WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:31.100 Hey guys, we have been receiving a lot of concern for our project over copyright and 00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:34.220 what it means for us as we get further into development. We listen to feedback, and we 00:00:34.220 --> 00:00:37.300 wanted to address these issues openly with the community and provide an outlook on how 00:00:37.300 --> 00:00:40.750 fan-made projects like us; can deal with these rising issues. 00:00:40.750 --> 00:00:45.019 The scope of this video will be covering the controversial subject at large: 00:00:45.019 --> 00:00:49.210 Copyright and Trademark and how it may affect your fan-made project. We'll be looking at international 00:00:49.210 --> 00:00:52.820 copyright treaties, and a little of U.S and Canadian copyright law. 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:56.420 The reason being is that there are myths and misleading information surrounding the fandom 00:00:56.420 --> 00:00:59.960 when dealing with these issues. Such fear mongering only stagnates the fandom's growth 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:01.140 as a whole. 00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:04.850 Before we get into that, I'm Airplay: the lead programmer at The Overmare Studios. Better 00:01:04.850 --> 00:01:08.590 known for working on the game, Fallout: Equestria. Copyright and trademark have always been big 00:01:08.590 --> 00:01:12.659 issues that lingered in the background before I jumped on this project. A few years back, 00:01:12.659 --> 00:01:16.490 I started developing a distribution protocol. It quickly evolved into a piece of commercial 00:01:16.490 --> 00:01:20.380 software that was used in thousands of servers across the globe. It was my first business 00:01:20.380 --> 00:01:24.630 venture, and a successful one. I had to ask myself lots of copyright infringement questions. 00:01:24.630 --> 00:01:29.890 Such as, as a developer, how much responsibility do I carry for infringers who utilize this 00:01:29.890 --> 00:01:34.350 protocol? Do I have to monitor activity? And many other questions. All of these I eventually 00:01:34.350 --> 00:01:35.310 found answers to. 00:01:35.310 --> 00:01:40.280 I have composed this information from publicly available sources, experience, and consulted 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:44.189 with a practicing lawyer on the matter. As a disclaimer, while such advice should never 00:01:44.189 --> 00:01:48.689 be taken as absolute or without professional consultation, it should give you a better 00:01:48.689 --> 00:01:53.659 understanding of copyright and trademark. I am still sure to receive a ton of hate mail, 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:56.259 but somepony has to touch on the issue at this point. 00:01:56.259 --> 00:02:01.219 Let's start off simple, what exactly is a copyright? In short, It is exclusive ownership 00:02:01.219 --> 00:02:05.369 granted to the creator. Basically enabling them to do whatever they want with whatever 00:02:05.369 --> 00:02:06.259 they made. 00:02:06.259 --> 00:02:11.510 The biggest myth I've heard is copyright protects ideas. This is incorrect. Copyright protects 00:02:11.510 --> 00:02:16.900 expression, not ideas. While still implied in the U.S., Canada extends this notation 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:21.660 that a copyright must have a well defined fixation. While the two may seem similar, 00:02:21.660 --> 00:02:26.730 it is important to distinguish the two. Otherwise, every movie scene or independent film featuring 00:02:26.730 --> 00:02:30.980 the protagonist walking off into the sunset would be infringement. 00:02:30.980 --> 00:02:35.569 Let's now look at what fandom projects are: Usually they borrow characters, settings, 00:02:35.569 --> 00:02:40.090 or plot from some popular medium and project it onto a blank canvas with new ideas injected. 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:46.500 Either for creative expression or those that do it solely for self-interest. 00:02:46.659 --> 00:02:51.500 Let's look at an example, let's say you took an entire season of MLP and ported it into 3D. 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:55.459 You then posted those on the internet to share with everyone. You say to yourself, 00:02:55.459 --> 00:03:00.790 this is original work, copyright need not apply. This is entirely untrue. This falls 00:03:00.790 --> 00:03:07.010 under a derivative work. Transferring mediums does not grant immunity from copyright infringement. 00:03:07.010 --> 00:03:12.700 This is exactly what fandom projects are, even fan art, derivative works. Not in whole 00:03:12.700 --> 00:03:17.390 all the time, but at least in part. However, do keep in mind that in no case does copyright 00:03:17.390 --> 00:03:23.659 protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:28.530 method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which 00:03:28.530 --> 00:03:35.480 it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work. Ugh, that's a real mouthful. 00:03:35.480 --> 00:03:39.659 But that appears like a hardly accurate portrayal of the current situation. If there is anything 00:03:39.659 --> 00:03:45.930 this fandom has, it is some amazing user created content, not just fan-art. Josh Wattles, advisor 00:03:45.930 --> 00:03:50.719 in chief to Deviant Art, makes a decent talk about fan-art. However, is ambiguous about 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:52.170 it at times. 00:03:52.170 --> 00:03:55.000 Even Tommy Oliver touches on copyright when defending fandoms. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:58.000 Both of these videos can be found in the description below. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:04.000 What is the difference between fan art, animations, and games. Nothing. All are forms of expression, 00:04:05.069 --> 00:04:09.280 different mediums don't differentiate between each other when it comes to copyright. When 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:15.280 projects like MLP: Online and Mane6 shift their goals or shut down, there will always 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:20.320 be a huge controversy. It could be argued games have a bigger impact on the original 00:04:20.320 --> 00:04:25.780 work given their size and popularity. However, it is still the exclusive right of the copyright 00:04:25.780 --> 00:04:32.780 holder to respond to any derived work, so it quickly becomes misrepresentation of information 00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:36.720 among the fandom when interpreting fan made projects like our own. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:41.010 Let's shift gears a bit, I want to introduce you to Canadian copyright law. Depending on 00:04:41.010 --> 00:04:45.100 the font and format you may receive the bill in, it spans roughly one hundred and seventy 00:04:45.100 --> 00:04:48.130 six pages including both English and French,. 00:04:48.130 --> 00:04:53.080 We have international intellectual property treaties such as the Berne Convention, UCC 00:04:53.080 --> 00:04:58.820 Geneva, UCC Paris, TRIPS, and WCT. While there is some harmonization, what is interesting 00:04:58.820 --> 00:05:03.560 about these international agreements is that they do have some exemptions to copyright 00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:08.810 to allow things like fair use, and we can expand on those exemptions. And that is exactly 00:05:08.810 --> 00:05:14.420 what Canada did. To bring its Copyright Act into the 21st century, Bill C-11 was made, 00:05:14.420 --> 00:05:19.600 passed and royal assented by the governor general on June 29th, 2012. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:23.890 What is so nice about this bill? While fair use is fine and all, an exception was added 00:05:23.890 --> 00:05:30.820 specifically for non-commercial user-generated content. Generally coined as the "mashup provision". 00:05:30.820 --> 00:05:34.910 Like the fair dealing, this exception is subject to several conditions, namely that the user 00:05:34.910 --> 00:05:39.230 identifies the source of the original work, that the underlying work copied was legally 00:05:39.230 --> 00:05:44.130 acquired and, that the use did not have a substantial adverse effect on the commercial 00:05:44.130 --> 00:05:46.740 exploitation of the underlying work. 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:51.720 This is helpful for any fan made project to say, yes, we are legal. At least if you live 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:56.400 and have your infrastructure based in Canada like us. However, that doesn't always stop 00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:01.000 cease and desists from coming in. Cease and desists are fired at everyone and everything. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:06.100 I mean Google got a DMCA takedown notice from Microsoft for its Gmail services. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:11.670 An honest mistake, but they can get pretty ridiculous and are used as a scare tactic. 00:06:11.670 --> 00:06:15.410 There are resources that can help you and it won't cost you either. When receiving a 00:06:15.410 --> 00:06:20.030 cease and desist, submit it to the Clearinghouse. You can find both of these links in the description as well. 00:06:20.030 --> 00:06:24.460 While they cannot provide legal advice, they can annotate it with questions and answers 00:06:24.460 --> 00:06:27.970 and provide you some helpful resources for you to understand what you are dealing with. 00:06:27.970 --> 00:06:32.260 A lot of the scare tactics employed come from when the affected company would likely try 00:06:32.260 --> 00:06:37.840 and claim statutory damages. This is what hits everyone hard. Being noncommercial reduces 00:06:37.840 --> 00:06:43.120 any potential statutory damages significantly if you find yourself in a tight spot. However, 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.400 you should never be manipulated into submission to begin with. 00:06:46.400 --> 00:06:50.960 Moving on to trademarks, I'd only like to touch lightly on the issue. A trade-mark is 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:57.090 a word (or words), a design, or a combination of these, used to identify the goods or services 00:06:57.090 --> 00:07:02.660 of one person or organization and to distinguish these goods or services from those of others 00:07:02.660 --> 00:07:08.650 in the marketplace. However, two products can exist in a marketplace with the same registered 00:07:08.650 --> 00:07:13.310 trademark, but different scopes. A trademark's scope must be defined at registration and 00:07:13.310 --> 00:07:20.310 cannot be modified at a later date. Now, Fallout registered by Bethesda Softworks, in the Canadian 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:24.360 scope does not cover "downloadable computer game software." 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:28.630 Their newer title, Fallout: New Vegas does mention that though. Since we don't fall under 00:07:28.630 --> 00:07:34.560 the context of the wares scope for Fallout, we can use it, and you can check the description for links again 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:39.000 On a broader subject of trademark, such names like the six main characters in My Little Pony 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:43.610 only have their scope limited to toy ponies, and for some reason, Fluttershy was 00:07:43.610 --> 00:07:49.470 abandoned. Yes, her trademark was abandoned. While this doesn't exclude the character from 00:07:49.470 --> 00:07:51.100 copyright, it was an interesting find. 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:55.410 So, with that all cleared up, I got a game to get back to making. Cya.