A Small Rant.

Hello everyone! It's Phil / Nine here. First posts are always fun.

Recently a small video I put together for my MySpace profile (cough cough add me ;D), which showcased clips of ParaPara videos I did with Vicky / Coach Vee, was targeted for removal by AVEX on the grounds of "copyright violation." I received a nice little email from MySpace notifying me of this. This isn't the first time I've experienced this; about a year ago two ParaPara videos of mine where removed from YouTube for the same reason.

Okay - I completely understand the need of enforcing their right to protect their licenced intellectual property, and this move doesn't come as a surprise to me, but is the problem of Eurobeat piracy going to be solved by targeting insignificant violations? Without going into explicit detail, AVEX has been known to focus their energy on specific targets and even the people who they licence from. There are stories out there about fights between AVEX and Eurobeat fans, as well as a 'clash of opinion' between them and artists and labels about copyright issues on the net.

I can understand their pleas to websites like YouTube and MySpace - they can practically make these companies bend over backwards with a pre-written cease and desist notice. Websites such as these and fileshare websites like megaupload and rapidshare have policies in place to fight against piracy, but why is that they seemingly turn a blind eye on other websites that actively promote illegal downloads and only target places that provide easy routes? Is it because it's more difficult for them to get things done? A company such as AVEX shouldn't forfeit their rights just because it will take more than a simple request for the activity to stop.

Of course, everyone knows by now that if you upload a video with a licensed AVEX track on YouTube, regardless of length or quality, it won't be there for long... but month after month you can just waltz over to IDForums and download the newest releases. My concern is that with AVEX's way of dealing with this issue, they're making it out that full blown piracy is a-ok but insignificant violations isn't.

Is it really acceptable for me to download a 320kbps rip of a Super Eurobeat album from IDForums but it's not okay for me to have a 45 second clip of "I Wanna Be Fat" in a fan-made parapara video on my MySpace profile?

My MySpace page has views from Eurobeat artists, labels, producers, fans, and would-be fans. I considered the 45 seconds of I Wanna Be Fat, 30 seconds of Feel My Heart and 35 seconds of Raparapadance in that video free promotion. Obviously, AVEX doesn't see it that way and I guess samples of music is more of a threat than the availability of high quality albums rips.

It still amazes me to this day that people who actively promote the piracy of this music hardly get any notice but those who throw money at the genre month after month and preach about supporting it get slapped in the face. AVEX, if you're reading... continue fighting; but rethink the game plan.