hello fellow music video directors and enthusiasts. Sour's "Hibi No Neiro" music video, which I posted in July, has been ripped off for commercials and music video. Does anyone has advice what to do? Someone suggested to get a lawyer and sue them: however they are all in different countries and different laws and the lawyer costs a lot of money...

Here is the original www.youtube.com

Israeli cell phone commercial

French music video

Phillippine snack commercial

         

Who directed/produced those ads?

         

Imitation - is the sincerest form of flattery.

Liken it to Bollywood films doing Hollywood take offs, you do have rights over intellectual property that is copyrighted but no control over protecting it if someone steals your concept. There's no such thing as a new idea anymore. Get a lawyer.

         

Sue if you got money. :P

         

make yourself heard by exposure and ridicule; sueing makes you look like prigs and will likely get you nowhere; if they haven't noticed yet, alert youthoughtwewouldntnotice; alert the creative mag rounds (boards, shots, creative review, the lot); team up with oren lavie&the nathans, who're suffering much the same fate; work fiercely towards your next awesome idea.

         

When bollywood or whatever does knock offs, it's BECAUSE hollywood already made a bunch of money. High paid "creatives" copying some no-budget video is entirely more insulting. The Israel spot seems to be BBDO, who should be wanting to avoid embarrassment.

Still, maybe it gets you bigger directing credentials in a roundabout way.

Is your video owned by a record company?

         

I think progosk has the right idea, although if you have money maybe have a go, nice to get some cash for your next vid! but certainly just let it be known... you could make a video splice up and upload to youtube to show, let the creative mags and so on know. must be annoying as hell...

         

did you direct the original? Which one are you?

If you aren't - why do you care.

If you are:

DON'T SUE. You will probably lose. And either way, life is WAY too short to waste your time in litigation. You will regret it.

Dude, LAUNCH A FUCKING COMMERCIAL CAREER! That should have been you directing all these spots. You can sign to just about any production company you want to. Contact them all. The window is small. But if the guys who made the stop motion of the girl on a bed can become big time directors, so can you.

         

Just keep doing more cool stuff and you'll eventually win. A director is only as valuable as his next great idea. Your fans will appropriate your ideas to varying degrees, but if you keep releasing great stuff you'll grow an audience and make it obvious when someone steals. -j

         

It's too late... take it from me, I was ripped off by Blink 182, Brian Adams, Safeway, and dozens of other companies. I figured out, the hard way, that you have to copy write the concept, which costs about 10 grand, before you release it to the public. Once you put it out there, it's up for grabs, unless you have legally protected it. You're screwed, enjoy! And by the way, you stole part of your idea from me too... the part where you used a collage of images to make one image, wasn't your idea... it was mine... So, your kinda a hack too!

         

^ dayton & faris?

         

Yeah yeah, nothing is original. But there's a difference between lifting something etherial like a concept and trying to make a partial facsimile of the concrete execution, copying a design.

In the highly litigious music industry, most things being highly derivative is the accepted norm. But if you have too many exact notes or lyrics in row in common with something pre-existing, you get sued. There's not even any debate about it.

Not that anyone should take after the music industry.

         

in this case there's definitely a direct rip-off, but there is such a thing as collective conscience, especially in the current age of cultural globalisation. We all check out the same references, watch the same movies and the same youtube videos, so sometimes we make the same connections and create similar things. I think i remember Dougal Wilson saying he'd written exactly the same concept as Nima for a Lily Allen video, and i've heard this often from commissioners.

This here is a clear rip-off, but i don't think there's anything to be gained from suing. Jesse Ewles' advice is spot on. Channel your frustration into doing another cool project, and get yourself signed so that when agencies want to use your next idea, they have an easy way of coming to you.

         

I'm not sure if we can say with certainty that this is a rip-off.

         

All you can do is get used to it! It happens to everyone and having such a convenient source as youtube for creatives to sift through and get 'inspired' will only increase this trend.

There has been some honorable companies who have contacted the director for either permission or to create the spot, but this is not common practice as of yet.

Since this video was quite a big internet hit, I'm sure the ad agencies used the vid as reference but the fact is that the directors (while they did a great job) never invented or patented interconnecting split screens. In fact I think I've seen it on Sesame street.

I agree that all you can do is keep coming back with better ideas and you'll surely get noticed and be the one doing the commercials next time!

         

i was called into a meeting with a label and they sat me down and shamelessly showed me the original video and said: 'we want to do something like this but for our song. you interested?' I vainly tried to persuade label-man to be inspired by the film rather than rip it off but he wasn't listening... The concept did not even fit the song one iota. It was an emotional ballad pop thing. He was just so blinded by his love for the original video. PEOPLE LIKE THIS NEED TO BE STOPPED!

So you might have to suffer the indignity of another rip off working it's way onto the net soon. But don't worry- no one will see it. The music was rubbish.

         

Don't sue... You did an excellent job on your video and those people ripped you off, but all you really did was invent a technique. Just like a cross fade, a super imposition, or split screen for that matter. You were the first one to do that using webcams and you deserve all the praise and accolades. But by putting your work out there for the world to see, people are going to copy you. Great portfolio by the way, your body of work is amazing. Don't waste your time dwelling in legal nonsense, just keep doing what you do.

         

another ripoff website

copycunts.blogspot.com

         

another ripoff campaign (pepsi & vogel, no less).

         

And also in the world of stills