Parody Protection For Fair Use Is Important: Taiwanese Man Faces Jail Time Over Parody Videos Of Movies

from the unfair-abuse dept

Because we talk so much about fair use here, we often likewise find ourselves talking about parody. Parody is one of the forms of content protected under fair use, and that protection is responsible for the availability of a great deal of great content. Parody tends to be equal parts humor and commentary and enjoys a long history of important speech here in America.

But parody doesn't have that protected status in intellectual property laws abroad. Taiwan, for instance, has a form of fair use protections, but those protections carve out no space for parody. This has resulted in local film studios going after one popular YouTuber in such a way as to include law enforcement raids of his offices and the threat of very real jail time.

Chung Wei-ding, more famously known as AmoGood ... makes videos of big screen films, where he often humourously summarises their plot with quick-speaking voiceover. He's done parodies of local films, as well as Hollywood blockbusters like 50 Shades of Grey and Guardians of the Galaxy. AmoGood has over 990,000 subscribers, who often virally share his creations on social media.

But Taiwanese film studio AutoAi Design, and streaming platform KKTV, say 31-year-old infringed on the studios' copyright. AutoAi Design, which distributed films like Doraemon: Nobita's Space Heroes in Taiwan, also said that AmoGood's critiques have greatly dented its ticket sales at the box office. Taiwanese prosecutors obtained a warrant to raid his company premises for evidence, and the YouTuber was called into a Taipei police station for questioning last week, the China Post reported.

You will immediately see the stark difference in treatment between Wei-ding and his American counterparts, such as CinemaSins, which likewise produces parody commentary on blockbuster films. These short-ish videos laced with wicked humor and short clips throughout the films which they comment on are clearly transformative on their own, but its their clear status as parody that protects them in America. Wei-ding doesn't have that status to rely on, though some media reports indicate that he may be in trouble for other reasons as well.

AmoGood may be in a bind in Taiwan, whose media laws don't count parodies as fair use. The territory's courts are likely to consider other factors too, such as whether the work takes away potential sales or viewers from the original work. Additionally, reports have speculated that AmoGood downloads the source films illegally, since he's able to produce the parodies so quickly after their box office debut.

Any copyright claim on him pirating the films would, however, be entirely separate from the charge that his videos themselves are infringing. And, when asked by the film studios targeting him, their comments are all about his videos, not from where he sourced his material. In those comments demonstrate the importance of protecting parody in order to stave off the obstruction of speech over hurt feelings.

Some Taiwanese filmmakers aren't fans. A couple of them told Apple Daily that his videos were "disrespectful" to their movies.

"Each film is the brainchild of directors and producers, and this guy just took it and made fun of it," Kevin Chu — the director of Taiwanese hits like Kung Fu Dunk — told Apple Daily. "I don't believe that this is considered fair use. It's disrespect."

It goes without saying that whether his films are disrespectful or not has no bearing on whether or not his videos ought to be covered by fair use. But when you leave that door open by failing to protect parody, these are the types of arguments you'll get from film studios. For all of this, Wei-ding faces up to five years in prison on top of civil penalties for his parody videos. If that doesn't strike you as crazy, it should.

Filed Under: amogood, chung wei-ding, copyright, fair use, parody, taiwan
Companies: autoai, kktv