Derivative Work Guidelines
Introduction
MAROSTUDIO Corp. (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Company’) has established in advance the guidelines (hereinafter referred to as the “general guidelines”) for derivative work to prevent various issues that may arise in the process of creating derivative work with content provided by our company and to allow for the supply and distribution of the derivative work properly and smoothly without having to seek separate permission.
These guidelines are applied to the activities of derivative works of the following products (hereinafter referred to as the “Contents”):
Official characters to which our Company exclusively owns the copyright, and any media such as illustrations related thereto.
Music and other media to which our Company exclusively owns the copyright.
Please note that any derivative works you create may be selected by affiliated talents for use in thumbnails, SNS or social media, etc.
In order to publish derivative works of our Contents, it is necessary for you to read and agree to all of these guidelines in advance. In the event that you cannot agree to these guidelines, then you will not be able to publish derivative works of our Contents. At the point in time that you publish the derivative works, then you will be deemed to have agreed to the entirety of these guidelines.
When publishing derivative works that comply with these guidelines, there is no need to apply or contact us for permission. Please follow the general code of conduct in the derivative works community and freely enjoy creating derivative works.
There may be instances where our Company's talents present their individual intentions regarding derivative works outside of these Guidelines. Please refer to those as well, and we would be thankful to have you create and publish works that respect the spirit of the Contents.
Please refer to the additional guidelines below regarding our music content and clip videos.
Definition of Derivative Work
We define derivative work activity as any activities that utilize creativity to delve into new creations based on content provided by us, and derivative work is defined as all content created through these series of activities.
We do not consider the use of our content as-is, or reproductions only with modifications lacking creative input or originality, to be classified as derivative works. Such use does not fall within the scope of these guidelines.
Examples of activities that cannot be considered derivative work
Publishing official character illustrations to which our Company exclusively owns the copyright after applying trimming, color modifications, trivial arrangement, etc.
Precautions
Please observe the following guidelines regarding derivative work.
Please refrain from any creative activities that our talents might find offensive.
Please comply with all laws, platform protocols, and other regulations applicable to the derivative work.
Derivative work that include controversial, particular ideology, religious, political content or intentions, and anything else not considered to be acceptable by the public are prohibited.
Derivative work that significantly damage the reputation of the company or any of the talents are prohibited.
Derivative work that damage any third party’s reputation or violate their rights are strictly prohibited.
Impersonating our company, our talents, or any third party, or producing any derivative work that may be misunderstood as a specific person or organization is prohibited.
Acceptable standards for adult content (NSFW) vary between talents, so please comply with the standards specified by the talents. If the criteria are not clear, please contact each talent.
Please proceed with these activities with the main intention of them being hobbies. We do not permit anything that can be considered for-profit or for business purposes (including, cases where the business bears the production cost, etc. even if it is under an individual’s name).
A business may not produce, sell, or distribute derivative work without our consent.
Other than that, derivative work deemed inappropriate are prohibited.
Based on your use of the hashtag "#VNUentertain" or a Twitter hashtag (“# [hashtag used on Twitter]”) that is designated by an official VNU talent, you may be able to better enjoy the derivative works activities closely with our Company and the talents, so please use them. However, even if the tag is not used when publishing a derivative work, please note that the guidelines and rights still apply.
Other
We do not waive the copyright and related rights of our content in accordance with the general guidelines and we reserve the authority to exercise these rights.
We cannot guarantee the use of our content and related derivative work, including any actions that may violate a third party’s rights.
We are not responsible for and will not mediate any disputes that arise with third parties from the use of our content or related derivative work.
General guidelines may be modified without notice. We are not responsible for any damages that arise from following the guidelines prior to the changes made. Please make sure to have checked the latest version.
Guidelines for Creating Clips
Introduction
As we encourage our talents and our content to be promoted through clips (kirinuki) made using the company’s or talents’ video content, we have established guidelines for clip creation (hereinafter referred to as “clip guidelines”) to aid with the production and publishing of such clips more freely.
Please refer to the general guidelines as well as the clip guidelines as both are subject to clips.
Please refer to the terms and conditions of the content rights’ holder for the creation of clips containing content that we do not have copyright or related rights to. In addition, we do not respond to inquiries regarding third party usage agreements.
The guidelines do not apply to members-only video content, ticket-based live video content, and other paid content, and use of these content are prohibited unless separate permission is granted by the company.
Precautions
Please observe the following as well as the “precautions” in the general guidelines regarding the production and posting of clips.
Please fill in the following information at the beginning of the clip’s description.
Title of the video (hereinafter referred to as the “original video”) which the clip’s content is based upon.
URL of the original clip
Please refrain from uploading clips before the original video’s stream has ended and the VOD has been released.
Please understand that clips may be subject to deletion due to the content, thumbnails, and other reasons.
Regarding Monetization
Clips that comply with the above “precautions” are permitted for use to generate advertising revenue through partner or creator programs provided by the video upload platform, provided that they do not violate the platform’s terms and conditions and other relevant third-party content rights holders’ terms and conditions.
The automatic identification function of the clip being registered as your own work, including Content ID, is prohibited.
Other
Standards as stated in the “other” section of the general guidelines will apply.
Guidelines for Music
Introduction
We have established guidelines for music (hereinafter referred to as “Music Guidelines”) for the smooth and proper use of our music content (hereinafter referred to as “our music”).
Our music is subject to both the general guidelines as well as the music guidelines, so please refer to them together.
These guidelines only apply to original songs sung by V&U talents distributed through various music distribution platforms and do not apply to the songs listed in the appendix.
Musical Derivative Work
We define musical derivative work as any activity that creates new music, such as cover songs based on our music or remixes of our music, and all music created through these series of activities.
Music that lack originality and correspond to a simple reproduction or equivalent level of our original music are not considered musical derivative work and are not applicable under the derivative work guidelines.
Our music can be used for remixes regardless of the above regulations, but please note that it may be detected as the company’s registered Content ID when you post it on a video-sharing site.
We prohibit speech generation by extracting the voices of our talents from our music.
When uploading the musical derivative work, please indicate the producer of the original music in the format as follows:
<Example>
Song:
Artist:
Precautions
Standards listed in the “precautions” section of the general guidelines also apply.
Regarding Playlists
Our company or our talents can add musical derivative work posted on sharing sites to playlists. Furthermore, we may need to contact the producer, so please list the contact information in the outline of the shared site.
Other
Standards as stated in the “other” section of the general guidelines will apply.
Revised on Feb 23rd, 2023.