discord ban appeal (again)

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    1. Your discord tag. (Ex: elmon#6023)

      ᲼᲼᲼#1984

    2. If known, who banned you? (this can be checked)

      Don't know, probably Video or nick

    3. If known, do you know what time you were approximately banned?

      8/25/21 I think

    4. Why do you think you were banned? (this can also be checked)

      Posting Space Jam 2, sped up

    5. Explain why you think you should be unbanned, and promise to never do whatever you did again. If your reason remains unknown, you may skip this question.

    So I'm not sure how this works, but I'm appealing because I believe my ban was a false ban, because I did not violate any rules. I was banned for violating copyright, which violates discord TOS and thus is a section 1 offense. I do not believe it was a copyright violation, for it falls under fair use - 'the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.' What I posted was a very sped up version, which was modified, and if you want to get specific, lost most of its frames in the process, meaning the whole thing was just a lot of brief excerpts of the movie which was quite unwatchable. (It was 3 minutes long) I'm obviously not a lawyer, but from what I understand I believe what I posted does not violate copyright, thus invalidating my ban reason.

    I understand people may question my intent, after being recently banned for the same reason, but for what my word is worth, I posted this solely because I thought it was funny and other people might too. As some of you may know, I sometimes post memes in the TF discord, and this is no different.

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    Accepted, this should be one of the last cases of copyright violations appeals that will result in an unban, we take law and platform violations very seriously and wish for our players to maintain them at all times.

    This was less than 2 weeks before your ban. I'm going to highlight that the exact words "we take law and platform violations very seriously."

    Having just recently been unbanned for posting a full episode of a show, you should have been more careful when it came to posting movies or other similar content.

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    ↩  Miasmus the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research,

    Which one of these do you think you sent it under? Did you review the film? Report on the film for a news piece? Did you use sections of the film to teach people about the film or use some of its content to research into movies? Here, going to use your own words.

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    ↩  Miasmus brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted

    This means you can use some sections from the material provided you have made enough change of it for it to be branded your own. For example, reviewing the film and playing some small sections of the film in the background.

    You didn't take any brief excerpts from the film. You took the entire movie and sped it up by 40 times. That is a violation of copyright. QED

    Object.

    Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.

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    ↩  erin You didn't take any brief excerpts from the film

    Unless the video was at 6000 fps, I doubt the whole movie was in that video.

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    ↩  erin Which one of these do you think you sent it under? Did you review the film? Report on the film for a news piece? Did you use sections of the film to teach people about the film or use some of its content to research into movies? Here, going to use your own words.

    True, but I was more focusing on the first part of the law, as the latter was more based off what the judge ruled. Additionally, considering that most youtube videos with copyrighted content use entertainment to justify fair use, and they aren't removed, I'd think entertainment is valid.

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    ↩  erin Having just recently been unbanned for posting a full episode of a show, you should have been more careful when it came to posting movies or other similar content.

    I agree, I should have thought more about what exactly I was posting

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    ↩  Miasmus Additionally, considering that most youtube videos with copyrighted content use entertainment to justify fair use, and they aren't removed, I'd think entertainment is valid.

    That's different. That is an example of a derivative work, whereas posting copyrighted content alone is not. "Entertainment" is and never has been a valid clause of fair use.

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    ↩  Caleb Speeding up something doesn't require a lot of effort. It doesn't change any of the content in a transformative way, and there is nothing to make it considered derivative

    As far as I know it doesn't have to use a lot of effort, or be derative. I'd argue it is changed in a transformative way, considering the whole movie is drastically different from the original, albeit not in a lot of ways.

    Vouch, at the time nobody had been sactioned for this, as such there is no way that you can positively say that Miasmus was aware of this rule at all. Due to this, I think that he should be unbanned, and that following his unban we should make sure that it is known that this stuff is going to be taken more seriously.

    ↩  DragonSlayer2189 I disagree. Nick did in fact make it clear that this was going to be taken more seriously. However, I do agree that its a problem with people not being sanctioned. Copyright law has been in existence as long as the discord server, and people not being aware of it doesn't make their crimes acceptable. Justice doesn't expire, at least not in most cases.

    Can i just say i'm pretty fucking sick of discord staff having 0 communication between each other meaning that some ban for things like this whereas others wouldn't even bat an eyelid? like bro this shit needs solving

    e.g. shdwo, myself and ivan being banned for something that another user did and got quite literally nothing

    52-CEF3-CF-C4-FF-4798-8469-4-BDCA5-D35247.jpg

    ↩  Luke The rules were clear. And we try to moderate with consistency. The issue a lot of the time is that unlike the forums, we haven't got people who can read every post in real time / close to real time. Things get missed. If people are breaking the rules on Discord, it should be reported if a Discord member of staff has not already taken action.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

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    ↩ @'Ryan' it should be reported if a Discord member of staff has not already taken action.

    You yourself said you weren't willing to spend time on this. I'm aware your reluctance might be because it happened long ago, but as I said, time doesn't exactly invalidate the ban reason, and we have clear evidence (the perpetrator literally admitting to it), so it wouldn't exactly be hard to find a reason.

    On another note:
    I'm curious to how exactly this ban would work. Since no one here is a judge, who can decide if I reallly broke the law? Copyright isn't exactly black and white, and until thats decided, the ban seems unjustified if the only reasoning is that a moderator thinks I broke the law.