Info Wanted: Legality, fan-edits, and more. Legality, fan-edits, and repercussions

I’ll be honest; the list of fan-edits out there-Harmy, the Apocalypse Now Rough Cut, it’s an endless list-and stuff I’d like to watch fansubbed, etc.-Sentai, fanslatation games, and beyond-is limitless. I hear all the time from every third person on the Internet about this kind of stuff, but live in fear of any kind of legal repercussions or of one day having a knock on the door to have someone come tell me that orange really is the new black, and I ain’t getting Nina Rausch as a cellmate. My brother, currently studying to be an Internet intellectual property lawyer, even recently had an acquaintance get into serious trouble for some BitTorrent issues. Where does all of this stuff fall? I mean this seriously? I own Star Wars on VHS. I used to have the DVD. But apparently the “backup copy” stuff is a load of bunk. I bend over backwards to try to do everything I possibly can through the proper channels, down to buying used stuff on eBay when a bootleg would be infinitely cheaper to having a region-free DVD player. I live in genuine fear of so much as watching episodes of something on YouTube, but with the recent Net Neutrality stuff, I’ve become more concerned than ever. Is there anything black and white here, or is it all grey?

It’s all grey, but no one has been targetted for it. As for watching episodes of stuff on Youtube, that isn’t even illegal. It’s probably illegal for it to be on there, but it isn’t illegal to use the site.

The only time I can recall someone getting into trouble for producing a fan edit was Selutron who was working on an edit of Superman II, it was an incredibly ambitious edit as far as fanedits go too. Even Warner Bros were impressed by what he was doing, but for whatever reason he was ordered to stop production of it, maybe it was because he was always talking shit about the Donner Cut lol. Joking aside, I think the most logical explanation was his work was gaining a lot of attention across the web to the point Warners were worried about the possibilities of the fan cut surfacing and doing the rounds on the black market, I heard something like that happened to another guy who was working on some called “Superman II: The Green Cut”.

Yes.

SilverWook said:

The long worked on restoration of the tv cut of Superman went completely off the grid, after some dotty member of a Superman forum decided to tell Warner’s about it’s existence.

Why did they feel the need to do that?

FanEdit.org has been around for a long time, and has always been very clear about warding off piracy. With my own projects, I’ve felt comfortable featuring my real name in the edit’s credits, along with my voice as commentary in a separate audio track. I always run the anti-piracy warning at the front of the movie, hard-encoded into the file itself, as well as repeated on any text or descriptions that come along with it. Given the track record FanEdit.org has had so far, and relative popularity as a hub for this sort of thing, I think as long as you respect the rules and maintain a consistent position against any of the obvious things that would make copyright holders angry, you’ll be fine.
And, if you are just talking about downloading and watching fan edits, you’ll be fine anyway.

Don’t we have a couple of threads on this topic already?

Bingowings said:

Don’t we have a couple of threads on this topic already?

Got me. The search function here doesn’t work very well, the whole forum setup is wonky.

Now, I still have to use my laptop since I don’t want do any of this on my parents’ computer, but it’s so damned outdated. It’s funny how their’s runs Windows 10, I’m only 7, but it doesn’t seem to have come with any kind of OS disc. Really weird.

I DO have a Blu-ray burner though. Now, as to making my own packaging, that’s altogether different. I’m so paranoid I’m still thinking I should get a VPN before I do anything.

TV’s Frink said:

Mike O said:

Bingowings said:

Don’t we have a couple of threads on this topic already?

Got me. The search function here doesn’t work very well, the whole forum setup is wonky.

Google this

site:originaltrilogy.com [search subject]

We could get better forums. I’m just saying 😉.

Has Harmy done a 1080p 24 version yet?

Possessed said:

24 yes, 1080p no.

Damn.

Has he done an 1138 19p?