1
00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:07,200
As you may know, I narrate
creepy pastors on YouTube, but from time

2
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:11,560
to time I like to write some
of my stories here, and they almost

3
00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:17,679
always do well above and beyond an
average video. I've been around long enough

4
00:00:17,719 --> 00:00:22,039
to know what works and what doesn't, and I can piece together new trends

5
00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:28,559
based on all my years of experience. However, lately my ideas have been

6
00:00:28,679 --> 00:00:35,520
dry. I felt creatively stagnant.
I wouldn't call it writer's block, more

7
00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:42,439
just uninspired. So I was struck
with a wave of ideas when a random

8
00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:49,479
facts TikTok came in my four you
page. Apparently last year the character Winnie

9
00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:54,119
the Pooh fell into the public domain, a big hit to the Disney roster.

10
00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:59,679
After this happened, a horror movie
was immediately made, called Winnie the

11
00:00:59,679 --> 00:01:03,400
Pooh, Blood and Honey. It
didn't do well, but it never got

12
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:07,480
taken down, which gave me the
feeling of security to be able to use

13
00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:12,879
such a beloved icon. So it
was the perfect ipe to base a new

14
00:01:12,959 --> 00:01:19,640
story on. Usually stories can be
written about copyrighted ips. It falls under

15
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:25,879
the clause of fair use, but
it's a hard one to claim. A

16
00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,319
lot of keyboard lawyers think they know
how it works, but it's a lot

17
00:01:29,359 --> 00:01:34,599
more strict than people think. Things
that people think are fair use by far

18
00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:40,319
do not fall into the category.
The common rhetoric is that just by labeling

19
00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:45,200
something as parody is fine, but
there are so many nuances that aren't established

20
00:01:45,239 --> 00:01:51,319
from the vague law that you're always
treading light ground. But when something hits

21
00:01:51,359 --> 00:01:57,159
the public domain, it's fair game. The story I wrote was great.

22
00:01:59,359 --> 00:02:04,280
It was about someone who had a
strange feeling of familiarity whenever he saw Winnie

23
00:02:04,319 --> 00:02:07,439
the Pooh, even the first time
he saw a cartoon with the character,

24
00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:14,159
he had this vague sense of recognition. He starts having night terrors about the

25
00:02:14,199 --> 00:02:19,120
character, visions of Winnie visiting him
in the dead of night, wearing a

26
00:02:19,159 --> 00:02:24,400
white tshirt instead of his usual red, seeing the other characters unlooking, the

27
00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:30,400
morbid curiosity from his shelves, clawset, and other bedroom furnitures, as Winnie

28
00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:38,800
taunted the protagonist to come back.
He doesn't know what this means, come

29
00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:45,479
back back to where. Through a
series of investigations, both in the real

30
00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:51,000
world and in the night terrors,
he finds the location of the hundred Acre

31
00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:57,919
Woods, the real one and now
decrepit, overgrown hellscape of dead greens,

32
00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:01,879
no sign of life, and when
there is evidence, it's long since turned

33
00:03:01,879 --> 00:03:08,080
to bones. He stumbles upon the
creatures of childhood in a clearing, low

34
00:03:08,159 --> 00:03:16,400
illumination, flickering the very recognizable silhouettes. The protagonist watches in secret as Winnie

35
00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:23,599
and the others wait for something until
Tigger rise through an opening with a child.

36
00:03:23,879 --> 00:03:29,800
They all celebrate and act in a
jovial manner, despite what the protagonists

37
00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:35,800
had experienced from the years of torment. It was blatantly a facade, though

38
00:03:35,919 --> 00:03:39,800
that was lost on the kid.
Through a series of horrific events, a

39
00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:46,439
sacrifice is made, which soaks into
their leader, Winnie, whose shirt turns

40
00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:52,479
red from the essence. After this, the protagonist doesn't get any visits or

41
00:03:52,599 --> 00:03:58,800
night terrors. He thinks it's over
until Winnie he starts showing up again,

42
00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:09,719
the red slightly faded from his shirt. He needs more. It was perfect,

43
00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:15,120
It had everything, It used the
ip without pandering. The plot told

44
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,240
a full story, not a half
ending. I knew people hadn't read it

45
00:04:18,319 --> 00:04:25,040
and YouTube would eat it up.
I posted at first and slashed no Sleep

46
00:04:25,199 --> 00:04:30,360
to garner some attention. See if
anything needed editing and the comments I got

47
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:36,199
loved it, playing on people's nostalgia
with a dark twist. However, while

48
00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:46,879
refreshing to see newer interactions, suddenly
the story was gone. I was frustrated.

49
00:04:47,079 --> 00:04:50,720
Some of the sub rules on there
can be so arbitrary, so it

50
00:04:50,759 --> 00:04:56,920
could have been something so small to
be taken down some rules, even coming

51
00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:01,519
to the subjectivity of the particular mud
who reviewed the story. It was taken

52
00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:05,920
down at the prime time for traction. Even if I appealed it, the

53
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,680
wind would be lost from the sails. So I tried again on an old

54
00:05:12,319 --> 00:05:16,160
and the same thing happened. I
was annoyed, to say the least,

55
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:21,199
even though read it wasn't my main
source of feedback. It always feels nice

56
00:05:21,199 --> 00:05:26,839
to gain traction, but at least
I had my main use for the story

57
00:05:27,759 --> 00:05:33,199
to narrate it for YouTube. I
recorded, mastered, edited, made sure

58
00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:39,360
everything was perfect, added the effects
for visuals, cleaned up a tidy thumbnail

59
00:05:39,439 --> 00:05:43,399
to make it catchy, made sure
to give it a concise title to garner

60
00:05:43,519 --> 00:05:51,040
curiosity, and as soon as it
was posted, it was immediately taken down.

61
00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:57,680
I don't think anyone even saw it
before it was removed from my channel.

62
00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:03,600
I checked my notification. It was
a straight DMCA takedown, removed the

63
00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:13,480
copyright by Disney. I knew I
was in the right when I checked before

64
00:06:13,519 --> 00:06:18,000
writing, Winnie the Pooh was definitely
in the public domain. Surely this was

65
00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:24,959
an automated takedown. It sucks,
but something I could appeal, so I

66
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:29,720
sent a full description through the appeal
process to try to get the video reinstated,

67
00:06:30,439 --> 00:06:35,560
hoping the video was very quickly brought
back. However, it was immediately

68
00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:43,600
rejected, so I worked hard to
change things around. Mentioned Winnie less by

69
00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:47,920
name, seeing if reducing it could
lower the chances of the transcription getting automatically

70
00:06:47,959 --> 00:06:55,399
detected by the butts that run this
site. I reuploaded it and straightaway again

71
00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:04,680
it was taken down. This hurt
not only emotionally. That was now two

72
00:07:04,759 --> 00:07:10,160
strikes on my channel, meaning I
lost some features and I had to tread

73
00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:15,519
lightly from now on, since three
strikes and you're out. This takedown,

74
00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:20,720
however, was followed up by an
email. It was addressed from the Disney

75
00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:28,399
legal team. I opened it expecting
some halfhearted automated email that they sent to

76
00:07:28,519 --> 00:07:31,959
idiots that re uploaded their movies,
hoping i'd be able to reply to a

77
00:07:32,079 --> 00:07:39,120
human to try sort this out,
But the body of the email was brief,

78
00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:49,160
only four words, we'll be visiting
soon. My heart dropped. I

79
00:07:49,199 --> 00:07:54,519
didn't know what this meant. Was
I being served or whatever that meant?

80
00:07:55,319 --> 00:07:59,439
Were they going to take me away
try me immediately? With no course of

81
00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:05,800
action? So I took to searching
online for advice to see if anyone else

82
00:08:05,839 --> 00:08:11,120
had encountered something like this. I
was on a time limit. I had

83
00:08:11,199 --> 00:08:16,199
no idea whether it would be months
while they gathered their legal team, maybe

84
00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:20,079
weeks if they were prepared for situations
like this, or even days since there

85
00:08:20,079 --> 00:08:26,439
were a multi billion dollar mega corporation. I barely skipped past the first few

86
00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:35,360
ad search results of my journey for
information before I heard a knock. There

87
00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:39,360
was no way the whole of my
mind doubted it was them, bar a

88
00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:46,919
miniscool percent of the belief in the
possibility. It would be unreal that they'd

89
00:08:46,919 --> 00:08:52,120
come that quickly. Yet, as
I was thinking this over, more knocks

90
00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:58,080
came. I had nothing ordered to
my house, no food coming, no

91
00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:03,879
packages. Out of that little drip
of fear in my heart, I decided

92
00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:07,559
not to answer. I made them
think no one was home. All the

93
00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:16,399
lights were off and I had my
bedroom curtains closed. They persisted firm knocks

94
00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:24,279
on the door. When it stopped, I was relieved about relief was short

95
00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:30,200
lived. I heard the thumbs of
footsteps around the house, the crunch of

96
00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,559
gravel along the edges of the property, and the rustling of bushes around the

97
00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:39,159
back. My mind rewound, hoping
to God that I'd remembered to lock the

98
00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:45,759
back door, which I must have
because I didn't hear it open. But

99
00:09:45,879 --> 00:09:50,159
the movement didn't stop with the perimeter
of the house. I heard a pummeling

100
00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:54,600
sound on the sides. At first
I thought they were banging on the walls,

101
00:09:54,960 --> 00:10:01,000
trying to relentlessly get my attention,
but the palmeling sound did all around

102
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:07,480
the outside of the house, slowly
moving up. I didn't have to figure

103
00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:11,879
out what it was, because the
next thing I heard was an upstairs window

104
00:10:11,919 --> 00:10:18,440
open and a series of scuttling come
in. Whatever came in wasn't human.

105
00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:24,679
I quickly hid under my bed as
I heard them rapidly scuttle around in the

106
00:10:24,759 --> 00:10:31,480
other upstairs rooms. It wasn't long
before they were in my room. I

107
00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:35,720
heard the staggered thumps of their steps
as they moved around, ricocheting of furniture,

108
00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:41,279
rebounding around the bed, stumbling on
top. My heart was in my

109
00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:46,399
throat when I felt the press of
the mattress pushed down at me, Hoping

110
00:10:46,519 --> 00:10:52,919
they didn't feel it back. I
saw a pair of legs pause in front

111
00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:58,159
of me and stop in a brief
moment of contemplation. I heard its labored

112
00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:05,960
breathing small grunts before the thing dropped
on all fours and quickly ran away.

113
00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:13,320
I breathed out in a sigh of
relief for the moment of reprise, until

114
00:11:15,759 --> 00:11:22,519
I heard a dark whisper from beside
me. Disney still owns the rights to

115
00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:30,799
the movie adaptation of Winnie the Pooh. I turned to see the shade of

116
00:11:30,799 --> 00:11:33,440
one of them next to me.
There must have quietly crawled under the bed

117
00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:41,080
from the scramble around my room.
I screamed, quickly escaped my hiding spot

118
00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:46,759
and ran. Others around caught on
and started chase. I dashed past one

119
00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:52,679
narrowly as I did it, span
in a pirouette and fell on all fours

120
00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:56,679
to give chase. I ran down
the stairs and jumps and quickly closed myself

121
00:11:56,679 --> 00:12:03,480
in the smallest space I could find
an old closet muffled with coats. I

122
00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:11,120
heard the chasers run past, but
another whisper came. Tiger was in the

123
00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:18,879
sequel box and still hasn't fallen into
the public domain. Nothing was beside me

124
00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:24,159
nor behind. I only had to
glance up to see that one of them

125
00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:30,679
was hiding in here with me.
I tried to run, but I wasn't

126
00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:35,360
fast enough. For a second time, a long arm reached out and grabbed

127
00:12:35,399 --> 00:12:43,279
me. The others thundered towards the
door. I was caught. I was

128
00:12:43,399 --> 00:12:46,080
pulled out, and in the dim
light of the moon through the shades,

129
00:12:48,159 --> 00:12:54,279
I saw them. They looked like
businessmen, but everything about them was elongated.

130
00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:00,360
Their arms would have drooped to the
floor if their legs weren't also long

131
00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:07,480
and gangly. Their faces with a
stretched facades for humans. Despite their earlier

132
00:13:07,519 --> 00:13:11,679
speed, they were savoring this moment, taking their time to soak in my

133
00:13:11,799 --> 00:13:18,720
fear. Another leaned in close and
told me the rules that though the original

134
00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:24,039
character Winnie the Pooh from the books
fell into the public domain, that the

135
00:13:24,159 --> 00:13:30,639
likeness of Disney's adaptation was still under
their ownership, specifically the Winnie with a

136
00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:35,559
red shirt, and that many of
the character's rights published in the latter books

137
00:13:35,919 --> 00:13:41,559
had not yet expired. At this
he reached over to me slowly with one

138
00:13:41,639 --> 00:13:50,759
of his stick thin arms unfurled and
gnarly finger, and gently touched my forehead.

139
00:13:52,759 --> 00:13:58,159
An immense pain ran through me as
they screamed in unimaginable horror. It

140
00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:03,639
felt like I was touched by the
concentrated heat of a thousand sons. Very

141
00:14:03,759 --> 00:14:09,200
quickly, I passed out from the
pain. When I woke, I saw

142
00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:16,399
two more figures. My parents had
come to check on me. As they

143
00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:22,440
were passing by the area. They
laughed at my state. All they saw

144
00:14:22,679 --> 00:14:26,879
was me passed out in the middle
of the living room, stewing in my

145
00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:33,080
own mess. Had a rough night
last night, blooded my father must have

146
00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:39,519
been a fun party, though my
mom bantered after. I didn't know what

147
00:14:39,639 --> 00:14:45,200
to say. I was stunned,
wondering how much of last night's events were

148
00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:50,360
even real. No words came to
mind, as all I could focus on

149
00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:56,399
was the radiating, burning sensation I
could feel on my forehead. However,

150
00:14:56,879 --> 00:15:01,080
there must have been nothing there,
since all my parents commented on was my

151
00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:05,840
rough state. Any kind of wound
would have immediately changed the tone to a

152
00:15:05,879 --> 00:15:11,879
more serious mood. I didn't want
to explain any of what happened, so

153
00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:16,879
I just went along with their narrative, though I knew i'd be laughed at

154
00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:22,879
for many family gatherings to come.
After they left, I went to the

155
00:15:22,919 --> 00:15:28,720
bathroom to clean up and give myself
a look over. I really did look

156
00:15:28,799 --> 00:15:35,240
like a mess. My hair was
disheveled from a restless night, drule stains

157
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:41,159
lyned horizontally on my cheeks, and
my eyes were crusty frontiers, but I

158
00:15:41,279 --> 00:15:48,720
paid no mind to that. In
the middle of my forehead was a mark,

159
00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:56,120
clear as day. Three circles burned
on my flesh, the wound,

160
00:15:56,200 --> 00:16:03,879
red and raw, all clustered in
the silhouette of Mickey Mouse. I was

161
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:10,879
branded, but only to my eyes, a permanent pain that hasn't gone away.

162
00:16:10,919 --> 00:16:17,879
Since I felt defeated. All I
wanted to do was have some fun

163
00:16:18,399 --> 00:16:22,960
play with an ip that I thought
was fair game. But I was wrong

164
00:16:22,639 --> 00:16:27,799
and heavily punished for it. I
almost wanted to give up this whole act.

165
00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:36,639
However, one thing is keeping me
going. My own personal revenge,

166
00:16:37,039 --> 00:16:41,159
not something that would get them back
nearly as much as they hurt me,

167
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:48,759
but enough spite to see if I
can make a giant bleed. I did

168
00:16:48,799 --> 00:16:56,480
some research and something interesting came up. Disney's own Mickey Mouse falls into the

169
00:16:56,559 --> 00:17:04,079
public domain in twenty twenty four,
so I will wait until then, and

170
00:17:04,279 --> 00:17:11,359
I will write the most vile story
imaginable with their beloved character