Top 10 Lost Horror Films - (by James Rolfe aka the AVGN)

I'm pretty sure that video was what got me interested in lost media as well. Glad to see I'm not the only one who remembers it since a lot of his older non-AVGN stuff (namely his old movie reviews) has fallen into obscurity after he took most of it off his YouTube channel.

My main problem with it being on Cinemassacre was that, for a good 1-2 years, the video player on his website wasn't working for me. Like, the videos just wouldn't show up at all, it was just a blank space, so until I saw somebody else saying it was just a glitch for some people, I genuinely thought he just did a total purge of everything there. Glad that's fixed now.

But yeah, I guess when he did that he took a "better safe than sorry" approach, since I highly doubt he got into any copyright trouble for reviewing The Vulture, for instance, a 1967 movie so obscure its only home release is an EXTREMELY rare VHS. Also, there are a few AVGN episodes that used movie footage in the original versions that later got replaced with safer footage (Rambo and Rocky come to mind, but I know there are more.)

Of the movies in this list I think the ones I find most intriguing are the 2 Dracula ones. The second one probably doesn't exist, but I'd really like to see Dracula's Death.

I'm no lawyer, but technically, under U.S. copyright law, using copyrighted material for the purpose of parodying or reviewing it counts as fair use. Stuff like this is a total grey area, since the amount of the work used and the nature of the work are also taken into consideration, and everything is judged on a case-by-case basis, but internet reviews are typically considered fair use for the previous reason, and the fact that they're of transformative and noncommercial nature (James does sell them on DVD, but since they're also readily available for free, I'm pretty sure that makes it count as noncommercial; it would make sense considering whenever Nostalgia Critic does DVD-exclusive episodes they're always based on public domain media, even though his regular reviews come along with it). I think in this case it's more based on the fact that, whether or not it would be considered fair use by a judge, companies can still issue takedown notices and YouTube will automatically comply, taking down videos and even entire channels without even checking to see if the copyright claims are valid. YouTube's kind of notorious for caring more about not losing money than sticking up for their users. That's why blip.tv was such a haven for internet reviewers (at least, before it shut down), because they actually fought for their users in cases like this. As for him also taking the footage off the DVD releases, I guess he just figured getting into a huge legal battle wasn't in his best interest, and so it wasn't worth it to even try to argue fair use.

tl;dr "it's so complicated nobody fully understands it"

Anyways, getting back to your ACTUAL question, my understanding is that using video game footage is either fair use, or that companies almost never care because it's free promotion, and it isn't as if the audience can play the games through the video so they aren't losing any money. This is especially true in his case because the games are so old those companies aren't making any money off them PERIOD, and in many cases, the companies that made them don't even exist anymore. There have been a few companies in the past that have gone after videos that use newer game footage, but usually either they change their minds or YouTube (for once) steps in to defend these videos, I'm guessing only because something like 99% of YouTube's profit comes from shitty Let's Play channels.

He always seems to find all the information...but I hope he does do another that video sparked alot of interest for me to. I rember around the time of his first (or secound) Halloween a thon he would post about other films on his website. Alot of them are very obscure.