Mr Kerbibble
A couple of nerds. A nerd couple, if you will.
Would blocking him be the best thing? I mean, we aren't necessarily a large channel. Wouldn't his provoke him even further?
Someone keeps saying they'll sue us?
- Thread starter Mr Kerbibble
- Start date
Shakycow
I Love YTtalk
I would delete them instantly and only block if he continues, but you absolutely need to let him know that you will not stand for public threats while, at the same time, you open up a private channel to talk.
I would consider ignoring to be far worse provocation. At least this way you're acknowleging and giving him a chance to speak (in private where matters like this should be discussed) and stopping him from making your fans think differently of you or, worse, getting another random person to threaten you as well.
markkaz
I Love YTtalk
I suspectt that somebody is trying to build a case against me for a lawsuit'. I can't discuss the details but I would definitely block the person from posting on your channel.
I would suggest that you are careful in what you say to the person but I do encourage a dialog. This needs to be done in written form via email so that you have records of the conversations.
Be clear with your position. If this person was at a convention, there are signs all over the place that state that filming is taking place. You should also protect yourself with waivers and recorded perrmissions as you have stated. If he persists with the "I am going to sue you" retoric, then kindly state that you have done all that you can at this point and you are done with the matter.
Again, my matter is nothing similar to yours but those are my thoughts.
I would suggest that you are careful in what you say to the person but I do encourage a dialog. This needs to be done in written form via email so that you have records of the conversations.
Be clear with your position. If this person was at a convention, there are signs all over the place that state that filming is taking place. You should also protect yourself with waivers and recorded perrmissions as you have stated. If he persists with the "I am going to sue you" retoric, then kindly state that you have done all that you can at this point and you are done with the matter.
Again, my matter is nothing similar to yours but those are my thoughts.
Mr Kerbibble
A couple of nerds. A nerd couple, if you will.
Yeah, turns out now he's messaging us on our Facebook now. I'll probably need to send a message that we will talk to him later as we are at work.
Mr Kerbibble
A couple of nerds. A nerd couple, if you will.
I appreciate everyone for their advice and comments on the matter. I messaged him explaining that we are working and will talk more about it tonight. He messaged back a message giving us 12 hours evidently. I'll keep you all updated. Thank you so much 
Tarmack
Rhetorical Porcupine
To add to what has been said so far, do some reading on "reasonable expectation of privacy" and "personality rights" or "right of publicity". Not because I think you're in any danger, but more just for your own future peace of mind.
By being out in public, you are free to take pictures or video of whatever you see because people, objects and whatnot have no reasonable expectation of privacy. A cosplay convention applies to this.
However, being able to take that video doesn't necessarily mean you have the rights to publish it. That's where the right of publicity comes into play. People have a right to protect their "likeness" from being used which is as you know, why you use the consent forms to prevent future issues.
It is actually quite an amusing situation because cosplay frequently obscures the likeness of the person with the intent of appearing as someone else. And further to that, it is an individual intentionally obfuscating their own likeness in order to appear as a character that is very clearly trademarked by someone else. You're talking to someone who has no concept of what they're saying and has not consulted a lawyer. You don't get to claim right of publicity over a character that belongs to someone else. If it was his face that was visible and recognizable, then at least you'd have to go through the motions of weighing out the "appropriation of likeness" which is a longshot in a big public venue with lots of people on camera in the first place. If you grabbed his likeness and then put it into a TV ad, that's one thing, but a video at a convention is a nonsensical debate point.
By being out in public, you are free to take pictures or video of whatever you see because people, objects and whatnot have no reasonable expectation of privacy. A cosplay convention applies to this.
However, being able to take that video doesn't necessarily mean you have the rights to publish it. That's where the right of publicity comes into play. People have a right to protect their "likeness" from being used which is as you know, why you use the consent forms to prevent future issues.
It is actually quite an amusing situation because cosplay frequently obscures the likeness of the person with the intent of appearing as someone else. And further to that, it is an individual intentionally obfuscating their own likeness in order to appear as a character that is very clearly trademarked by someone else. You're talking to someone who has no concept of what they're saying and has not consulted a lawyer. You don't get to claim right of publicity over a character that belongs to someone else. If it was his face that was visible and recognizable, then at least you'd have to go through the motions of weighing out the "appropriation of likeness" which is a longshot in a big public venue with lots of people on camera in the first place. If you grabbed his likeness and then put it into a TV ad, that's one thing, but a video at a convention is a nonsensical debate point.
Mr Kerbibble
A couple of nerds. A nerd couple, if you will.
Just an update for those of you who are interested. At 8 PM last night, I sent a message explaining how these types of complaints can be addressed through the proper channels via YouTube's Copyright Infringement system, to make certain that his claim was valid. Before this message, he had sent a message saying I had 12 hours to remove the video, or his 'lawyer,' would go forward with a lawsuit. So far, there has been no response, no retaliation via our channel or our social sites, or anything. For now, I'm remaining cautiously optimistic about the whole matter. Probably what sucks about this whole thing is that if he is who he says he is, the convention we attended where we recorded this is a fairly common convention, and I'm a bit worried about physical retaliation on his end, as he does appear to be a bit on the, "unreasonable" side.
I will say that I cannot allow something like this to affect our passions for attending conventions and reveling in the conventions we attend. I always knew that as we grew, there were bound to be some 'hiccups,' such as this along the way. All I can say, is that I have learned from this experience and will need to especially be more careful about these types of matters in the future. As we are fairly open about our daily life and passions, I now know that this is something we will need to be especially careful with. If anyone has any good reading or advice on these matters (revolving around daily vlogging, privacy, safety, public etc), I would greatly appreciate it to prepare for the future, if we do indeed, get to that point.
I also want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. For those of you who have commented, advised, and just helped to alleviate my concerns in this matter, you are wonderful people. I have always loved this forum for it's helpfulness and polite nature regarding YouTube issues. Hopefully, this matter doesn't escalate and will just blow over, but regardless, I am very thankful for your advice and input. If something continues to evolve from this, I know I can count on you wonderful people to help provide the resources necessary to help us.
Again, thank you all
I will say that I cannot allow something like this to affect our passions for attending conventions and reveling in the conventions we attend. I always knew that as we grew, there were bound to be some 'hiccups,' such as this along the way. All I can say, is that I have learned from this experience and will need to especially be more careful about these types of matters in the future. As we are fairly open about our daily life and passions, I now know that this is something we will need to be especially careful with. If anyone has any good reading or advice on these matters (revolving around daily vlogging, privacy, safety, public etc), I would greatly appreciate it to prepare for the future, if we do indeed, get to that point.
I also want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. For those of you who have commented, advised, and just helped to alleviate my concerns in this matter, you are wonderful people. I have always loved this forum for it's helpfulness and polite nature regarding YouTube issues. Hopefully, this matter doesn't escalate and will just blow over, but regardless, I am very thankful for your advice and input. If something continues to evolve from this, I know I can count on you wonderful people to help provide the resources necessary to help us.
Again, thank you all