RichardLess wrote:
Well my sister is a lawyer but then again, I'm Canadian. I work at a movie studio, in development, and when bringing this up to legal, they laughed. Take that however you will. Here's what I know: fair use is a thing. This sites copyright stance notwithstanding, fan edits are in a grey area of copyright. If you profit from it, you're toast. If you cite fair use properly, you're fine. If you get sent a take down notice, don't ignore it. That's it.
I just want to state for the record: piracy is wrong and one should not engage in piracy. Illegal downloading of movies and the like have seriously harmed the film industry and has cost hundreds, if not thousands, their jobs. It single handedly bled the DVD market as a revenue stream. So please do not take my stance of this fan edit as a endorsement for piracy. Fan edits are a creative endeavour that comes from a place of creative expression rather than doing harm to an industry. It is a generally a harmless act that comes from a place of love.
So did your sister give a
legal opinion on this?
Also you brought it up to your legal dept, and you claimed they laughed and to " Take that however you will.".
You're implying that a legal department and/or your sister are giving their blessing to posting copyrighted material (sans some scenes or not) on the internet.
Yes there are exceptions that fall under fair use, but as Kingpin said a
nearly full length movie barely a year old is NOT under fair use.
Fan edits do NOT fall in a legal grey area.
Regardless of if it's something you make a profit on or not, UPLOADING A NEARLY FULL LENGTH movie (even with a couple scenes redacted) is NOT fair use.
I CANNOT stress this enough.
Also you say "If you get sent a take down notice, don't ignore it. That's it. "
A take down notice is sent because you are doing something ILLEGAL and have been given legal notice to remove it.
There's a difference between a company turning a blind eye, and condoning intellectual property violations.
I assure you go ahead and tell a court of law "Well SO AND SO does it and they don't get in trouble." That just doesn't fly.
Also while it's nice you're saying you're anti-piracy, posting the movie (edited or not) is PIRACY. An edit that simply removes scenes is not parody in ANY way nor educational.
Another User on the site summed this up nicely as well:
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