arguing that. He's even called himself a "CEO" and constantly tries to reach out to other DBZ Fan Animators on youtube who actually draw from scratch.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
He's now trying to get Team Four Star to dub his series. He's supported by patreon and recently he's stated that he's trying to get enough hype into a kick starter to create his own "animation
studio" and his own series "Demon Rush". In the comments he says that he'll try to pitch it to adult swim and what not.

I just want to know, what does kanzenshuu think of all this. Because it's pretty hard to find negative opinions on this guy in the Youtube Dragon Ball community. So I wanted to know what
the hardcore DB Fans here think of all of that. I personally think it's reprehensible that he calls himself an animator, when all he does is plagiarize the work of others. I've seen him try to draw
in live streams. He's not good at it. At all. I've known 8 year olds who draw better with no practice. So I know that this "Demon Rush" buisness will just be a berserk rip off with berserk tracing.
I know that Kentaro Miura spends months composing his artwork for Berserk, and it just feels wrong to trace all of his stuff to make "Demon Rush" after siphoning thousands of dollars from kids on youtube.

I know that it's going to be a lot harder to find his plagiarism now, since Demon Rush will probably be traced from many different anime. (Since he can't draw.) If he starts a kick starter and ask for thousands of dollars and tries to pitch this onto TV is that Legal? Is it legal to trace frame by frame the animation of other studios and try to sell it as a different product? Does there need to be a bigger backlash so that people know that it's not ok to treat animators like this? Especially when the audience you're feeding this to is absolutely ridiculous?

Yomi, it's interesting; a lot of your criticisms seem very similar to the criticisms that can be made of Mellavelli. I think it's funny to see that Melvin's influence on the Dragonball community (specifically fan animators) has not been positive, if what I'm hearing from you is correct.
My friend AspiringCreator on DeviantArt made a Dragonball Absalon Facebook page (literally titled 'Dragonball Absalon Off-icial') that exposes all the seedy stuff that goes on behind the scenes, like deleting comments, homophobic pupils and the like. If you've read the main thread on Dragonball Absalon on this forum, I have made my case regarding Melvin. As for this guy? Well, let's put it this way.
Dragonball fan animators should try to apply Akira's core values to what they do; their integrity should be at maximum for the bare minimums of what this scene requires and you know something? If this guy is the devil's own, he will lose his credibility. I give him credit for putting something online, but your ego determines the size of your success at the end of the day. I'm not saying I know everything about him, but I can say I relate to what you're going through.

[Yomi]

Yomi, it's interesting; a lot of your criticisms seem very similar to the criticisms that can be made of Mellavelli. I think it's funny to see that Melvin's influence on the Dragonball community (specifically fan animators) has not been positive, if what I'm hearing from you is correct.
My friend AspiringCreator on DeviantArt made a Dragonball Absalon Facebook page (literally titled 'Dragonball Absalon Off-icial') that exposes all the seedy stuff that goes on behind the scenes, like deleting comments, homophobic pupils and the like. If you've read the main thread on Dragonball Absalon on this forum, I have made my case regarding Melvin. As for this guy? Well, let's put it this way.
Dragonball fan animators should try to apply Akira's core values to what they do; their integrity should be at maximum for the bare minimums of what this scene requires and you know something? If this guy is the devil's own, he will lose his credibility. I give him credit for putting something online, but your ego determines the size of your success at the end of the day. I'm not saying I know everything about him, but I can say I relate to what you're going through.

Hmm, interesting. I'd like to believe that there are some talented fan animators, can I get a link to that page? I mean, if he's a piece of garbage of a person it doesn't matter, as long as he's talented and doesn't plagiarize like "good guy" mastar.

[Anime Kitten]

I mean, if he's a piece of garbage of a person it doesn't matter, as long as he's talented and doesn't plagiarize like "good guy" mastar.

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

[Metalwario64]

I don't know if it's just me, but I find it hilarious that he's showing off his "ability" to trace, so much as to stream it with his webcam.

[spoiler][/spoiler]