Co-opted By The Man

Ahem. Take a look at the commercial for the Anime Network below and tell me if you see something that looks familiar [UPDATE : Yes, I know the video isn't showing up. YouTube seems to have disappeared for the moment.]:




Here’s a couple of screenshots from our non-profit political cartoon “Brother, Can You Spare A Job?” :

brother_screengrabs.jpg

I should probably point out that the Anime Network’s commercial is at odds with the Creative Commons license under which we released the short :



The point here isn’t to lock down the rights to the short completely, but to ensure that our hard work is shown in the context in which we created it. Specifically, we didn’t want Brother‘s message to get lost in the shuffle. That’s why we’ve granted every request to repackage, exhibit, and present the short in full. It’s been shown on television, film and animation festivals, video podcasts, DVD’s, and worldwide screenings. And because our goal has always been to juxtapose a depression-era setting with the Bush Administration’s elitist economic policies, we’ve never asked for a penny in return. So it’s doubly insulting to not only have our work chopped up and reappropriated without permission or attribution, but that it’s being done by some mega corporation that could easily afford to make a charitable contribution in exchange for the rights to re-use the footage.

I know I’m being petty here, but let me also say how much I’m annoyed that our work is being sqeezed into their strained “cartoons vs. anime” comparison as an example of animation that sucks. If you want to sell your infantile “robots, babes, and ninjas” crap to the masses, that’s fine, but there’s no reason to insult your fellow animators in the process. Since you drew a line in the sand, however, I gotta wonder where the works of animation geniuses like Isao Takahata, Osamu Tezuka, and Hayao Miyazaki would fit. They seem more like “cartoons” to me.


posted by greg on February 9, 2006 @ 10:17 am

15 comments

  1. you’re not being petty. your work is being used without permission, and worse, it’s being used contrary to the original intent in a manner that mocks and derides the work you put into it. And worse still, the people stealing from you, and insulting you, are trying to make money at it. Fuck them. This is morally equivalent to those ridiculous Calvin peeing stickers. Time to talk ot a lawyer, IMHO.

    Comment by Ross A Lincoln — February 9, 2006 @ 2:56 pm

  2. I am sorry to see that Greg. Hopefully you won’t have much of a problem getting the Anime station to cut out the parts of your creation.

    Comment by Kryten Syxx — February 9, 2006 @ 2:57 pm

  3. I’m amazed at how much the Anime Network people seem to have wholly missed the point of your creation. Your short utilizes imagery reminicent of 1930′s Merrie Melodies cartoons and Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times to draw a political comparison; the ad’s creator takes your imagery at face value. It’s sort of like using songs from A Mighty Wind to criticize folk music.

    And what’s especially ironic is that they’re probably trying to imply that their brand of Anime is so much more mature than ordinary cartoons because of all the sex and violence. When in fact, your work is far more subtle and sophisticated than the robots-in-disguise action fests they’re pimping here.

    Ultimately, I’m sure they used Brother chiefly because they thought “Creative Commons” means “free for all.”

    Comment by Cris — February 9, 2006 @ 4:38 pm

  4. Thanks for the compliments, Chris. After the onslaught of outrage against our cartoon over at Channel Frederator (the concensus over there is that it’s long, slow and boring), it’s nice to hear from someone who appreciated our cartoon.

    I think what happened is that the makers of the Anime Network ad scoured through Archive.org (where we hosted “Brother…” for free) looking for what they thought were boring, old, public-domain cartoons. They mistook our cartoon for a public domain piece from the 20s or 30s and threw it into the mix.

    i doubt the geniuses at Anime Network (much less their marketing division) have the mental capacity to understand anything beyond the superficiality of a cartoon- considering that they’re programming is nothing more than robots, babes & explosions- I doubt they even bothered to watch the cartoons they were appropriating. Lazy and pathetic.

    I don’t know what actions we’ll need to take to get them to stop using “Brother…” in the ad. Anyone know a lawyer?

    Comment by tomN! — February 9, 2006 @ 5:16 pm

  5. “their” not “they’re” argh! i hate it when i make typoes wihle insulting someone else’s intelligence. argh!

    Comment by tomN! — February 9, 2006 @ 5:17 pm

  6. You’re not petty. This is a lame bit by the Anime Channel. It’s unnecessary to pit anime vs cartoons, as both are legit art forms. Given their criteria, the original anime classic Gigantor would be a “cartoon.”

    Comment by Mark Spittle — February 9, 2006 @ 6:58 pm

  7. I just don’t know how the anime station missed that “Brother” was a modern creation about the Bush admin.

    I also enjoy how they insult great animated shorts that can be found over at Archives.org. I’ve watched plenty of anime and I would rather sit through a marathon of shorts from the 40′s and 50′s rather than a bunch of robots and exposions. Anyone remember the Dragon Ball series? Stock footage, dialog, long pause, rinse and repeat for a half hour.

    Comment by Kryten Syxx — February 9, 2006 @ 7:06 pm

  8. Hey guys, long time since I’ve commented (damn lurkers), but I’m supremely pissed about this on your behalf.

    A simple ‘cease and desist’ letter should do the trick. They usually get forwarded immediately to the legal division of any company, and as soon as they see that the piece is protected under the creative commons license it will be pulled. And trust me, they have a legal division (they wouldn’t get carried by cable/satellite providers if they didn’t).

    Here are some links to forms you can customize:

    http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/contract/cease.htm

    and,

    http://www.megadox.com/docdetail.php/6572

    And do be sure and send it via registered mail, that will get their attention as well.

    Your homie from home,
    -Gabriel

    Comment by Forkboy — February 9, 2006 @ 8:48 pm

  9. We know a good patent lawyer, give me a call.

    Comment by Mom — February 10, 2006 @ 7:01 am

  10. Shameful. That utterly sucks. You are completely justified in sending ten different kinds of hell their way.

    Comment by Stephen — February 10, 2006 @ 9:04 am

  11. I took a look over at the Anime Network’s website. Seems to be pretty bogged down at the moment. I was going to post something in their forums educating them on ‘Brother’ but after reading some of the threads it would seem that any sort of political commentary of any sort would be totally lost.

    Comment by Kryten Syxx — February 10, 2006 @ 9:39 am

  12. Call the lawyers!!

    Comment by Joe — February 11, 2006 @ 2:00 pm

  13. indeed the “cease and desist” letter is right on… my little expertise of copyright law– it does not need to be registered to be a valid copyright, ie. the moment you and Tom created the cartoon was the moment it became a protected work. call a copyright attorney- if you do not want money, you may be able to stop its use with an injunction.

    Comment by erin — February 11, 2006 @ 10:45 pm

  14. Greg-o – drop me a line. I know several dozen IP lawyers. I work for ‘em as their IT guru.

    Comment by idiosynchronic — February 16, 2006 @ 10:12 am

  15. It’s truly idiotic how they’re trying to make American animation look juvenile and boring but at the same time they’re also supporting the painful stereoypes all japanese animation is labeled with.

    Comment by john — March 22, 2006 @ 5:06 pm

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