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

UNDERTALE: the Hit Game that Reveals Your True Level of Awfulness!

Such a cool game!

Undertale.  It's a game that shows you just how much of an awful person you are!  In all seriousness, Undertale is an amazing game and I couldn't recommend it more.  The game features a morality mechanic unlike previous iterations of the idea, like Dishonored or inFamous. In Undertale, you play as the "Fallen Child," who has fallen into a cave of Monsters who are trying to take your soul.  The twist here is that the Monsters are all very emotional creatures, and so you can play on their differing psychologies to pacify or SPARE them.

THIS

THIS?

OR

<<There are all sorts of mysteries in Undertale!>>

Playing through Undertale, you have three options as far as playstyles go: Pacifist, where you don't kill ANY Monsters and get the canonical ending; Neutral, where you spare or kill who you wish; and Genocide, where you meticulously slaughter every single Monster in the Underground. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I will avoid explaining the endings, but I will say each ending matches the tone of your actions, from the hope and enduring optimism  of the Pacifist route to the nihilism of the Genocide route.

Lastly, Undertale features a beautiful music score by Temmie Chang, with recurring motifs, memorable and distinct themes for every character and environment, and even music matching and including the sounds characters make when they talk.  Because of all these factors, Undertale is a seamless experience of a game, and I couldn't support Toby Fox for making it, or support people playing it, more!

Pragmus Epsilon

Pragmus Team Contributor

Here's some sample music; it's so pleasingly cheesy!

Why I Love Herinteractive

The company's logo

Not many people have heard of my favorite gaming company--Herinteractive.  They are really fantastic game-makers and always have their gamers in mind.  What I really like most about them though is that they constantly seek to help girls and women feel strong and empowered to go and do what they dream of doing!  

The one, the only, Nancy Drew!

The typical Herinteractive game goes as follows: the protagonist is Nancy Drew from the popular mystery book series by Carolyn Keene (which was actually a pseudonym for many hired women authors, but that's another story) and you as the gamer play Nancy Drew, never actually seeing what she looks like (oh the mystery of it all! ;).  You look for clues in every scene to solve the mystery you've fallen into, and get this: the games are actually pretty hard!  That is, if you want to complete the game without hints, it means you will be investing several hours (usually a day or so) and lots of energy from all that perplexity into achieving the big win.  To be completely honest, I and many other Nancy Drew computer game fans actually have to go to the forum on Herinteractive.com in order to find hints that will help us get past a particularly challenging point.  SO, in short, these games are intellectually stimulating!

Each game also includes several mini puzzles that you have to figure out in order to solve the mystery; the puzzles are usually a challenge as well, so put on your thinking cap and get to using that noodle! Haha, in sum, you'll love it if you like challenging your mind though, trust me.

Curse of Blackmoor Manor Cover

Another thing I really love about the games is that they promote fun learning by incorporating facts and information of all sorts into the journey on the way to the game's solution.  I remember playing Curse of Blackmoor Manor in middle school and learning about ancient Runes, Greek gods and goddesses, lore of the British Isles, the solstices...  *sighs*  I LOVE learning things from the Nancy Drew games...  And because of those games, I have a bunch of knowledge about the world that many others do not have.  It is very fun to know things too, because you have lots of interesting things to share with others.  :)  Gah!  It is great.  It's not just one Nancy Drew game that's a great learning opportunity either, but all of them! You'll learn about new peoples and places in every game and will grow a great appreciation for other cultures through these games.  For myself, I've found that my travel bug has been encouraged by the cultural appreciation obtained in Nancy Drew games because I am more knowledgeable about places such as Louisiana, the U.K., Italy, Japan, etc.  All this has made me more excited than ever to actually go and see these places!  Nancy Drew and Herinteractive really manage to light a fire under you and get you going on forming and carrying out awesome dreams!

Oh yes, all the Nancy Drew humor!  ;)

I would love to do some reviews on these games, so look out for those in the future!  I'll have to get it approved by my boss/business partner, Alphie (Pragmus Alpha ;), but once I have a feeling it wont be too hard; I'll probably just have to walk to Argentina again and get him some of that special tea leaf he likes, but I've done that once already, so no big deal at all!  ;) Keep rockin' our socks, Pragmus fans!  Talk to you again soon.

Pragmus Sigma
Blog and Social Media Administrator

Also Nancy Drew Lover! -_^