CrazyCapnMorgan said:
Saltyk said:
In all seriousness, TFS is in a legal grey area. On one hand, you can argue that the work is transformative and parody. On the other hand, literally 95% of the assets they use in these videos are owned by Toei. Also, I'm pretty sure fair use generally limits how much of the original content you actually use. And they probably lap that limit a few times in the average video.
That being said, they are not hurting Dragon Ball. If anything, they probably help it and make it more popular. I don't know a Dragon Ball fan that doesn't love DBZA. They'll as likely to quote DBZA as DBZ. You could almost argue that Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, and Super all exist partly thanks to Team Four Star. And even Funimation is fans (Chris Sabat has stated as such and even met various members, with several other Funimation voice actors having parts in their episodes and movies).
Please,
pleeeeeeeeeease forgive me Saltyk, but there is no legal grey area here, as long as TFS resides in the US, because one single question
should erase all legal doubt about this:
Nothing to forgive, man. You're just asking for me to clarify my statements.
Well, while one can argue that the work is parody and that it transforms the original work, that is all that is in favor of them. As I already said, the vast majority of what they are using to make their show is copyrighted material. The animations, characters, and music is all largely copyrighted material. Now, that isn't a problem in and of itself. The entire point of fair use is to protect people who wish to parody, review, and generally use the copy righted work.
However, there are four factors in determining whether one is protected by fair use.
~The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
~The nature of the copyrighted work.
~The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
~The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The major issue, as I see it, is the third one. According to another content creator who's video I watched on this topic, Marzgurl, the general consensus is to keep clips within 30 seconds. Now, obviously, a reviewer is going to use multiple clips, but even that might be an issue if they use too many clips. It is hard to argue that TFS isn't using substantial content that belongs to Toei and Funimation. They've even changed their disclaimer to remove the "nonprofit" as they admit that they make money off their merchandise, though not a lot.
Now, I think TFS falls within fair use. However, it doesn't take a skilled lawyer to argue that they don't. Even TFS themselves have acknowledged the legal grey area they fall in. They contend that it is fair use, but acknowledge that if someone really wanted to sue them, they could very well lose the case.
Fair use is very vaguely defined. Likely to give the people who use copyrighted content some flexibility, but it also allows those who own the material to push much harder than they should be able to.
CrazyCapnMorgan said:
Explain "Weird Al" Yankovic, please.
Weird Al is parody. Probably transformative, as well. It should also be noted that Al always asks the musician's permission before making a parody or a video. He also has been sued in the past, but he won the case (this is actually why he started asking permission). I see the parallel you are making, though.
I'm not saying it isn't bullshit, but legally speaking TFS is in a grey area.
