Can we clear up the copyright issues?
Monday, February 26, 2007 by mentalengine | Discussion: Animated Wallpapers
I wonder just what Microsoft and IMAX might do if they were in the know about several of the most popular "dreams". Just because these "dream authors" are taking a small loop or fragment of the overall work and encoding it to a different medium and distribution, doesn't mean that they havent violated copyrights. Take many of the recent viacom / youtube issues. Many popular TV and movie clips, previews and fragments were ordered removed based on copyrights held by viacom, youtube complied rather than face the ugliness and likely negative financial reprocussions of the likes of the MPAA, RIAA, etc.
Several of the currently available "dreams", do in fact violate copyrights, in that they were "reauthored" and "displyed for public use and or showing".
Just because a video or video loop is made available on the web, be it as a sample or demonstration of an idea or technology. This doesn't remove nor negate the original authors copyright holding. It would seem as a rule of thumb that any of the "dreams" made publicly available here would need to have secured and submit proof thereof, a written release to redustribute the work, should the work be under copyright. If the work is not under copyright then the submitting party / "author" should attest to this fact when making the submission.
While I am a huge fan of this product and have even paid for the premium "dream", I don't think it is fair to the copyright holders, nor the "dream" community to have this issue unresolved and "grey". Some of the higher quality submissions that have been submitted that are on par with the first premium "dream" have been swatted down for "copyright violation", without verification that would have entitled the "dream" author to have rights to reuse / redistribute the content. Meanwhile, other "dreams" are clearly questionable on the same grounds are left intact and "approved". Seems that there is quite a bit of "selective" enforcement of copyrights.
Please Stardock, define this for the community.
Regards,
d:
Reply #2 Monday, February 26, 2007 5:58 PM
There is no clear answer to this. As animated wallpapers are so new and are such short clips, we're having difficulty finding a definitive legal position on this matter.
For example, YouTube has literally hundreds of thousands of clips from various TV shows that aren't the full show but represent up to 2 or 3 minutes. Similarly, the legality of a 12 second clip being used as a wallpaper is unclear presently.
However, should it be determined that they are not legal or if the copyright holder requests them to be removed, they will be removed without notice.
It's best for people to focus on submitting only things they own so that there is no ambiguity.
Reply #3 Monday, February 26, 2007 6:30 PM
Various addendums to the 'version' of copyright law that Wincustomize.com is obliged to follow [the US ver] allows for such leeway as 'fair-use' and 'fan art' within its boundaries, both of which subjugate any absolute statement such as "Several of the currently available "dreams", do in fact violate copyrights".
The best that can be stated in many cases is "they MAY violate copyrights", hence Frogboy's second-last paragraph....
Reply #4 Monday, February 26, 2007 6:39 PM
Copyright
The legal status of fan made art in America may be tricky due to the vagueries of the United States Copyright Act. Generally, the right to reproduce and display pieces of artwork is controlled by the author or artist. However, fan art using settings and characters from a previously created work could be considered a derivative work, which would place control of the copyright with the owner of that original work. Display and distribution of fan art that would be considered a derivative work would be unlawful. However, American copyright law allows for the production, display and distribution of derivative works if they fall under a fair use exemption. Generally small excerpts from larger works that have no financial impact on the original and that are done for non commercial purposes could be considered a fair use. American courts also typically grant broad protection to parody and some fan art may fall into this category. This is a legal gray area, however, and legality can often not be determined under after litigation has concluded.
WWW Link
Reply #5 Monday, February 26, 2007 7:12 PM
Fair Use allows for limited reuse of portions of copyrighted material as long as they aren't for financial gain. In the case of Animated Wallpapers, that means a small portion of a larger video file. However, while this affords leeway to people wishing to reuse others' work, it carries certain requirements of the person redistributing. If a clip is suffeciently short, and proper credit given, we will accept it.
Anyone who finds their work is reproduced/redistributed here against their wishes needs only email myself or another admin with proof of ownership and we will promptly remove any offending material.
I will be appending Brad's earlier post on Dream submission requirements with our official rules regarding fair use of video in Dreams. Expect to see those tomorrow. They will strike a balance between authors and users wanting to share clips of their favorite video works.
Reply #7 Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:04 AM
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Reply #1 Monday, February 26, 2007 5:17 PM
Please notify an admin via email and any violatoins can be looked at. Include the link to the dream and the original source.