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Question before I post a topic

Siren

Siren

New member
I read most of the topic in General Chit Chat about posting "Come and see my site" thread. I am not sure if the topic I want to post fits into that area of not being allowed.

I make fan vids (fan made music videos). I take movies and tv shows, and edit them to songs. Its a pointless, yet fun hobby of mine. And I like to share them and get input. Even take requests now and then.

May I post a topic about my videos with links to my videos? My intention is certainly not to take people away from here. None of my videos are about snakes even. Just videos that I made, I posted on LiveVideo. I make absolutely no profit from my videos, they are unsellable because I use copyright music and movies as it is. So I am not going to pay for advertising them when its just a hobby.

If you say no, no problem, it won't hurt my feelings.
If you say yes, I'd love to share them. Some of them are very good and fun to watch.
 
Well, it depends. Think about what spamming is and how your request would have to differ from that particular problem on this and other websites.

Certainly this will be a gray area, and unfortunately there is no way for me to give you or anyone else a black and white definition of what would be acceptable and what would not. The problem would arise that if a post such as yours would be considered acceptable, then why would a post from anyone else soliciting traffic of ANY type be any more acceptable?

Personally, I would probably never see it myself, so this decision would likely fall into the hands of the mods............ :shrugs:
 
I'm glad this topic has been posted. It'll give me a chance to present my view, and Rich can let me know if my view is in line with his (or not).

In my opinion, as long as the content is nothing that would be unacceptable for this family-friendly forum, Siren's link to where her videos are hosted would be ok. There's no money being made or to be made, so I don't see it as real spam. Of course, I'm no expert in copyright law, but I don't think there's an exposure there for Rich. Here's what I DON'T consider to be ok:

1. Ads for anything posted by non-contributing members. This includes "adoption" ads.

2. Posts that are intended to draw members to a similar forum elsewhere. These forums can make money for their owners, and I consider them to be competitors of this site. If these owners want to buy banner ads, and Rich allows it, then that's the way to do it.

I'm sure there are other examples. I'll edit them in if I think of them.
 
I'll explain about the copyright thing. I have talked to a lawyer about this.

When you go on YouTube or another video hosting site and see that a fan made music video was taken down due to "copyright infringement", YouTube and/or the production company have overstepped their bounds of fair use. Fair use is a somewhat gray area too. It pretty much means that you can take 5 minutes per hour of a movie/tv show to parody/edit/showcase/etc it. All of my videos are safe legally under fair use. Of course let's say Disney wants to take me to court and sue me for copyright infringement. Most judges would likely see what I do is not going to cause Disney any loss of money. What I do is essentially a commercial for a movie.

Now if I went and put up a whole movie, unedited and only cut into 5 minute segments, THAT is true copyright infringement and I could be fined or even go to jail.

When Disney/Paramount/Dreamworks/Warner Brothers/etc forces a video site to take down a video due to copyright infringement they are being bullies. Using a law meant to protect them from REAL criminal pirates instead to fight a fan just making what is essentially fan art.
When I go to a convention, I see all kinds of fan art. I see artists drawing Batman and Chewbacca and selling their drawings and painting for $1-$1000s. What they are doing is blatant copyright infringement. Taking a copyrighted character and selling an unauthorized image and making a full profit.
What I do is take a movie, edit it down into 5 minutes or less (generally, depends on the length of the song) and post it. I don't sell them. I make no profit. I am clear to people who comment/review when they ask if I will send them a video file of the movie to BUY the DVD like I did. I once went into a tirade at this one teenager online. She says she couldn't afford to buy a DVD, I told her to mow a lawn or babysit. I asked her what made her so special that she didn't have to earn money and pay for DVDs like the rest of us. I am VERY clear about not pirating movies. I am trying to cover all my bases when I make the videos.

I have posted my videos on over a dozen other forums. No ill will has ever come to the owners of the board. I've never been charged or arrested for making videos. As I said about the lawyer, he told me if any company did try to take me to court or anyone like me, they would surely lose because what we do falls into fair use and is not harmful to companies. That is why we see companies take video pirates to court, but not video makers. They KNOW they can't do anything, they just have zero tolerance.

Except NBC. The so far are the only company (other than the whole country of Japan with its anime), that open their arms to video makers. NBC even finds and posts fan videos it likes on their MAIN www.nbc.com site! I've watched some great C.S.I videos regular people like me made. And Japan accepts it because many anime companies see anime music videos (AMVs) as free advertising.l They have the right idea. That is why websites like www.amv.org exist freely without ever been threatened to shut down. And why they only accept true anime videos, because American companies are so anal.
 
We've allowed links to YouTube and a myriad of other sites in the General ChitChat forum so I see no reason why we shouldn't allow a link to Siren's videos.
 
Thanks Susan. And I wanted to be sure being a newbie here, I didn't go breaking rules right off the bat and thought best to ask. But I am still not clear on whether or not it will cause a problem.

How other threads with my videos go is this:

A.) People view them, never/rarely post any comments about them. Sometimes they PM me what they thought.
B.) A lot of people post on the thread, telling me what they thought of the videos. Usually a short comment.

How I usually post my videos is in an organized list too. For instance
Disney Movies:
yadda yadda from the movie blah blah
yadda yadda from the movie blah blah
yadda yadda from the movie blah blah

The Last Unicorn
yadda yadda
yadda yadda

And then when I add new videos it looks like this
The Last Unicorn
*NEW* yadda yadda

And I make a new post to say "New video of Last Unicorn!"

Yup, that is usually how it goes :p
 
I would say for you to go ahead and post a thread in the General Chit-Chat forum, putting a link to some videos in it. We'll see how it goes after that.

PS...LOVE your signature!
 
For what it's worth...I know/know of Siren from Beardeddragon.org and I've watched a LOT of her videos.

They are an (almost) endless source of amusement and they bring much needed relief to a stressful workday.

While some of them have a more adult theme, she's very good at clearly indicating which ones are more adult than children-based. She's got an 8 or 9 year old daughter (iirc, sorry if that's off, Siren) so she's familiar with what's appropriate for children and what's not.
 
Matthew, you are a sweet heart! Thanks :) Glad you enjoy them

And yes, I have a 9 year old daughter. And I give my videos ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R) due to content. The videos themselves don't usually have anything bad, but the music I choose sometimes has explicit language or I use the music to take the movie out of context. For instance: Lion King 2, it was about Simba's daughter finding her way and finding love. In one video, the way I edit it and the music I use, it appears Simba is an abusive mate and father and Kiara runs away. I would rate that PG, no bad language in the song, but the content of the song, about child and spousal abuse is too intense for younger kids :)

I will post my videos soon and see how it goes :)
 
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