Radical_Yue wrote:Nice job to the Comedy winner, you're really great at copying a video that was already made but adding additional sources.
(Original)
(Winner)
Couldn't even come up with a different title though? Damn.
I'd like to be as transparent as possible with the issue at hand since there's no denying some scenes/ideas in my version are beyond coincidental. About halfway through editing my video it had occurred to me to double-check YouTube to see if anyone had beaten me to the punch. I had checked about a year ago when the idea 1st came to me while watching a scene with a bear-trap in Psycho-Pass. To my dismay I found Ojive02's version uploaded back in September and got disheartened.
Already having asked my friend to photoshop the Shia LaBeouf faces and having dumped a significant portion of my time into editing it, I decided to dismiss it and carry on with mine thinking it was different enough. It's not until now that I realize how closely our "Higurashi When They Cry" scenes match. I should have taken note which scenes he had used instead of pretending his version didn't exist and barreling forward to meet the deadline.
The inspiration for mine stemmed from the original video in 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSO0lCO3TIg
hence why I had used the superimposed cut outs of Shia LaBeouf's head and a circle similar to the YouTube anon avatar in place of the Tumblr icon.
I've been in contact with Ojive02 to see if there's anything more on my end I can do to remedy the situation. It was not my intention to rip off his version for a quick and easy comedy entry. I have nothing but respect and admiration towards the AMV community and I had a blast at Anime Boston this year thanks to the organizers that made this happen.
The fault lies entirely with me for not checking if the idea was used and then proceeding to follow through with it anyways. By no means did I want to make a mockery of the contests we all take seriously and for that I'm truly sorry. It's not my intention here to convince you I didn't steal Ojive02's idea, but rather explain my side of the story and let you draw your own conclusions.
If you have any questions for me on the matter I'll happily answer them here. I'm well aware of how incredibly suspicious this comes across and I can't blame you guys for assuming I copied an idea.