Fan-made content produced as tributes to iconic gaming franchises are a mainstay of web culture, including the all-conquering YouTube. As reported recently, however, the Pokémon Reorchestrated channel had received copyright 'strikes' and see its Kanto Symphony playlist removed. This week The Pokémon Company has stepped up its actions, issuing a third takedown notice that prompted the removed of the whole channel.
The basic timeline, via Bulbanews, has played out as follows.
1st February - Takedown notices were first issued against videos in the "Kanto Symphony" series. The takedown notices didn't provide specific details but simply stated that copyrighted material owned by The Pokémon Company International had been used. Pokémon Orchestrated was unable to get further details and accrued two 'strikes'.
16th February - a further takedown notice gave a third strike to the channel, thus shutting it down.
This issue only relates to YouTube, and Pokémon Reorchestrated has full and ongoing licenses for its music to be sold and streamed via platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. The YouTube issue may require a separate licensing agreement - that seems likely in light of the copyright claims being made by The Pokémon Company that took the channel down.
Braxton Burks, the creator of the channel and composer of Pokémon Reorchestrated's various albums, has shared some messages on Twitter around this, a couple of which are below. We've also reached out to Burks to talk about this in more detail.
It's certainly possible (likely, in fact) that The Pokémon Company is on solid legal ground with these copyright notices that eventually forced the channel offline - the licences that Pokémon Reorchestrated holds may not cover YouTube as they do other distribution platforms.
Whether The Pokémon Company is in the legal right, however, doesn't always translate to public opinion, and the publicity damage from shutting down popular projects can be significant. There's certainly some opinion online that the recent takedowns are rather cynically tied to the ongoing Pokémon Anniversary celebrations, as the Reorchestrated channel has been there on YouTube for quite some time until now.
We'll see how it develops, though if you're a fan of Pokémon Reorchestrated you can still enjoy their music away from YouTube.
[source bulbanews.bulbagarden.net]
Comments 51
Eh, I doubt it will tarnish their image. There's also so much that isn't known right now
Aahh, the Pokémon Company. I hadn't heard about you and your stingy attitude towards copyright in quite a while. Glad to see you're still as archaic as I remembered!
Not enough information to make a judgement.
This comment section is going to be fun
Seems legit.
A company must enforce their trademarks, patents and ip. They can not selectively enforce, they will lose it entirely in the US.
The only public opinion way of not having this happen is for the licensee ensure that they have the legal permission to do something before they do it. This is not The Pokemon Company's responsibility in this case.
Are you sure it's the company itself? YouTube itself doesn't know how to manage it's copyright searching correctly and often gives strikes to things without communication with the company OR the people receiving the strikes. It's became quite frequent as of late and a lot of people are pretty ticked with YouTube because of it.
I find it odd that they didn't try to figure out what the problem was after it happened the first time and instead just kept everything up like there was no problem
@ALinkttPresent They probably did. YouTube never responds to anyone. There have been multiple cases of things like this happening without even a simple cease and desist order from anyone, and no one communicates. It's because YouTube has an automated copyright claim system.
The joys of fan works
@BlatantlyHeroic Wait! How do you know that YouTube itself is delivering the strikes? For all we know, it could be the companies themselves.
@Operationgamer17 I know because there's been a big fiasco lately where a whole bunch of people on YouTube are getting these random strikes. One guy in particular tried to continually get through to YouTube but they just never replied, and eventually he made a video and it garnered enough attention from people that YouTube was all like "oops we'll put those right back up".
That's just one out of a WHOLE bunch of people who have been affected by their glitchy copyright claiming system.
@BlatantlyHeroic From what I hear there arent any people actually monitoring the system. The whole process is completely automated
@Wolfgabe Exactly. There's absolutely no one to talk to, and almost every copyright claim comes from YouTube's automated system and not from the company the content belongs to.
Well I hope it doesn't hit Braxton too hard. Want him to stay focused on his future pieces and keep his spirits up.
The Pokemon Company just doing what they do best.
I think this is more about Youtube's horrible automated policies that work against content creators than the Pokémon Company. Toutube Channels can get random strikes from anybody and IMMEDIATELY lose monetization on their flagged video, and immediately get a strike on their channel regardless of whether the strike was actually right or not. The channel even loses the money forever, regardless if they manage to win a dispute or not.
However the Pokémon Company is not entirely blameless either. They always have been overprotective of their IP. Not even NINTENDO can use their Pokémon amiibo to their full functionality.
Man EVERYONE is complaining about Youtube's takedown system.
How come they target these things specifically, but not the people that extend VG OSTs, make your usual rock/metal/etc remixes, among other things...?
I mean, it's one thing if they're monetizing off of this type of content, but if they're simply doing it for the fun of it with no profits involved I don't see why TPC has to be so stupid about it.
It feels like they get away with it every time.
This sucks...then again, Youtube's copyright system is un-Godly broken, and the Pokemon Company is, well, the Pokemon Company, so this isn't surprising. I'm not really sure who's fault it is specifically, here: the Pokemon Company, or Youtube?
Seems like Youtube channels are getting strikes left and right these days. I think that the system needs to be a little less automated and to have actual people step in on cases like these and to validate if the strikes are actually warranted (I do acknowledge that some are indeed deserved).
get a lawyer. an email that asks for more information does squat. a lawyer showing up at their offices will do slightly more than squat.
I'm not saying the Pokemon Company didn't have something to do with it. They very well could have, but YouTube did just announce the Pokemon Super Bowl commercial was the most watched. What if their system takes that information and starts going after anything, in this case Pokemon Reorchestrated, that has to do with Pokemon that is not "official."
If Pokemon Reorchestrated has licensed the music for sale, that almost certainly means The Pokemon Company gets a cut of the profits. It's possible that by putting the videos up on youtube, Pokemon Reorchestrated was making money without giving TPC their cut. It's also possible that TPC just didn't want their music "given away" for free on youtube when the license was to sell it. And of course, it's possible I'm way off base here.
This seems like it might be more of a YouTube problem then a Pokemon Company problem. I mean if he had all of the contracts with Pokemon to have these songs remixed, then the only other thing to blame is YouTube. And we all known how absolutely horrible YouTube has been recently with copyright and the like.
F### the Pokemon Company, and F### Youtube for letting companies treat their users like this!
@ShanaUnite Awesome Pic
It's funny because just yesterday's night I had this conversation about making money on others IP - so called fanarts, fusions, remixes - gray area. And then Pokemon Reorchestrated came in the talk. About the guy and how he makes money on remixes. I remember being positively suprised that he can do that. And I recalled one post from them, where they were amazed because one of the pokemon music creators commented with favourable word about their work.
...
I'm waking up today and I find this...
I actually want to laugh at it.
Classic Pokemon Company. Guess we should ban cover songs as well, since they're just remaking an artists song and making money of it!
I find this kind of thing very disturbing, and some people might argue crap like "Well, Nintendo owns the properties and the copyright" blah, blah, blah, but the fact is that these people usually aren't ripping off the company or trying to sell copycat products or anything like that. There's nothing nefarious going on here and there's no harm done to Nintendo's image or its bottom line. It's just fans creating content based on the stuff they love, and they are basically being punished for it.
And again, you may argue it's just the law, but in case you were only born about a couple of years ago, the "law" on YouTube videos never used to be anywhere near this f'n douche about it.
The "law" is slowly but surely suppressing more and more of people's freedom of expression and artistic creation around this kind of fan based stuff, and unless you are lawyer working for Nintendo or something like that, then you should be smart enough to not support this kind of bullsh*t at all. And if you do support the lawyers you may just find it coming back to bite you in the *ss some day—and I guess on that day I'll just laugh in your face and hope you finally understand how much of an ignorant moron you were in supporting these corporations commanding more and more control and ownership over all of existence.
@Dysnomia You can spout all that crap but if this guy's videos were up on YouTube five or ten years ago he would have had no issues whatsoever—and copyright, trademark, patent, and ip law was exactly the same five or ten years ago—so all you're really spouting is crap you've now been conditioned into accepting is the way it must be. The real fact here is that YouTube has changed how it's working around this stuff, moving far more in line with serving the whims of the corporations over anyone else, and now it's to the detriment of many decent people making cool fan based videos. So, I say the law can shove itself up its own *ss, and YouTube should do the same. At the very least I'd like to see a new video service that doesn't enforce corporate law and work so diligently to serve the whims of the corporations as YouTube now does.
FFS...
No, I don't believe this is a legitimate demonstration of force. Otherwise, there's thousands of other videos that would have suffered the same fate. Why is Pokemon Reorchestrated targeted, while other things like the ZREO Twilight Princess Symphony not targeted? Why haven't all of the thousands of remix videos and orchestrated videos elsewhere been targeted?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/01/notice-and-stay-down-really-filter-everything
Because either Google or The Pokemon Company is abusing their DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) privileges to the fullest extent of the law as they see fit. Google allows others to do this for something that doesn't much affect Google, and Youtube has a truly bizarre flagging system. Either way, this was just an act of sniping.
These fan project creators aren't stupid, credit and respective rights are almost always given where they are due. There's probably either some slight similarity in the Youtube flagging code that suddenly identified the Kanto Symphony with something official, or it's due to some idiot at The Pokemon Company who went on a rampage recently.
This has nothing to do with IP/copyright protection. It's not even about "being in the legal right", because as it stands, any powerful company can abuse the legal system to take down anything related to their products, no questions asked. It doesn't help that the American FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has a lot of pressure on it right now from revolving door corporate interests trying to shove draconian bills through our Representatives and Senate.
Any reasonable public backlash on this matter is justified. Here's some more information on the subject:
https://www.eff.org/wp/who-has-your-back-2014-when-copyright-and-trademark-bullies-threaten-free-speech
https://www.eff.org/wp/unintended-consequences-16-years-under-dmca
@Kirk Yeah, there are some big corporate interests, particularly in the USA, who have been trying to implement their own version of The Great Firewall of China. The process of trying to destroy net neutrality started with the DMCA, then the barrage of bills descended from SOPA ("Stop Online Piracy Act"), and now with recent changes snuck into the TPP (Transpacific Partnership, a free trade deal which plainly gives corporations more power than governments on certain matters). Here's an example:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/sneaky-change-tpp-drastically-extends-criminal-penalties
@PlywoodStick And the sad truth is that they'll likely get exactly what they want eventually, and just like is happening now with YouTube, we'll have a bunch of morons defending them and saying that this is just how it is, without really understanding that this is only how it is now and not how it's always been. They take away our freedoms slowly but surely and in a fashion that makes it hard for most people to even realise it's happening until it's too late. And eventually most people just act like it's the norm and don't realise we could all be so much more free and happy in world where we actually stood up to those who would enslave us all. Just because these corporations tell us it's the law, that doesn't mean we should just bend over and take whatever they're shovelling. Otherwise they will eventually own and control it all.
@Kirk the length of time that you have done something does not matter. It only matters that you are doing something illegal when you are caught.
Laws have nothing to shove themselves into. It is cool that you are above the law, you are the first person I've met that is.
@Dysnomia Yeah, except no one on any side did anything illegal in this case... That might sound weird, but the legal system behind this is very convoluted, after all...
@PlywoodStick I'd actually consider it a weird contract thing in this case rather than a weird law thing. But you know, it is all semantics either way.
Listening to the music on Spotify, and OH MY GAWD! TPC has committed a sin!! It sound awesome!
@Dysnomia You don't get what I'm saying.
I'm not saying that we should be allowed to break the law. I'm saying that the law, or the application of the law, is morphing and encroaching on more and more of simple rights that were taken for granted not too long ago, like being able to post a Let's Play video of a Nintendo game and that kind of stuff. Before, no one would have even thought of challenging a YouTube creators right to post a Let's Play video, but now it's the other way around.
It's all possible, everything, until these giant companies try to push the boundaries of how much ownership and control they have over anything even remotely related to their products—and what I'm saying is that we shouldn't stand for it.
If Nintendo thinks it's in the right, legally, when it stops people from positing pretty much any Nintendo related stuff that contains any content from its games, then I say EVERYONE should stop posting any Nintendo related stuff at all. Let's see if it stands so strongly on the side of "law" in that scenario.
The only reason companies like Nintendo and The Pokemon Company can get away with such bullsh*t is because we all let them, and claiming it's "the law" is just how people smarter than you are able to go about making people like you let them do so with little resistance—and because there's so many more people like you than people like me, I too am forced to fall in line with their bull.
Do you know it's "the law" that when you buy most digital games these days you don't actually own them in any way, shape, or form, and the company that sold you them has the right to take them away from you at any time or change them as they see fit? I think they've even applied a bit of that to physical copies now too.
Do you know that wasn't the case at all only a couple of generations ago?
Do you know that the only reason "the law" on such things has changed in the last few generations, vastly in favour of the corporations, is because we've all just went along with it without ever really putting up much of a fight, and now we're even at the point where people like you would argue that "it's just how it is", "it's the law", "you're breaking the law if you don't to what they say", and other crap like that.
The "law" is defined, written, and enacted by mere men. Are you a man?
It was once the law that white men could own black men. It was once the law that women couldn't vote. It's is technically STILL illegal to carry a plank of wood along a pavement in Britain. It is also STILL technically illegal to get drunk in a pub in Britain. - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3107160/No-armour-Parliament-never-handle-salmon-suspiciously-drunk-pub-ILLEGAL-Bizarre-Medieval-laws-stand-Britain-today.html
Yeah, "the law" inf'ndeed.
Who says the law cannot be slightly redefined to work a little more for you and a little less for the corporations and rich elites, while still being practical and fair for everyone?
The insidious lawyers working in the best interests of these corporations and rich elites do, that's who, and you lap it up.
Will you keep lapping it up until you have no rights to life, liberty, and happiness left?
@Kirk Yes I know these things. No I don't like it. However, breaking the law does no good, it just makes them more restrictive. Changing the rules through legal means is the way to make things better.
Everyone else had responded to me with same, polite responses. Both of your replies are insulting in tone and remind me of why I hate to Post here because of the whiney and, selfish and that Nintendo owes a debt to you (remember that everyone cried that Nintendo "only" gave club members free games?). I will go back to refraining from participating here and sticking with the welcoming crowd at Nsider2. Thank you for the reminder.
Too bad for the guy, but that's why we have these sort of regulations. He's licensed the music on paid services, but YouTube is free, so therefore he can't just put copyrighted material on there. It only makes sense.
Fans go through the trouble of rearranging some game music with a freaking orchestra as a loving tribute, and that's what they get.
I can't wait for the commenters replying to me in defense of The Pokémon Company.
@Dysnomia You are more than welcome.
And saying "However, breaking the law does no good, it just makes them more restrictive." is kinda missing the entire point I was making.
The point I was making is that the law in these kinds of cases doesn't deserve to be respected or followed. In fact, it deserves the exact opposite. So we should ALL break it, and then it simply couldn't stand as a law for very long because you can't enforce laws that the mass of your society deem unlawful and don't follow.
Unless you decide to go to war with your society over a "law" that shouldn't have been enforced in the first place, and that usually doesn't end up very good for anyone:
https://youtu.be/KMNZXV7jOG0?list=FLMjsYDxChlcm1AfGiTQhErQ&t=6035
The very foundation of fair and just law is that it actually isn't all corrupt and f*cked up.
#WTFU
Guys, please help with this campaign. Just as this campaign was started, another channel got hit. We need to get the word out. Where's the fair use? #WTFU
Please watch this video for more details on the campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
This has gone on long enough. I know this may not relate to fair use necessarily, but the YouTube system is broken as a whole and this campaign is trying to adress that.
@Rockmin learn. http://nationalparalegal.edu/public_documents/courseware_asp_files/patents/Trademarks2/Loss.asp
Drops mic and leaves Nintendolife.
@Yorumi
Spot on, its a joke
TPC can go F themselves, seriousely.
I'm not saying anything out loud, but...
Take an h, take a t, put a p after another t,
two dots leave their mark,
and two slashes are a good way to start;
three dubyas per the norm,
a five and a three then come.
That's when the first dot comes in,
and with zippyshare the URL begins.
Another dot, see, oh, emm,
another slash to get to our jam.
with a d we get to the next part,
another slash for a new start.
Thirty, eighty-five, forty five, ninety-nine,
and another slash so we're fine.
Nine, six, one and nine,
with a slash after eight and five.
All that's missing is the archive's name,
and all letters are in all caps all the same:
first word poke, kanto is next,
add dot and rar to your text!
If you've opened the notebook app,
don't worry, it's not a trap,
just paste it on your browser,
and pirate it just like Bowser!
@RealPoketendoNL That's a perfect example showing how the YouTube copyright system is totally broken and skewed in favour of the non-YouTubers.
It basically works in a way the law would work if the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" was just totally thrown out of the window, which is completely f'd up.
I'll just post the link here again, in case anyone missed it the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
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