Thoughts on the Shout! Factory blockings · 12:52am Oct 7th, 2013
Shout! Factory has been pestering the brony community for the past couple of weeks, blocking many videos on multiple channels--some examples include JoshScorcher (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up9ZRuh4wmE), Henmo24 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEKsfuatkEk), and PaleoSteno (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdTTSjU49Jw) The reason for this is that they have a distribution deal with Hasbro. They pretty much make Hasbro's DVD's. And that's all that they own. They do not own the copyrights on Friendship is Magic, Equestria Girls, Littlest Pet Shop, etc. It's like if I made a review of The Godfather, and Netflix or Blockbuster Video was claiming copyright infringement. I'm not an expert on law, but I'm pretty sure you can't claim copyright infringement on copyrights that you do not OWN. YouTube isn't going to be much of a help on this because they aren't even checking to see if the distributors own the actual IP's. The only thing we can really do is "convince" Hasbro to cut the distribution deal with Shout! Factory.
We can still support Hasbro without supporting Shout! Factory. The best way to do that is to only buy digital releases of Hasbro media products, such as buying them on iTunes. Also, Shout! Factory has a YouTube account (http://www.youtube.com/user/shoutfactory) where I'm sure they'd love to hear your feedback about what they've been doing. If you have gotten a copyright ID match notification by Shout! Factory for any reason, dispute it. Remember, they do not own these IP's. Once again, I'm no legal expert, but I do believe that no matter what they say you're in the right--especially if the video was fair use.
Shout! Factory hasn't affected me personally (aside from one video) because I know how to edit my videos to get around YouTube's copyright ID match system. Edit your clips as short as possible and YouTube will not catch it. Seven seconds to the dot seems to be the limit. I don't let a single clip go on for more than seven seconds, and there's no copyright match at all. Hell, I'm even allowed to monetize some of them, and I'm able to keep them full screen without any problems. None of my MLP reviews have matched copyright ID, except for a couple of old ones that I made before I knew how to get around the blocks (hence the one blocked video).
Please spread the word and tell people to fight against Shout! Factory by any means necessary. They literally have no right to do this. They do not own Friendship is Magic, or any of the IP's they distribute. If any of the companies have any problems, they can claim copyright infringement. Hasbro has proven capable of doing that themselves in the past. Shout! Factory I will put an end to this if it's the last thing I do, and no copyright law in the universe is going to stop me.
Why would setting anything to full screen make any difference?