In the most inane wording possible, I read with much rage as Japanese companies are contemplating taking down gameplay videos of fans. [Source: Sankaku Complex]

I might take on the role of DrmChsr0 in becoming the most enraged anime blogger out there. But first of all, I must explain to you readers my rage.

Recently, I have read this book, “Remix” by Lawrence Lessig. Previously Lessig has written on Free Culture previously, in regards to the danger of regulation of the Internet. It revealed a lot about the perceptions and fears of the copyright owners, and the fact that the Berne Convention, and subsequently, American Constitution, are woefully overreaching in their regulation of fan-made, or amateur, works.

It’s not that the American Constitution or the Berne Convention are very inadequate: on the contrary they have been very efficient enough. The problem here, is that with new technology, comes new terminologies and wordings, and with that, the consequent effect of the law having their reach extended because of the technologies that have enabled democratization of tools to create works that otherwise would be unwieldly to the general masses.

To put in a summary, the technology enabled the law to become far too overreaching. This translates to a worse effect: fan-made works (in this case, the remix) is illegal under the Berne Convention.

A lot of you might be saying, “What about fair use/fair dealing?” Well, the fact of the matter is, is that this premise is used only under special circumstances. Remixes is basically copying pieces of other works and put together to become something else. The basic building blocks, however, are properties of other peoples’. Fair use/dealing deals with works having a specific purpose, and remixes are somewhere outside the fair use/dealing scope, hence the ambiguity.

I sense that a lot of readers will debate on already-a-dead-horse issues, so I will limit the scope of this topic to asking a question, “So what?”

The one aspect in Remix that’s terribly chilling says it all:

…But the real failure of this [copyright] war is the effect that this massive regulation has had on the basic integrity of our kids. Our kids are “pirates.” We tell them this. They come to believe it… They come to like life as a “pirate.”…

This concern is not just speculation. There is important legal and sociological evidence to support the concern that overcriminalization in this one (and central) area of our kids’ lives could have negative effects in other areas of their lives, and on attitudes towards the law generally. To the extent that kids view the laws regulating culture as senseless, or worse, corrupt, that makes them less likely to obey those laws. To the extent that they see these senseless laws as indicative of the legal system generally, they may be less likely to obey those laws generally.

—Reforming Us: Rediscovering the Limits of Regulation; Remix; Lawrence Lessig

Without reform, the young generation of Internet users will disregard laws in general becasue they are perceived as “unjust and cruel.” One can imagine the anarchy of our future if no change to the copyright law is being done.

Without reform, fan works such as the Purchase Brothers’, the girl that arrange Macross Frontier’s 2nd OP on an electric organ and perhaps, Youtube in general, will always be illegal under the law. And it’s a shame that such amazing works do not get the credit they deserve, because their works are illegal.

Referring back to the gameplay videos in general, do companies want to regulate how people should play their games, too?