Forum - View topicINTEREST: Maryland's Katsucon Revises Policy on Fan Art
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Youkai Warrior
 Posts: 505 Location: Sarayashiki |
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So, is fan art allowed or what? There are some really good fan art out there, but it does in a way, infringe upon copyrights. What exactly is this article saying, what is the policy? Can someone fill me in?
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minakichan
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Right, because the Japanese copyright holders, who live in the same country as Comiket and Wonder Festival, are definitely going to sue random American fanartists for copyright infringement.
Seriously, what's up with this paranoia about derivative works? Even if Japanese anime and manga folks DID care (which they DON'T, seeing how many published animators and mangaka write unauthorized doujinshi themselves), they'd sue on their side of the Pacific wayyyyyyy before they hit this one. Good GOD. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Plus there are other ways to approach it, such as donating all profit to charity or limiting how much earnings are allowed. Many artists are the same as dealers in that they are making a living off of selling their products and it's much more difficult to attract buyers with original creations than existing, familiar characters, unless your artwork is gallery worthy or just that good. When I go to artist alleys I tend to ignore works that feature existing characters from other anime character designers. I'm a discriminating art critic and I will buy art of original designs if the presentation looks professional. As long as there are buyers out there like that, I think there is a place for an artist alley with a strict No Infringement policy. |
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Akukame
Posts: 117 |
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You appear to be misinformed. There have been cases of of japanese publishers expressing concern and sending requests for websites to stop publishing not just fanart, but screencaptures of their shows. A good example of this is Sunrise, who has a very strict stance prohibiting distribution of any derivative works online. Other companies also have been known to step in when their intellectual property is being used in ways that they do not approve of. An example would be when Crypton stepped in to remove a video from niconico douga because it contained Hatsune Miku in a way that they did not approve. This involved her singing a parody of a Noriko Sakai (did OP for Video Girl Ai, Gunbuster) song about the warrant which was put out on her for drug possession. |
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Loren Leah
Posts: 45 Location: USA |
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While this is true, Sunrise seems like an odd example to use, given the massive amount of Sunrise property-based derivative works available online. Gundam and Gintama alone account for a practically infinite amount of doujinshi, fanart, fanfic and other works, both online and offline... |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6229 Location: Houston, TX |
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This doesn't make any sense. Do they seriously believe everyone's gonna try to get written permission to make some stupid drawing? Given the doujin market, I can't imagine why they think any Japanese company would care. The whole "Benefit of the Doubt" thing makes it clear they don't even know what they're talking about.
Last edited by v1cious on Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:59 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Isn't that basically what the policy is now? Selling fan art is fine as long as the rights holders do not raise an issue with it. And I doubt there will be too many of the rights holders at Katsucon... sooo... yeah, pretty much will be business as usual. Some of these comments are quite bewildering to me... do people read? The line "will be given the benefit of the doubt" is quite obvious as to what the policy is. |
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Juhachi
 Posts: 228 |
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That's pretty sad for Crypton to stoop so low as to stifle artistic expression from a product they produced which harbors artistic expression. It's like saying "Here, I'll give you a pencil and pen, but if you draw anything I don't like, you don't get to share it." I can understand if it was against Nico's policy about defamation or something like that, but Crypton should have no say in what others use their product for. The fact that it seems they do makes it obvious to me that Japan has some serious problems with freedom of expression and/or speech. The fact that anime conventions in North America have banned material that may violate copyrights is troubling, to say the least. Now, I'm not condoning copyright infringement or anything like that. However, it's one thing to be sell works of others for profit, like bootleg manga or DVDs, and quite another to create fanart based off of a character in an original art style. I always make it a point to go through Artist's Alley at least once when I go to AX, usually looking for characters from one or two series, and I only purchase them if I really like the art. But I love how people can showcase their art and gain at least some recognition from what they like to do. And it's not like these people are really "profiting" off the works, either. For the most part, these artists are doing it because they want to showcase their art, not for the money. |
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loka
 Posts: 373 Location: Pittsburgh, PA |
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You guys need a new tag for some articles; "SUDDENOUTBREAKOFCOMMONSENSE: "
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PMDR
Posts: 142 |
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While I've never been to Katsucon, my understanding was that the con was based in Pennsylvania and only held the con in Baltimore because that was the best closest venue they could get. Not that it matters.
The problem with artist alley art is not artists who draw or paint or make something with their own hands. The problem is people who grab an image off the net and either mass-produce reprints of same, or modify it slightly and then mass-produce stuff based on that art. At some point, it becomes not so much an expression of art talent and and more about mass production of mouse pads or posters or prints or whatever. And yes it gets into what would be blatant infringement by any standard. Whether or not Sunrise or Toei or someone else complains, wrong is wrong and people gaming the system to make a buck should not be encouraged or supported. One con I used to be affiliated with had exactly that problem where single operators and later commercial companies would acquire dealer tables and setup what amounted to a business selling prints and things. They didn't actually draw or make anything. It was all about pushing product. That con cracked own on those items and last I heard was working toward a ban of such things because the point of having an artist alley is to celebrate and promote artists, not someone who can run a color printer or t-shift press really well. If somebody wants to run a real business, they should be shoved into the dealers room and go full commercial, if they can hack it. Of course every con has their own approach and whatever. What works for one may not work for another. Katsucon is entitled to do whatever they want. |
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minakichan
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Sure, that stuff happens. Probably the best examples are Nintendo going after a doujinka who wrote pornographic Pokemon doujinshi or the entire Doraemon ending doujinshi fiasco. The difference is that in these cases, the copyright holder is going after fan artifacts that either potentially damage their product image or make a large profit, not just infringement. Notably to this day, there are still Pokemon doujinshi (pornographic ones at that) and Doraemon doujinshi. Comiket gets something like 300,000 visitors, and the doujinshi industry is worth millions. Clearly, the fact that Comiket has gone on for years without any legal controversy shows that copyright holders don't go after derivative works just because there's a copyright violation. Every publisher knows that the backlash of denying fan expression isn't worth the little they'd gain from keeping their copyright under lock and key. If you stop otaku from being otaku, you're... not going to be left with many otaku. Generally, it's more hardcore fans who feel compelled to make fan artifacts, and alienating them if you have nothing monetary to gain from it is prooooooobably not in your interest. |
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glitteringloke
 Posts: 160 |
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So, they do this with only a few days before the con? I feel bad for all the confused artists (and i know at least one - a very talented lady who should have my card at her table since i can't make anything in quantity to ever HAVE one.)
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Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
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Doesn't the staff know anyone with decent or at least average hand writing could very easily forge a signature? I'll get to why I think this is inane later, but it doesn't take a mastermind to make a signature look authentic, but may or may be fake.
Now if they had experienced trained FBI agents to check each and every signature and analyze the signature closely, then maybe this plan would work extremely well. However, the chances of the FBI being involved in such a minor issue that isn't life threatening or a internal crisis is highly unlikely. It's likely that the actual staff (managers, supervisors etc.) probably care more about the revenue aspect and trying to dodge/avoid dealing with liability lawsuits and other potential problems that actually are big issues. I don't understand what the big deal is here. Now I can somewhat understand the anger of authors if they are selling the work and not crediting them, but otherwise I don't think it's such a big deal. Some of the greatest artwork is created by talented fans (read, talented meaning someone who didn't simply copy and paste of someone else's work entirely.) I can understand not crediting the author and not creating a disclaimer, but if the artist credits the author and makes a disclaimer stating that he does not own the series or characters, I think Maryland Katsucon higher ups are worrying over nothing. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I just read the entire article over again. Absolutely nothing about signatures. Where the heck are y'all reading this? |
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Sunday Silence
 Posts: 2047 |
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Yep, if your gonna make rules for one thing, make sure it doesn't also trip you up with something else!!! Still, I can't stand AMV's. Unimaginative "art" at it's finest. |
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