How are AMV's legal?

shinji13 · Post by **shinji13** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:00 am

my say on in this is:

*hmm they could have shut down AMV's along time ago, but if they did u kno what would happen they would actually lose money...Noone is gonna go out watch a musicvideo to find out what goes on in the anime...And when we make these AMV's its showing others cool animes that they can go see, like ~_~ alot of people say "there is no such thing as bad publicity" and this is definitely not bad publicity, just like cowboy bebop movie, the banners helped so much and im sure it made 75% of AMV or more go see it...

even though me my self thing it wasnt very good (but i like the anime) anyway yeah the point is noone cares and it really isnt illegal just so long as no jack-off comes along and trys to sue AMV creators aka dlers...*

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:15 am

Our country's founding fathers had a name for this kind of thing: "Salutary Neglect." As long as anime cons continue to pay royalties for any public performances (a reasonable demand) and the individuals who make these AMVs don't piss off the anime corporations by trying to make money off of their private compilations, the authorities continue to demonstrate a general attitude of salutary neglect toward us, effectively voiding the law.

As long as this remains an agreeable arrangement, I don't think we'll be hearing complaints from much of anyone. Still, technically we are at the corporations' mercy, and I should point out that by the rules of this game, they could easily claim our AMVs for themselves and put them on their DVDs: just as we aren't paying them, they don't have to pay us or even acknowledge us. That corporations actually have paid some of us to make AMVs for them, I think, is a show of good will.

(I hope people will think of that the next time some guy starts spouting off about those EEEVIL capitalist corporations that are supposedly always exploiting us.)

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:44 am

Rorschach wrote:Our country's founding fathers had a name for this kind of thing: "Salutary Neglect." As long as anime cons continue to pay royalties for any public performances (a reasonable demand) and the individuals who make these AMVs don't piss off the anime corporations by trying to make money off of their private compilations, the authorities continue to demonstrate a general attitude of salutary neglect toward us, effectively voiding the law.

Effectively voiding law is not the same as legally voiding law. Until explicit exemptions can be made in copyright law for amateur derivative works I will not, and cannot, hold any faith that authorities will continue to be benign towards AMVs.

I'd like to be optimistic, but I cannot. I lost that optimism around the first abuses of the DMCA.

Still, technically we are at the corporations' mercy, and I should point out that by the rules of this game, they could easily claim our AMVs for themselves and put them on their DVDs

Now that would be funny. I'd like to see a distributor try to put my AMVs on their DVDs...considering the extensive modifications I do to the footage, I'm sure that distributor would have their distribution license revoked

Of course, I'd get sued, but that's to be expected.

(I hope people will think of that the next time some guy starts spouting off about those EEEVIL capitalist corporations that are supposedly always exploiting us.)

Oh, it's nice and warm and fuzzy and all to get a pat on the head from a corporate entity, but it doesn't change the fact that there exist higher authorities than the corporations. The RIAA is one that comes to mind. Corporations have to answer to these authorities. If RIAA dictates "NO DERIVATIVE WORKS FOR YOU", I am willing to bet that there will be few to zero corporations with any significant power standing on our side.

You may argue that these are hypothetical situations, and I would agree. You may argue that these are unlikely hypothetical situations; I would not agree on that. We usually argue that AMVs are a form of free advertising for music groups and anime producers/distributors. However, advertising is not always positive. Let's say I download an AMV, and decide that the footage being used looks like it came from an anime not worth watching, or that the song sucks. Now suppose I tell my friends about this, and they tell their friends, and so on. This process will result in losses for all parties that have copyrighted material in said AMV.

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:47 am

trythil wrote:
trythil wrote:The nice thing is that many people in positions of authority seem to turn a blind eye. For eye.
...what the fuck

I meant to type "For now".

I don't know why, but that made me laugh pretty hard.

Maverick-Rubik · Post by **Maverick-Rubik** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 7:28 am

Pyle wrote:Most companies actually encourage them. AD even got paid to make a Noir one.

You should say that he got paid by the distributors, or else it doesn't seem like that strong of a remark.

bum · Post by **bum** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 8:03 am

ya know, its funny how by creating an amv we're technicaly doing something illegal but we still have ownership of the edits. anyone ever thought of sueing one of thoughs shitheads that copy peoples vids ?

GMM2005 · Post by **GMM2005** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 5:30 pm

^meh too much trouble to go through for...

And as far as kazaa goes, for me, if its there then its legal (i have like 300 downloaded songs)

AbsoluteDestiny · Post by **AbsoluteDestiny** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 6:37 pm

GMM2005 wrote:And as far as kazaa goes, for me, if its there then its legal (i have like 300 downloaded songs)

I'm sure R Kelly thought the same thing before the kiddie porn patrol nabbed him.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 6:41 pm

bum wrote:ya know, its funny how by creating an amv we're technicaly doing something illegal but we still have ownership of the edits. anyone ever thought of sueing one of thoughs shitheads that copy peoples vids ?

No, because it's not possible. In just about every case where edits are copied from one AMV to another, there are no damages.

Bakadeshi [AuN Studios] · Post by **Bakadeshi [AuN Studios]** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 7:35 pm

I doupt we ever have to worry about the various anime distros ever cracking down on AMV artists as long as we continue to do it for non-profit. It actually helps their revenue. Sortof like fansubs. Many have admitted that they use fansubs as a gauge to decide what anime titles would be a good idea to liscense for distribution here, based on the popularity of the title. SO they turn a blind eye to fansubs because it ultimately benefits them in the end. This is ofcourse BEFORE they liscense the title. they want them all to stop after they licsense it ofcourse. In the same way, AMVs are like free publicity to the anime that is used in it. How many AMVs have you seen to an anime that you didn't know anything about, and thought "Man that anime looks so cool, let me go check it out" or something along those lines. There have been a few that effected me that way. Its not hurting in any way since there is no possible way to give away an entire anime title in just 4-6 minutes average of song time. The only way it may hurt is on the side of the music being used in the title. You are distributing the entire song in most cases.
Although alot of artist are flattered that you would use their song in a project like this, I could see how this could be damaging to the MPAA and the music industry.

So technically, just like fansubs they are Illegal by law. But just as in fansubs, your not likely to ever actually be prosecuted for it.