The Youtuber, Mark Fitzpatrick Totally Not Mark has made a name for himself with his manga and anime videos on YouTube. Your reviews edit montages of everything you are reviewing or criticizing while putting your thoughts into voice-over. Mark says his use of copyrighted material is fair.
Toei Animation, apparently, does not agree and has submitted copyright claims on 150 of his videos. Toei Animation is known for titles like Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Slam Dunk, among many more.
“For the past twenty-four hours, I have sat in disbelief, shocked, and saddened that my life’s work had been unfairly taken from me,” begins Mark in his response video to Toei Animation and YouTube, which, at the time of writing, is over 400 thousand views on his YouTube channel Totally Not Mark.
Who is YouTuber Totally Not Mark?
Totally Not Mark is a popular anime YouTuber, with over half a million subscribers. He has concentrated on anime series like Dragon Ball Super, but later on AmericanPost.News there are other examples from Mark’s reviews.
Toei Animation claims YouTuber for copyright
Photo: Screenshot – Toei Animation
“Two nights ago, I received an email notifying me that fifteen of my videos had been copyrighted and blocked by Toei Animation,” continues YouTuber Totally Not Mark.
“An hour later, that number rose to twenty-eight. And when I woke up this morning, I had reached a total of 150 videos that my audience can no longer see and that I can no longer monetize. “All of the videos in question were for Dragon Ball or One Piece, both of which Toei Animation animates.
Please note that some of those videos did not feature any anime clips, rather they were explanations of how to draw. As context, Mark explained that because he and his team work on one video a week, the 150 blocked videos equal almost three years of work.
“And as a result, the main source of income for my company no longer exists,” said Mark, adding that he has a family to support and employees to take care of. Certainly those are valid and immediate concerns.
Also, according to Mark, animation studio Toei Animation He has apparently asked you to do promotional work for them in the past, which would make the strikes even more alarming for him.
In his response to Toei Animation, Mark says that he makes sure that he and his employees adhere to the policy regarding fair treatment and fair use as described by YouTube, his own country, and other countries.
This may be true, but copyright law in Japan is different. As explained the attorney Keiji Sugiyama In a presentation at Fordham University, “Japanese copyright law does not have a general fair use provision like that of the United States.”
Instead, Japan has moral rights for any kind of work. Sugiyama points out that while Japanese copyright law lacks a general fair use provision, there are certain legal cuts that allow parody and private use, as well as reproductions for schools and libraries.
Reproductions cited in current event articles are also permitted. Earlier, there was an alarming copyright case in Japan, when a Japanese woman was arrested for selling Demon Slayer themed cakes; with which he would have earned more than 57 thousand US dollars in 2 years.
Toei Animation is exercising its right with the law, but you have to understand that copyright laws are different in each country. According to Sugiyama, Japan’s moral rights are as follows:
- Article 18: The author will have the right to offer the making available to the public of his work that has not yet been made public.
- Article 19: The author shall have the right to determine whether his real name or pseudonym should be indicated as the author’s name.
- Article 20: The author shall have the right to preserve the integrity of his work and its title against any distortion, mutilation or other modification against his will.
The last point is important. In Japan, the author has enormous control over how his work is presented. So possibly if an author doesn’t want their work to be displayed in a certain way, say, on YouTube, then they would apparently have legal capacity in Japan to challenge that.
Looking more closely at the law, it is clear that authors have a great deal of control over how their work is reproduced, presented, transmitted, adapted, and exhibited. The rights of the copyright holder are so strong in Japan that they often get in the way of relaunching old games, so the proposed legislation has sought to rectify that specific problem.
As for YouTuber Totally Not Mark, the issue here would be which country’s copyright law applies and how YouTube handles copyright claims.
Some of Mark’s supporters say the video platform’s copyright system is down. Maybe it needs a review, and maybe there should be more leeway for YouTube creators.
“The lack of a fair use provision makes the interpretation of the (Japanese copyright) law very rigid,” says lawyer Sugiyama, “and can sometimes lead to unfair results.” What do you think of Toei Animation’s stance with Totally Not Mark?
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