Lillee Jean on Copyright Protections | Project: Bullyish

Lillee Jean
Jun 23, 2024
8 min read

Updated: Jul 19

Digital rights are straightforward. They pertain to human rights. Digital rights live online and relate to your legal human rights.

Dignity, respect, equality, justice, as well as, consent all live as digital rights.

Due to the simplicity of crafting misleading statements online and the ease of fostering an unstable and unsafe online environment, the right to consent has become a significant concern.

"The right to restrict users from editing or saving your content; restrict or prevent users from sharing or forwarding your product or content; Restrict or prevent users from printing your content; Disallow users from creating screenshots or screengrabs of your content. Copyright education: Many people pay little attention to the copyright details of the content they own. DRM helps organizations clearly communicate what customers can and cannot do with their digital media, which in turn educates users about how copyright and intellectual property work." - Digital Guardian

Copyright Enforcement: Platform Responsibility

For example, rights have been enforced by companies such as Netflix, which blocks screengrabs, and Apple, which prevents music from being pirated. Platforms with "easy access to creation" tools and low levels of moderation lead to people paying little attention to copyright education and information about pirated content they are not allowed to use.

The right to fair use is not a protective seal; in other words, if you pirate a piece of content from a user online and do not ask permission, you have violated their digital rights.

This is a critical legal distinction reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith (2023).

In that case, the Court sided with the photographer, affirming that a commercial use of a copyrighted work is not a fair use if it has a substantially similar purpose to the original.

"Viewers everywhere enjoy watching their favorite films, series, and events online. It's easy to recognize that it's difficult to know if what you're watching is legitimate or not.

The reality is, a lot of the content shared on certain platforms is stolen, just a fact. This is not your fault, though, as the viewer. You are being fed misinformation, and it's not always easy to tell the difference between a legal stream and an illegal one. It's manipulatively marketed.

These platforms that distribute stolen content without permission harm the artists, writers, actors, and crews who create the work you love."

This decision solidifies the rights of all creators, including filmmakers, to utilize any legal means available to ensure their work is protected, as a defense of "fair use" is not a valid justification for unauthorized commercial exploitation.

A Filmmaker's Stance on Intellectual Property

When it comes to copyright, there needs to be actual legal representation.

Some platforms don't provide on-staff lawyers to review legitimate copyright claims. They're just workers "taking" claims, which would shock most.

As an independent filmmaker and entertainer, I have made it my mission with Bullyish to address the protection of creative work and intellectual property concisely. So many in the industry have had our films stolen and profited upon.

It simply is illegal, and not just.

The process of safeguarding creative assets, from copyrighted films to registered art pieces, can be complex, but does it have to be, though? Things in my eyes should be black and white. Hand in valid copyright papers - valid acceptance. That never happens simply, however.

Speaking to my own experience in providing legitimate government-registered copyright paperwork for my films and photographs, only to face a brick wall with platforms protecting theft, it has only strengthened my resolve to ensure that entertainers' rights for copyright are upheld.

In an isolated incident, with a high-powered platform, I provided actual paperwork of my copyright (the physical Government papers you received with a stamp), and the platform allowed me to be exploited by allowing the violator to publish the private legal emails on Twitter and their channel.

It seems if a stolen property earns a lot, has a ton of views, and the smug thief hides behind "fair usage" (which is a nice way of admitting to guilt when you colorize, distort, and prove you've stolen MORE by alteration), the theft remains LIVE, and not taken down.

Now get this, for fear of my safety, I even had the police CC'ed on the emails (I have an open criminal harassment investigation on the thief's company for ongoing harassment over the years towards myself, and my family). This is not how copyright should work. Nobody should feel threatened and unsafe. This teeters into entertainers who have been blackmailed - don't do this to us, or we will tactics.

A Proactive Stance on Intellectual Property

As a professional filmmaker, director, and actress, safeguarding intellectual property is of the utmost importance. I have taken a proactive approach to protecting my work, including my films such as The Trapper Trap, Miss Roxie, and Bullyish, as well as my art pieces.

Once you publish your work, you own the work. However, I have gone beyond simply publishing my work by securing legitimate copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office.

This formal process provides irrefutable ownership rights and underscores my commitment to defending my creative assets.

Below, you will notice evident theft on platforms where profits are generated, but not earned by me. I gained a purposefully tarnished reputation from these not individuals, but digital media CORPORATIONS, on these platforms (see my article on this).

Even after submitting the necessary documentation to these platforms to prove copyright ownership and rights for each registered work, the platforms rejected the claims.

I later discovered that the individual "investigating" the claims was collaborating with those harassing me and was accessing my site from Kuala Lumpur without using a VPN. This person was not a lawyer, just a random employee of that site.

You could even see one small example of a photo pirated from my website, and NOT published anywhere else since the date of theft.

Not only was my watermark on the lower right side removed, which clearly says Lillee Jean Productions, but the photo also says all rights reserved, suggesting I do not want any of my Content to be stolen.

The American company that misappropriated this content must be held accountable. My films were subsequently pirated by these media agencies, with the aim of damaging my reputation further, and allowing them to profit excessively. All because the platforms were biased due to their own personal gain. Breaking the law. Go figure.

As a filmmaker, I am committed to the ethical protection of all creative work. My experience has reinforced the critical need for artists to advocate for their intellectual property and combat unauthorized use.

In one last example, my digital artwork was stolen on several platforms, thanks to these people (corporations) who for years have been harassing my family. I recently wrote an article on the abuse, and how I've taken action criminally for these occurrences.

As well as being championed by platforms not housing proper legal, and supplying these people with improper information themselves, below you'll see pretty alarming copyright violations.

Not only is my signature on one of the art pieces, in the same breath, I'm being violated and harassed. They even made videos that they were copyright-struck to create more buzz.

The ironic part is that these very people do not want people to steal their artwork, thus proving this ruse is all a sham to unethically confuse viewers.

My professional advocacy is rooted in the conviction that all artists must champion a culture of respect and ethical conduct within the creative community.

Lillee Jean on Copyright Protections | Project: Bullyish

Further examples of theft - my site policy is additionally being violated by platforms such as a well-known platform.

They're condoning pirating on insane levels. As a result, these people harassing me (they call themselves the Lillee Jean Clone Cult), utilizing that very platform, are "victims" of "false" copyright claims, despite each claim being legitimate.

They harass me, they become victims - so becomes the cycle of these internet people. The photos had my watermark removed on the lower right corner.

To date, I have filed FBI IC3 complaints and opened up police reports on threats to my life, and explicit deepfakes being made of me.

Fair Usage Debate

The Fair Use Doctrine of copyright law suggests that there is no copyright violation when a portion of a work is commentary or criticism of that work. People live in a world where you do not have rights, they have rights.

You can never "strike" them or "silence" them. Despite right being right, a copyright violation is had, these people put their emotions into pieces they stole. They act like THEY own your work.

Why? They just paid for the following with your image: a cover editor, a video editor, a voice synthesizer, and a scriptwriter. They lose money when you rightfully get the stolen content pulled - and in return rage on the internet, despite the fact that they stole your work, and you won't make a dime off of it.

As you can see from rights and permissions above, only myself, and my company, own the rights to these pictures, these drawings, and these works. Yet, they are nonstop being pirated.

Fair usage like with musicians and specific cords, or movies, follows the same route. You can't use it. My United States of America copyright is being violated non-stop.

People are extremely misinformed and normally use works maliciously or degradingly.

It doesn't help that these platforms do not have legitimate legal counsel as well. These corporations are being misguided. It is also worth mentioning these companies, of these channels are unethically confusing viewers with under-researched content, to make a profit and in some cases, cause sadistic pain to victims such as myself.

In one instance, a 40-second clip of my acting demo reel was utilized, which had a watermark that was mechanically and intentionally removed, and the video was put as "Creative Commons licensing", despite me, the actual rights holder, not permitting that. These are illegal crimes.

How This Affects Artists

Anyone out there who is an artist should be concerned about how platforms are handling your copyright. They do NOT have your best interest - they encourage the theft for their own A.I. offshoots, and for profit in some cases.

Artwork especially, in a digital age where artificial intelligence is being used and pirated non-stop, needs to be looked at closely, and legally. Not to protect the pirates, to protect the artists. The artists who DO indeed have rights - they're being silenced.

If you think about fair usage and think it's OK, and you happen to be an artist whether that be somebody who is an actor or physically painting or making a movie or a musician I want you to think.

Think about if your new chorus you created was stolen and used in someone's streaming gameplay. You earn no royalties. You earn nothing. Let's say it's used in a game you don't want your music, or, your artwork (maybe it's the profile picture) to be marketed next to. You'd feel very different.

These people online mainly steal other people's content(s) to do the following: