Copyrights

Hi! Takoizu-chan here!

As a filmmaker, a band member, and my father a lawyer, I know a bit about copyright. I really think we need to talk about what we should do with VizKids. I'll tell you right now, VizKids won't be happy with us. They will see us as a threat to their business. If we call or e-mail them, I think we can convince them that we are not doing this for money, and we are not trying to take away the manga's business. It would probably not take much time at all, and maybe we would need to send them a small royalty. I don't think the royalty will be big because we aren't getting money, we refuse donations, this is not going to be aired on tv, and because VizKids will see us as kids doing something fun in our spare time. If the royalty is outrageously big, I would be willing to put in a little bit of money to help. I don't think putting up a disclaimer at the beginning of every episode will help, as VizKids might think we're lying about getting rights. Believe me, getting rights are not as scary as it seems. It just takes one phone call or e-mail! I'm not going to lie; VizKids will sue us, bug us, tell Youtube about us so we can't repost anything, shut down the forum, and make sure we don't get another forum. Yes, I've seen this happen.
For those who don't know a lot about copyright, I'd go to Youtube and watch "A Fair(y) Use Tale". It's a great video! Thank you for reading this post. If you have any questions, please let me know.

We already discussed copyright and have brought it up a LOT I joined as soon as they were finishing the discussions (I can't for the life of me remember what they concluded to but I know no one wanted to talk about it again so I don't think this was the right time to bring up another topic about it...)

Anyway my opinions:

I don't really think VizKids has any way of suing us(Being that it's online and no one knows anyone else's personal information...) and if you ever watched Yugioh Abridged (which is a parody of the original Yugioh) made by LittleKuriboh, he hasn't been sued at all. The worst they did was delete his account on Youtube, they never touched his site and he even uses the parody for money by selling merchandise with catch phrases the characters use. (i.e T-shirts that say "Broolyn Rage", "In America", "Screw the rules I have money")

As far as I know we will not be posting official videos onto youtube, they will be hosted on another site (according to everyone else)

I don't know if VizKids WILL sue us, but they do have the power to do that. Another thing is that you are talking about a parody, which VizKids can't really do anything about. They were probably insulted more than anything else. Parody is under fair use, however this is not a parody, and instead it is a fan anime using lines from the English-translated manga. We are much more of a target to VizKids than the Yugioh parody. I talked to my dad about this project, and he agreed we need to confront this issue.

Edit: Oops! I ment 4Kids!

I'm talking about 4kids for the Yugioh parody, vizkids doesn't really have any ownership unless they print the Manga for it. The only things we're copyrighting are the artstyle, lines, characters and pokemon. We are making everything from scratch and trying to make as little usage of any copyright at all. Yugioh got attacked because he took all the scenes from the anime and copied over the voice acting with his own lines as if making Yugioh his own work. We aren't doing that and I don't think that this is as severe as a copyright as Yugioh Abridged is. Point being: if he didn't get sued I highly doubt we will, but different companies different cases.

Edit: We already came to a conclusion which I have no idea what that is...So I'm not going to post anymore until one of the staff that knows more about it posts. I was just trying to get my opinion across o.x

This is a serious issue, and I don't think this should be ignored!
Oh, I didn't know there was another topic about it...is it still open? Perhaps we should bring this disscusion to that topic. But for now, I'll post my opinions here.
Yes, VizKids CAN sue us. My dad is a lawyer too! (Uh, we have the same dad, Takoizu-chan... XD )
If they sue us, it will end up costing more money for us to pay them then it would if we just sent a dollar in the mail to ask for rights. All it is is a simple phone call or an e-mail.
Again, this is a serious issue, and it should not be ignored!

I have to say, I've been consistantly worried about this. I know we've discussed a number of times, but I've never been too happy with some of the decisions we've made copyright wise...Perhaps we should reopen this subject again? I know we've done this a few times, but maybe Tako knows what she's talking about...Sorry, but it does worry me something fierce...

As an example, has anyone seen the "Touhou Anime Project"? The fan anime was cancelled due to low ratings, but the creator, ZUN, approved of the show and told the anime creator it was alright for him to make the show. I don't see any difference from turning a game into a fan anime to turning a manga into a fan anime. If we get the rights, I'm sure Hidanori and MATO will be delighted to know we love the manga and really want it to be an anime. I think VizKids will see us as a way to advertise for the manga, but I don't think they will be happy until we get the rights.

Minto-chan wrote:
Again, this is a serious issue, and it should not be ignored!

We aren't ignoring it, hence the line "There have been several discussions about it"

Honestly, I think we should email them at least as well. If anything they might even help us. *shot for wishful thinking*

Also, I'm sure they have the capabilities to sue, I never said they didn't, I said I doubt they will because I don't find it as anything really worth suing (College students making a fanime from a manga?) The most they'd do is take down the videos or site.

I'm not saying this has been ignored before, I'm just saying it was ignored recently until Takoizu-chan brought this issue up.
I think they will help us if we ask for their help.
I think the most they would do is take everything down (then we'd lose all of our work!) and then they may sue us. Sure, this may seem like just a bunch of teens and college students making a fanime, but that doesn't mean they couldn't sue us! Are all of the people making this really willing to take a chance and risk this whole site, all of their work, and possibly worse?

First off... this sounds like some persuasive topic like it's a political debate(Seriously hate politics xD) Second, we have all our work saved onto our computers we just upload it here to get it to other people. I would die before I rely on the internet to hold all my files... lol and Lastly, if 4kids didn't sue LittleKuriboh for Yugioh Abridged (And he's still making more episodes!) I HIGHLY doubt with every inkling in my mind that VizKids will sue us for what we're doing.

To whatthechuck: Thank you for your comment! I'm glad someone is as worried about this as I am! I've been in film crews in a position where we need the music rights and everyone says it's a waste of time, so I feel all fuzzy inside!

To whatthechuck3: I agree! I really want some more people to comment on this so that we can make a wise decision before we jump to conclusions.
To Memieko: I'm not trying to make this into a political debate, but the law is the law, and we would be foolish not to think about this.
I know you all probably have your work saved on your computers. The point is not that we would literally lose our work, it's that we would never be able to use it for anything.
4kids is not VizKids, and like Takoizu-chan said, this isn't a parody, and we are directly taking lines, Pokemon names, and Pokemon characters from the Pokemon Adventures manga.

Minto-chan wrote:
To Memieko: I'm not trying to make this into a political debate, but the law is the law, and we would be foolish not to think about this.
I know you all probably have your work saved on your computers. The point is not that we would literally lose our work, it's that we would never be able to use it for anything.
4kids is not VizKids, and like Takoizu-chan said, this isn't a parody, and we are directly taking lines, Pokemon names, and Pokemon characters from the Pokemon Adventures manga.

If you read my first post I said something like "But who knows since 4kids isn't viskids" I just see 4kids doing more copyright stuff than Vizkids has ever done. Also we aren't "Directly" taking the lines, the script team abridges them or changes wording. I am already in agreement that we should email them O.o I'm just saying the possibility of a sue is low. (The parody steals all the art from the anime it self and is profiting form it.. I think it's a bigger offense than a non-profit fanime)

Even if the script team abridges the lines, we are still taking characters and Pokemon names.
I think the possibility of VizKids suing us may be low, but we still need to prepare ourselves if something like that happens. Otherwise, we may be fined large sums of money. I would hate for anything like that to happen to any of the people working on this!
Even if 4kids works more with copyright issues, VizKids doesn't only publish the Pokemon Adventures Series. They are most likely not new at this, and just because they don't publish many manga doesn't mean they won't be just as harsh (or possibly even harsher) as 4kids would be.

Minto-chan wrote:Even if the script team abridges the lines, we are still taking characters and Pokemon names.
I think the possibility of VizKids suing us may be low, but we still need to prepare ourselves if something like that happens. Otherwise, we may be fined large sums of money. I would hate for anything like that to happen to any of the people working on this!
Even if 4kids works more with copyright issues, VizKids doesn't only publish the Pokemon Adventures Series. They are most likely not new at this, and just because they don't publish many manga doesn't mean they won't be just as harsh (or possibly even harsher) as 4kids would be.

I never said that was the reason I thought they would never sue us(So don't assume that was my excuse please..). 4Kids deals with more legal issues than VizKids probably ever will. I'm not going against you guys! >< I'm for it I'm just saying my opinion on the suing! That's all. It just sounds like you're trying to get me to be for the Copyright thing when I already am for it. Whether or not VizKids will sue (I honestly don't care about that since it's the internet) I still agree that we should email if not asking permission, then at least mentioning this to them. It's not even an anime it's a fan anime.