Hello,

This is Saruta, the founder of Save Miku Overseas. I was busy in recent weeks, but I am back and I am looking at this. (Another member wrote the page).

Apparently, the phrases that caused the criticism were:

“The problem with video deletions had been solved by Google and Crypton over two months ago”

“This leads me to believe that the problem is stemming from all of the new fans who have no idea that the situation was handled a long time ago. So we as a community need to spread the news that there is no longer a problem.”

Unfortunately, the phrases were not true. “Almost solved” is not the same as “solved”, and there was no corporate announcement later. Moreover, apparently Google never responded at all.

The wave of attacks went away, but there was no “solution”. We are still open to new attacks.

The danger apparently comes from a mix of reuploaders not being sure what they are doing, trolls always eager to wreak havoc, and the unfortunate thing called DMCA.

What is true, however, is that reuploads and Save Miku art are not going to solve the problem. Reuploads, in fact, can make it worse. If people are afraid of future copyright attacks, they should just save copies, but NOT reupload them at present.

I am working on a big fat summary article that explains the problem as it stands. If you want to see the draft, contact me privately.

this looks like some type of chapter from “1984″ or “the process” by kafka…

The false take downs had ceased or even completely stopped long before I posted that article, which means SOMETHING had obviously been done (it’s highly unlikely that the party/parties responsible would simply “stop”). And I mentioned Google because Crypton is a partner of Google/YouTube, and solving a problem like this would obviously require collaboration between the two. This does NOT mean it’s Google’s responsibility to say anything about it, that would be up to Crypton. Lastly, I’m not sure on what you mean “contact you privately”. Do you mean through the email you used to post your comment? I’m just making sure, because not everyone types a legit email.

Oh, and more on this…

“Crypton is a powerful company with many powerful partners (such as Google), and they’re perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. They don’t need an army. As fans, we don’t need to do anything more than observe from the sidelines.”

Vocaloid fan fiction tends to present Crypton as some sort of music megacorp. But fiction is just fiction. In reality, Crypton is not “a powerful company”, it is a small (30 employees as of 2008, according to Wikipedia) partner of Yamaha. I am not aware that a special partnership exists between Crypton and Google.

But, yes, Crypton does not need an army, simply because Crypton is not the matter at all. Crypton was never in danger. Miku, as a Crypton product, was never in danger nor was it ever claimed.

“Save Miku” was, from the start, about the Western fandom possibly losing access to Miku. And, to be honest, Crypton does not seem to excel at handling Western fandom. its only attempts at outreach to the West seem to be Mikubook, which has no clear aim, and English Miku, who is in danger of becoming vaporware as supposed release dates slip continuously. (And her latest demo, in my view, was not great – they picked a good *musicial* inspead of an experienced Vocaloid producer).

In my view, the best thing that Crypton could do for “Save Miku” would be an English UI for Piapro, complete with an official English PCL. Translators could then collaborate on Piapro as full participants. Unfortunately they never did this.

So as things stand, this is a fandom issue. NOT a Crypton issue.

Of course, Google is involved. But because of DMCA, Google has very little choice in the matter – it is obliged to obey requests or else it could face a lawsuit.

No, it’s not enough to “watch from the sidelines”. We’re on our own here. There is no cavalry – unless WE ARE the cavalry.

I am “Western” (well, originally Russian, living in Ireland most of the time) myself, but I was very impressed with the very significant work by Japanese contributors of Save Miku. And this work – including license research and monitoring deletions – may have played a significant role in stopping the attacks.

Together, we were able to prove that the names they used were false, and we were within an inch of proving they actually deleted videos where copyright was legitimate. (The hardest part turned out to be contacting the *reuploaders*, who tend to shy away from problems). A wave of counterclaims could have left to identification and prosecution of the trolls. So, they hurriedly withdrew. There were some copycat attacks and one of the Japanese contributors apparently notified police (!) in Japan; after that, I think we did not hear of more copycat attacks.

That’s not the sidelines. And that’s not unneeded.

You were right that the noise should calm down. But, probably unintentionally, you stated that no fandom work was needed at all. This naturally did not go very well with some fans who did very real investigative work and, quite possibly, were instrumental in stopping attacks. That’s where it started.

And I really hope it can all be made friendly. After all, as Vocaloid fans we all have the same aim. You were right in trying to stop the noise, but you were somewhat loose with the facts and wordings.

Just give me a couple more days to make that summary, then we could use that to make a joint and clear update?

(Yeah, that email is legit all right)

Ah, I remember about the partnership now – the “Original Creators” thing, http://originalcreator.net/

This is a system where Crypton finds fan uploads of songs published on Crypton’s label, Karen-T. It then places ads on the videos and uses the proceeds to pay the authors.

It is probably a good system, but it does not give Crypton any special status to influence the way Google processes copyright takedown notices, at least for songs NOT on Karen-T.

Crypton may have protected the Karen-T ones somehow, but we have no information on the matter. They did not make a statement.

(I really do wish Crypton devoted more attention to Western fans. But I can’t blame them – their money comes from Japanese producers who buy Japanese Vocaloids).

Nice to meet you.
My name is Y.Tsujii.

If Crypton is to release the Crypton’s Vocaloid package for overseas, the situation may be improved dramatically.

Because, if Crypton expand the Vocaloid CGM abroad, needs overseas edition of the PCL.

“Overseas edition of the PCL”: It will be made in a local language of the sales country for overseas fans. And it will be made in a local laws of the sales country to comply with the sales country law.

Now, PCL support only the laws of japan . And PCL support only the language of japan .

According to the twitter of the person who is responsible for Krypton, he is exploring, the sale of packages overseas.

Sorry, my English is poor.

Piapro overseas edition does not exist.
Why?
Because, Crypton is very small company.

Piapro is Vocaloid CGM.
To expand Vocaloid CGM overseas edition, need local corporation.
Because, it need be made in a local language of the sales country for overseas fans. And, because, it need be made in a local laws of the sales country to comply with the sales country law.
But it is difficult by Crypton.
Because, Crypton is very small company.