Forum - View topicNEWS: Otakon Enforces Copyright at Artists' Alley
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10421 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Wow, you're almost as self-centered as another news website that I have to deal with every once in a while. Has it ever ocurred to you that other people like you read the Otakon forums and may report that news to us? I received no less than three reports about the issue, and none of them were from you or mentionned your site. Admittedly, they could have learned of the issue from you, either directly or indirectly, but regardless, there is unquestionably a lot of people who read the Otakon forums who would know about this issue and be discussing it regardless of your actions. So no, you aren't "the whole reason this issue is known at all." That being said, you've certainly done your fair share of spreading information, and you may even have been the first. So kudos for that, you can certainly take pride in brining the issue to your readers. Sorry about messing up the Onezumi.com name, I was completely unaware of what exactly it was, never heard about it before. I'll re-edit your post to fix that issue. Lastly, please let me add, your first ever post on this forum was for no other purpose that to link to your website. It doesn't reflect well on you, even if it's on topic. Because it was on-topic, I didn't delete it. -t Last edited by Tempest on Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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OneHotAlchemist
Posts: 85 |
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So the official statement is that there isn't going to be a complete banning of fanart? That's not really much of a statement, considering original works wouldn't be banned (they're fanart too) so what do we have?. Its more like "The official statement is... that there is no official statement."
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
 Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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The rumor was that we had decided to ban all fan art -- that is all art that portrays characters that you don't own. It's false. It was always a false rumor. That was never going to be the policy. (Even if, legally, it would BY FAR be the safest thing to do.) It's more a "please stop overreacting. We're not banning fan art. The final rules will be posted and will make things clearer." I've wasted 20+ hours of time on this, when I should have been working on a dozen other things that, ultimately, are more important. -- like, for example, figuring out how much hired security we need, arranging things within the BCC, working on Aramark to open up more concessions, finalizing Dealer and Industry space stuff, negotiating with another hotel, planning my next staff meeting, and signing two contracts that await (one for a hotel, one for our accounting firm). That's just for starters. |
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Colonel Wolfe
 Posts: 370 |
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The official Otakon announcement is a welcome one indeed but does it strike everyone that the announcement is a little vague? Being as large as Otakon is, and add to that fact that there were a number of people who let the cat out of bag and caused this maelstrom of events to barrel out of their control.
I'm just curious how they could have let these events spiral out of control like this. The Powers-That- Be should never have allowed this informoation to seep into the public domain. The more rational side of me would be asking the question above but the other side of me, judging from the standpoint of a fan can't help but wonder if this isn't a ploy by Otakon officials to stamp out all further arguments from fans discussing this issue before they come up with the "official" rules. This issue has seriously broke some dark clouds over Otakon. |
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OneHotAlchemist
Posts: 85 |
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It still doesn't actually answer anything. "We're not banning all fanart! Wait for the official rules." So you're not banning all fanart, but you'll be banning some? Everyone already knows that you're not banning all fanart! Otherwise there wouldn't be an artists alley. We're more curious about what sort of rules are going to be instituted, and for what reason. Just because fanart isn't banned doesn't mean that these rules will make it anywhere near worthwhile to sell. Just hurry-up and get the policy squared away, because an official release with ALL the info is whats going to get the masses to stop worrying and spreading rumors. Half-baked "wait wait wait, we didn't mean that, just hold on while we figure this out" releases doesn't exactly speak well for a large (and organized) con such as this one. |
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Colonel Wolfe
Posts: 370 |
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Probably just original fan art that doesn't contain an artists representation of a licesned character, meaning your fanart cannot contain any characters that appear in original Japanese ANime or Japanese Manga series.
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.Sy
Posts: 1266 |
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 See, nothing to worry about. I was just going to say, a total ban on fan art seemed a bit extreme. I wouldn't have seen it coming if a total ban were to be enforced.
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hikaru004
 Posts: 2306 |
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Yeah, Otakon said that a while ago in their forum but it didn't get thru to some people. Like some of us were saying before, it's best to wait for the official rules. Lawyers can't be rushed. We should let jvowles get back to work now. |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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I suspect that the reason it didn't get through is because some people were too busy making a big fuss over this to bother listening to what we were saying. (Just as some folks are currently calling me a liar and ANN a "shill" of Otakon on any forum that will listen.) Though the thought of ANN as Fox News to my George Bush is pretty amusing -- laughable really. (These guys didn't even recognize me posting in their forums until someone else told them, which does rather suggest we're not in cahoots.) I just hope that the folks who were so eager to cry foul and hound Otakon and ANN over these rumors are willing to hold others' feet to the fire when it becomes clear that they never were more than rumors. |
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Colonel Wolfe
Posts: 370 |
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Regarding a post that was just recently removed, I disagree about the fact that Otakon was being used as a middleman. Companies such as ADV Films, Geneon, Bandai Animation, Right Stuf, AnimEigo, Tokyo Pop, Media Blasters would not use a middleman such as Otakon to resort to such tactics. They have their own staff, legal department and such that are responsible for dealing with such problems.
I find it hard to believe that these companies, who license anime for release here in the states as well as the manga companies (Dark Horse, Tokyo Pop,Viz - the major distributers) generally allow their legal staff to handle the issue by either sending a cease and desist order to the event coordinator where a con is concerned or a cease or desist letter to those involved with the event. I've never heard of any of these reputable companies using a middleman to handle a copyright issue other than their legal staff. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Wow, people are actually saying that? That's hilarious. The tinfoil hat conspiracy stuff people come up with never ceases to amaze me. |
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Colonel Wolfe
Posts: 370 |
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You know, things have really gotten out of control. I just read on another forum on an anime site that ANN dropped the ball on this matter. From what I could read about this issue about what this person posted, that they blame ANN for letting this issue get out of control.
How's this possible? As far as I know, ANN has nothing to do with Otakon's policy regarding fanart nor do they have any control over how this topic got into the publc view for discussion either. Sure, I may have sounded overzealous but I speak from the viewpoint of both the dealer and the fan. They have just been too many circumstances around this issue. First, the issue is brought into the public domain for open discussion, allowing the issue to get heated in some areas. Next, Anime News Network forums picks up on the issue and becomes exacerbated even further. When ANN picks it up on the forums and starts reporting it, everyone starts taking pot shots at both Otakon and ANN. I can see where Otakon has taken the heat from but ANN? Then, to make matters even worse, an official press statement gets released saying that all fanart is not being banned but being finetuned for their event. Then, naught but a few days later pre-registration opens up. There's just too much coincidence to be anything else. AND, if this turns out to be nothing more but rumors floating in the wind, Otakon would have drawn more attention to itself by selling their event out. I honestly think that if I were the one running the event I would not have opted to go this way. |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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Yes, some familiar faces have made that claim in the "saveartistalley" community on livejournal. They actually used the word "shill", which I'd have found pretty funny if not for the general annoyance.
I've been pretty clear about precisely what happened, and that "banning all fan art" was never going to be our policy -- despite what some people keep claiming. We apologized for the confusion. I don't blame people for being confused about how things went down. I do however feel some well-justified annoyance at those who are keeping the furor going. The funniest idea I've heard thus far is that this was a ploy to get publicity. It's almost as laughable as the idea that by posting something to our forums, we were trying to sneak something by without anyone noticing. There are 20k+ people who attend our con pretty regularly now, and of them, several thousand are present on the BBS. Like ANN and Anime-cons weren't going to follow our announcements anyway? That has little to do with being a "shill", and everything to do with the fact that just about anyone who reads those sites knows who we are. Any move or announcement we make is likely to be covered. It is perhaps more useful to see who really gained publicity by prolonging this whole mess. No, this was a mistake and a misunderstanding, nothing more. And it became a major waste of time. It kept us from doing the work we were supposed to be doing and delayed things like all the OTHER information people need. It probably pushed back registration a day or two, though frankly I kinda like the idea that we're opening exactly six months before the con. |
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