Avex Inc is going on a blocking rampage, blocking anything on YouTube resembling Initial D and that, sadly, included Initial Doug.
Earlier today (July 20, 2018) I received some rather sobering news via Reddit that Avex Inc along with YouTube’s automatic copyright strike down system, decided to take down Initial Doug despite it being an altogether different video that arguably is protected under fair use.
Thankfully, some saint already saved it and uploaded it to another streaming service which is the last bastion of videos taken down by YouTube at the moment. I’ve already embedded it below for you to enjoy.
Whether this is fair use or not is really a tricky one. According to Stanford Univesity on their education of Fair Use,
“…a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner.”
This Initial Doug video cribs heavily from the original footage. Good examples of Fair Use would probably only use three to five seconds of original video whereas this Initial Doug video uses a lot more than that.
There’s no denying that Initial Doug is definitely transformative, making the original Initial D race into something entirely different.
A point about if its Fair use or not also includes if its taking away profits from the original creator. In Initial Doug’s case, no, not at all. If anything, it’s low-key promoting someone to actually watch the original Initial D episode to see what actually goes down.
But, at the end of the day, YouTube’s copyright system is downright brutal and will take down anything and everything even remotely resembling another of someone’s work.
Thankfully, at least for now, it’s preserved elsewhere on the interwebs.
Initial Doug forever!
