The Forest Brawl (Youtube Video)

[Grosek_]

Good concept, but using pirated clipart is usually a bad idea, if that's what you did.

[J.Twendrist]

That made me giggle. I love it so many. So... I guess that's one way the Staff can show us that zerks aren't underpowered. lol

[Malchaeius]

Good concept' date=' but using pirated clipart is usually a bad idea, if that's what you did.[/quote']

While I am not completely up to snuff with the legality and issues thereof in animation of sprites on Youtube, I do not believe "pirated clipart" is at all indicative of what this is. I do not claim the sprites used in the animation as my own, nor do I intend to sell the videos that I make for profit. Therefore, I am not sure if it is any more "pirated" than the gif that you use as your avatar, as I doubt that you asked the creator of said picture for permission to use it. What I did do, however, is make sure that I posted a statement saying that I did not create these sprites, instead they are property of Capcom's arcade game The King of Dragons. I simply animated them. Think of it as 8-bit theater - would you call their usage of sprites from Square's Final Fantasy I pirated? I would not, but once again, I stress my ignorance of the legal standing in these cases. They very well could be illegal.

[Grosek_]

Hrmm, seems like I was wrong. I asked on lawguru.com. As long as you remain proven non-profit and do not affiliate yourself with anyone that is not non-profit... you're fine. You do not to put a credit at the beginning or the end, though... if you include it on the site.

[Mindflayer]

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html

[Malchaeius]

Hrmm' date=' seems like I was wrong. I asked on lawguru.com. As long as you remain proven non-profit and do not affiliate yourself with anyone that is not non-profit... you're fine. You do not to put a credit at the beginning or the end, though... if you include it on the site.[/quote']

I did not put it on the video, as it is still a rough draft, but I did write something in the video description.

[Icor]

I've been through two copyright classes at school so I could copyright my own work... and you'd be surprised how easy it is to infringe copyright. The issue is that whoever owns the copyright has to find the infringer, cough up about five grand and a ton of time to decide what punitive measures to take, etc. Disney is notorious for blasting anyone and everyone who infringes on copyright.

They sued some woman because she recorded her son singing a song from a Disney film, and it was so stressful that she finally backed down. Did she infringe on copyright? In the long run, it doesn't matter how legal it is. Copyright cases are more often than not totally up to a judge to determine. There are no exact guidelines... except in the case of parodies. The sad truth is that in civil court, whoever has the best story wins.

So, with that being said... taking a few steps back, we know the sprites were works made for hire for Capcom, and copyrights last the copyright owner's life time plus seventy years. Only the copyright owner has the right to create derivative work based on their art/music/programming. So that means Malch is definitely infringing on copyright law.

I seriously doubt they would care, however, even if they knew.