Otakon 2008 AMV Contest Finalists

[SilkAMV]

And here is where such an announcement should be made. Or, if lawyers get in the way of it, here is where a rumor should be started, accurate or inaccurate, about the category of AMVs that may or may not have been submitted and/or aired at any time during the convention, pertaining specifically to which ones may have been considered better than others by people at the convention who just happened to have ballots.

Not that I want to start "rumors" or anything, but the answer that I heard at the Feedback panel on Sunday regarding the withdrawal of the Trailer/Parody category from the contest (and the whole convention) was something to do with logo copyright. My friend asked a question about the category and brought up the fair use of parody stuff in copyright licensing. The best that I could tell was that it had nothing to do with the anime or audio sources, but instead the use/parody of logos like Warner Bros and Disney. Since a great number of trailer/parody vids that I have seen in the past have spoofed the logos and other non-parody-protected copyrighted things, I guess they were trying to safeguard against that.

So I dunno what that means for the future--whether they'll have the category back as long as people don't parody the logos, or if that was only a small piece of the puzzle and they'll have to shut the category down altogether.

If you ask me, though, it's a real shame, even if I understand that they don't want to get sued. I'm gonna download the vids and enjoy them anyway. Anyone interested in an unofficial vote here to supplement the votes from Friday night's showing?

Heck yes! I'm not submitting my vid to the distant past until it actually sees some kind of competition.