Yesterday I uploaded a video of the famous 1902 silent film, A Trip to the Moon or La Voyage dans la Lune by Georges Méliès, with my original accompaniment, to YouTube. Today I got a notice that it’s blocked because somebody called “CPR Agency for MK2” claims to own the movie. This is obvious nonsense. I’ve disputed the claim and hope the video will be available before long.
There’s a French cinema company called MK2, founded by Marin Karmitz. This may be the claimant. MK2 offers a colorized version, for which they could have a legitimate copyright, but the video I uploaded was strictly black and white.
The video I uploaded includes a celebration scene at the end, which is missing from most versions of the movie on YouTube. It doesn’t look any more copyrightable than the rest, but maybe MK2 claims to own that. However, the YouTube notice indicates that the copyrighted material is all but the first three seconds.
Unless I’m missing something, the copyright claim is weaker than the one which Flicker Alley made against my video with The Lost World. Copyright in some European nations has some tricks for extending it that don’t apply in the US, but that should have it blocked only in those countries. I doubt that Méliès ever renewed the copyright on the film, and an Internet search doesn’t turn up any claims that it’s still under copyright.
Copyright trolls cause trouble because they face no negative consequences. Legally, false copyright claims constitute perjury, but it’s rare for charges to be brought.
MK2 has 30 days to respond. I’ll post an update when I have something to report.
I’m reminded of the scene in The Colossal Caves” text game.
You come to a bridge. The troll will not let you cross until yoi give him something.
I am in a similar boat. Over the years I have had THREE different companies claim I was using their version. They are like a hydras head. Even they colorized version, it is a derivative work and thus not protected. But I too was using a black and white clip. One with other things green screen into it to make it transformative… but every time one company drops a complaint, another pops up.
Gary…. Good news… I was able to defeat their claim. If you still need help, I can give you some pointers.
MK2 backed down and my video is safely online, but thanks.