AmoGood (谷阿莫), a Taiwanese YouTuber known for his irreverent movie reviews, has found himself in a legal battle after being sued for copyright infringement.
Video streaming platform KKTV Co and film company Autoai Design on Monday said that they are suing AmoGood for infringing on their intellectual property rights by using images from their films without notifying them in advance.
KKTV executive Yang Chih-kuang (楊志光) yesterday accused AmoGood of reproducing and spreading unauthorized content and for failing to give attribution when using images from the South Korean TV series W, which it distributed in Taiwan.
Photo: screen grab from YouTube
AmoGood has knowingly spread unauthorized content on YouTube, Facebook, Weibo and other online platforms, Yang said.
Yang declined to comment on the amount of damages sought, saying that the case has entered judicial proceedings.
Autoai Design said AmoGood has used images from at least four films that it has distributed and has affected the films box office receipts by making them “sound boring.”
AmoGood, whose YouTube channel has more than 987,000 subscribers, produces short videos using scenes from films while he sums up the plot, often in an offbeat and irreverent manner.
AmoGood on Monday defended his videos online, saying that he believes they do not violate the principle of fair use under copyright law, which allows people to use copyrighted materials for commentary, research, news reporting and other purposes without having to obtain permission from the copyright holder.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that it has started an investigation and that police searched AmoGood’s company on Wednesday.
Chang Chung-hsin (章忠信), a academic who specializes in intellectual property law, said that if AmoGood’s short videos are intended to mock and ridicule the original film, then he has a better chance of arguing that his videos are in line with Article 52 of the Copyright Act (著作權法), which stipulates that, within a reasonable scope, works can be quoted where necessary for comment or other legitimate purposes.
“However, if the videos are merely short film synopses, it will be harder for the YouTuber to claim fair use,” Chang said.
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
TALKS CONTINUE: Although an agreement has not been reached with Washington, lowering the tariff from 32 percent to 20 percent is still progress, the vice premier said Taiwan would strive for a better US tariff rate in negotiations, with the goal being not just lowering the current 20-percent tariff rate, but also securing an exemption from tariff stacking, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday. Cheng made the remarks at a news conference at the Executive Yuan explaining the new US tariffs and the government’s plans for supporting affected industries. US President Donald Trump on July 31 announced a new tariff rate of 20 percent on Taiwan’s exports to the US starting on Thursday last week, and the Office of Trade Negotiations on Friday confirmed that it
RSS