The teaser involved two characters watching a video one of them uploaded to Youtube. The teaser was a satirical, snarking response to some negative comments "The Last Bastion" series had garnered by two main groups of people. One was a Louisiana Tech student going by the video game name of "Dante Leonhart", the creator of the "Bridge Commander" machinima series. He began by labeling the videos "crap".
In front of my online face, "Dante" offered backhanded compliments in various forums, which included needling me endlessly about the sound of the female voice actress (Captain Kraft). I explained several times that the actress was a novice at this, and I was just glad to have her send in her part. "Dante" may have been projecting somewhat, because he went through the same critiques himself, and answered in a similar way:
"Dante Leonhart" persisted, peppering his responses with idiotic "lol"s, until I basically told him to screw off.
"Dante" retaliated against my rebuff by renaming all his "Bridge Commander" videos on Youtube "Better than Last Bastion", and tagging his vids with my website. For the part 4 teaser, I used seven seconds of the beginning of his "Bridge Commander II" video. Note that the clip contained no unique characters from "Dante's" video, no plot, and none of his audio whatsoever. It was a pan shot of a Star Trek ship, to clue in the audience further who I was lampooning. One day later, I received an email that presented itself as a formal announcement from Youtube to take the video down due to "copyright infringement".
From: sirneotheone@gmail.com
Show/Hide all the To recipientsTo: wpoesti@aol.com
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Subject: Video removal
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 8:42 PMCC from youtube.com:::
MrPoe,
This is an official warning to inform you that you are in violation of intellectual property. The offending video "Last Bastion part 4: Teaser Trailer" which is located at this address [removed] incorporates scenes from "Better than Last Bastion - Bridge Commander: Ep II" created by DanteLeonhart, located at this address [removed].
No permission has been given or authorized for you to incorporate any scenes (in whole or in part) from this video into your own. You are hereby required to either edit the offending scenes or remove the video entirely. If no response is given within 7 days of the sending of this message, administrative action will be followed.
Thank you for your cooperation.
In the past, whenever Youtube wanted one of my videos down, they yanked it, no questions, no warning. They just sent a notification that it was gone. Since I knew Youtube didn't send such announcements with a gmail account, as the one from "Dante" was, I laughed it off, and responded thusly:
CC from youtube.com:::Re: Video Removal
Sir Neo "the one",
This is an official warning to inform you that you are in violation of intellectual property. The offending video "Better than Last Bastion - Bridge Commander: Ep II" created by DanteLeonhart, located at this address [removed] incorporates elements of the Star Trek franchise. Paramount Pictures and its licensees are the only organizations legally allowed to claim intellectual ownership of any commercial products with the name and trademark Star Trek. Consequently, fan productions who claim intellectual property as their own are unauthorized and subject to legal issues.
No permission has been given or authorized for you to claim intellectual property or ownership of any commercial products with the name and trademark Star Trek. Also, no permission has been granted to you to represent Youtube.com in any way, shape or form.
You are hereby required to shove your head deeply into your anal cavity. If no response is given within 7 days of the sending of this message, administrative action will be followed.
Thank you for your cooperation.
"Dante" then filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act order with Youtube, claiming copyright infringement. I had to respond to Youtube trying to explain to them that "Dante" isn't the legal copyright holder to the Star Trek franchise, nor is he a member of the Activision team that created the "Bridge Commander" game. In accordance with a filed DMCA complaint however, Youtube took down all my Last Bastion videos due to "copyright infringement", and my account suspended for 10-12 days. Yes, you read that right. "Dante Leonhart" convinced Youtube that he is the copyright owner of the Star Trek franchise! And, he didn't even have to use his real name!
Of course, Youtube overreacts to these type of scams all the time. Witness what one 15 year old did during this time:
At this time, fans of the "Last Bastion" series visited "Dante's" forums; the address of which he freely advertises on his Youtube movies. "Dante" responded by calling my fans "faggots", my "gay lovers", and other sundry things only a mature Louisiana Tech student would say, apparently.
I responded to Youtube once again, and they answered by forwarding my contact information to "Dante". Of course, being the immature person he is, he promptly displayed that information on his public web board. As stated above, "Dante Leonhart's" movies (As well as mine, of course) are classified as a derivative work, and ownership of derivative works falls to the original copyright holders unless they deviate from the originally copyrighted work significantly. The video above again, doesn't incorporate "Dante's" story or voices in any way, and he has no copyright claim against me since I didn't include the only unique element in his movie. The trailer in question is protected under Fair Use laws as well, since it could be considered a criticism or comment.
"Dante" crowed about this "victory" over me, while he removed the "Better Than Last Bastion" titles from his movies. Instead, in the info bar, he posted: "How do we know its better than Last Bastion? Simple... Last Bastion isn't on Youtube anymore."
Yup, he basked in his "victory"...until my fans gave him the royal smack-down. Fans of "The Last Bastion" series responded by contacting friends in Louisiana Tech (where "Dante" is a student), just to ask them what they thought of having an openly homophobic student attending there. My fans also called Paramount Legal. This promptly led to "Dante's" message board being pulled from his school's servers.
The pressure heated up at that point, and the once-smug owner of the website that hosted Dante's message board, Ian Tannehill, sent me this PM on Stardestroyer.net:
Of course, the spin-doctoring began immediately, with "Dante" emailing his friends to say that it was "his" idea to take the board down. Apparently, he didn't know that Ian had already laid out the actual truth of the matter.
(Note: I was incorrect in my assumption that Ian and "Dante" were the same person. But they both attend Louisiana Tech.)
On April 20th, one of my fans posted a "power point" presentation called "Dante Leonhart and the Realities of US Copyright Law", which also showed the disputed footage. "Dante" has filed a DMCA against that too, and on April 23rd, it was pulled from Youtube. That same day, I received this in my inbox:
Dear Wayne,In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we've completed processing your counter-notification dated 4/10/07 regarding your video
This content has been restored and your account has been reactivated.
Sincerely,
Heather
The YouTube Team
Game. Set. Match.
