it's fun to stay at the DMCA

[davemerrill]

YES!! I got my first DMCA!!!!



Apparently somebody at "Remove Your Media LLC" under orders from FUNimation noticed that I had a blog post about Space Battleship Yamato, and since FUNimation has the license to the live-action Space Battleship Yamato film, that's a red flag, and hence the DMCA.

Google moved the Yamato blog post into the "draft" folder, so it hasn't been deleted. Their suggestion is that I "remove the infringing material" and re-post the blog. MY suggestion is, that I just sent Google a counter-claim stating my use of images from Space Battleship Yamato falls within fair use, and that the entire text of the blog is my own work. We'll see how this shakes out!

One potential maybe out of this whole deal, is that FUNimation has had that live-action Yamato film license for years now, and is JUST NOW getting on my case about a 2009 blog post... so this MAY mean that FUNimation may also have the license to other Space Battleship Yamato properties, including 2199/2202. Or maybe not. Who knows? All I know is I am not an infringer!!

"Remove Your Media" has been working overtime with these DMCAs, as the "No Nonsense Anime Blog" reports. They need to dial it back some.

Comments

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I have no problem with a license holder quashing things like 'copycat' sites that pretend to be the legit one, or other obvious theft or infringement, but these 'drive by' DMCA orders are, well, LAZY as well as stupid.

"We want protection but we're not in any way interested in spending man-hours for knowledgeable staff to handle such things, we'll give you guys a blank check to do our job".

I mean, really. Five minutes looking at the article and "Nothing to see here, not a problem. Hey, maybe we can hire this guy..."

I have a feeling, with zero proof, that this LLC gets paid by the take-down served.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I agree, there's a lack of actual human coordination to this. It's an automated thing doing its automated things and that LLC is probably getting paid by the takedown, yeah.

I have the counter-claim filed, and I am going to give it a little time, and then I might just re-post the blog post. Consensus seems to be, and I agree, that the URL itself is what triggered the DMCA -having "Space Battleship Yamato" in the title of the blog is what got the ball rolling.

I was going to re-work that blog post anyway, just to get some better images in there, so I might edit the actual title of the post to be something a little less potentially robot-DMCA-actionable.

At the same time I want that counter-claim to go through and for the powers that be to have to take five minutes and realize I'm not infringing on anybody's copyright, because darn it, I am not infringing on anybody's copyright. Somebody's gotta stand up for what's right!

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I would love if the 'trigger' for all this is the timing of when Funi said they were going to release Yamato: Resurrection, and a fairly detailed statement it was to my memory,and then the walkback to "Oooooooopsie, we don't have that, we meant the live action movie" which, again to my admittedly increasingly spotty memory THEY HAD ALREADY ANNOUNCED AT THE SAME TIME so, like, it just couldn't be that kind of 'mistake'.

I swear, the way the Japanese companies find to keep tripping and shooting themselves in the foot, a person could almost write a book about it...

"The Japan that can say 'yes' except they mean 'no'!!"

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

That FUNi Yamato Resurrection thing was a weird echo of the time the Worldcon people thought they were gonna get Final Yamato and they got Arrivederci Yamato instead.

I can easily imagine a low-end PR flack at FUNi mistaking Resurrection for the live film, or vice versa, but I can't see anyone at a higher level making that goof. I mean, those two films were properties owned by two completely different sets of people. It's not like walking into Best Buy and coming out with the Lindsey Lohan "Parent Trap" instead of the Hayley Mills "Parent Trap."

word on the street, that is, August Ragone posting on my FB, is that Tim spoke to Nish Junior in Japan recently about the American licensing of 2202. I don't know what was said, just that there was talking. I imagine if there was anything that could be reported, Tim would be reporting it from the rooftops.

I feel like we'll hear a deal about 2202 sometime in the next three or four months. That's my gut feeling.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Tim mentioned speaking a little to Shoji Nishizaki and that's all he told me. I've been 'burned' so often by false starts and re-inventing the wheel I just have so little faith.

My concern is, Voyager is still reading the old playbook. They still have the expectation that MAJOR HOLLYWOOD STUDIO is going to give them tens of millions of Dollars for the privilege of Yamato, and that is just not reality. Or MAJOR AMERICAN NETWORK is going to put Yamato on prime time TV. This is also not reality. Or America is just about to have a sudden passion for Star Blazers because '80s nostalgia, and THAT is not going to happen.

I think Nishizaki-san is a little confused by the limited success he's managed with Italy.

So who gets the brass ring? Bandai Visual would have been the natural front runner, but they quit America. ADV used to be the Giant Canary in the room but they died and came back much, much less powerful. Funi is probably the most logical choice but since Navarre kicked them out of the 'major support' sandbox they seem to be a bit underpowered now. Viz, not a chance. Discotek/Eastern Star? They HAVE been picking up a goodly number of Tohokushinsha properties (who which may or may not be still the 'secret masters' funding Voyager Japan) but as much as I love the Discotek guys, I really do, they just don't have the resources to do what needs to be done with Star Blazers (complete from the ground up rebuild from original masters, find best possible film for SB and synch them up) and the promotion that 2199/2202 would need.

Funi MIGHT get 2199 on Adult Swim. That, if it could happen, might be a significant road to success but that also means dubbing and man, they just haven't been too good lately. From what little I've seen. Biggest mistake that could be made is just slapping Star Blazers chara names on Yamato 2199 and calling it good. *brrr*

Of course I have plenty of ideas and plans, but hey, there's that stupid money problem again.

argh.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I think at this point any Yamato 2199/2202 we're going to see in North America is going to be Crunchyroll or Hulu or Netflix. Pick any one of the three. I hope it's not Hulu because we don't get Hulu in Canada.

speaking of re-inventing the wheel, makes me think of that "Official Star Blazers Revival Home Page" guy and his dream to put Star Blazers back on TV so kids would watch it instead of Pokemon. Good times.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I strongly doubt Netflix. It just doesn't feel like it fits their thinking. Hulu is right out. Crunchy, that's possible I guess. I suspect they'd give it the same "lots of press at first then ignore it" push like they've done with Tiger Mask W and anything not MOE-centric.

Hah. I kinda remember that whole 'get Star Blazers back on TV' nonsense. Person had no clue how barter syndication worked.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I would swap fifty Cyborg 009 Calls Of Justices for one episode of 2199, I'll tell you what. OTOH, Netflix is working on some new Devilman thing that might be groovy. They play close to the vest, that outfit does.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what's up with how crappy that Netflix Cyborg 009 looks? I've had a look at 009 Vs. Devilman and that seemed like a perfectly acceptable visual model to continue, so to quote Finn from Adventure Time, what the what?

(mind, I would have preferred if Devilman had been more in line with the Toei TV 'Prowres' Devilman but I'm probably alone on that)