Grave of the Fireflies: the Pragmus Review that is no More

Thanks, Melberries... NOT.

A Pragmus Review that sadly is no more...

There are sooo many people lately who have been harassed by a certain con for a company called “Melberries” (I know, even the name is awful…).  What these guys do is look for YouTube videos that have any reference at all to Studio Ghibli films or other sorts of anime, and many other types of visual media.  Then they slam small-scale YouTubers with copyright claims because, as the sleazy company they are, they know that the YouTubers with less hits are pretty much not likely to get support from YouTube against the copyright claims.  You know what is really silly about this though?  People who reference the media that Melberries claims is unlawfully used are actually not doing anything against the law (that is, unless they actually post an entire episode of a show or a full-length film).  There is something called “fair use,” which is a copyright law protecting critics of the media being presented.  In all reality, it makes no sense to stop critics from using bits and pieces of full media texts because banning such use would be a strict form of censorship, barring fair criticisms of various media texts.

So, why are we talking about Melberries?  Well, this company has actually fought against us at Pragmus, saying that “fair use does not exist in Europe,” and threatening to take our review for Grave of the Fireflies down.  This, my friends, is not even a valid claim.  You see Alpha (Logan) and I (Corey, or Pragmus Sigma) looked pretty deep into this legal situation and found specific legislation in the European Union Law, called the "Copyright Directive," a.k.a. the "Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society."

The section of this document talking about copyright laws and, in effect, fair use policies, is section 3D, which states the following:

• (d) quotations for purposes such as criticism or review, provided that they relate to a work or other subject-matter which has already been lawfully made available to the public, that, unless this turns out to be impossible, the source, including the author's name, is indicated, and that their use is in accordance with fair practice, and to the extent required by the specific purpose...

Roger Ebert--one of the greatest critics of our day.

<<Just imagine what the film industry would be if people like Roger Ebert were shut down for copyright claims that critics should be protected against by Fair Use laws.  We'd be missing out on some of the most important aspect of film--criticism and analyses.>>

HMMMM…  I don’t know about you guys, but I’d say that this law obviously indicates that fair use does indeed exist in the European Union.

Melberries, however, begs to differ.

What happened to us next is this: after we sent an email to Melberries in effort to explain the existence of this EU law, they stopped contacting us through email and cracked down even harder on their copyright claims for our film review.  Ultimately, because of their incessant claims against us, our video was deemed to be forcibly taken down from Youtube.  Sometimes people like us--smaller-scale YouTubers--not only have videos taken down, but their entire YouTube account is frequently suspended or terminated altogether.  This is a major problem because it effectively shuts down growing Youtube channels for the monetary gain of the copyright claim filing industry.  This is unjust and, quite frankly, downright uncool. 

What the even?

So, from here, we hope that media companies will get the hint. Fair Use and reviews are an excellent way to get publicity and attention. In this new age of the internet, we must push for a greater emphasis on the freedom of speech. We have a right to review and a right to critique!  If you feel strongly about this as well, we ask you to please leave a comment about this on the the fair use petition site some big-name YouTube critics have put together.  You can access the site here.  Thanks, Pragmus fans!  We hope this was somewhat informative for you.  Keep rocking our socks, friends!

Pragmus Sigma

(Corey Cherrington)

Blog and Social Media Administrator

Image of the "Take Down Abuse" petition site