This is RIDICULOUS, as reading recaps is often the very reason why I end up watching a show in the first place. This website is like free advertising to Dramafever. Why the hell would they want to mess with that? Ugh.

I do live in America and have used dramafever (directed there after checking out drama recaps on Dramabeans, I might add). I have sent an email to dramafever and I may send more.

Doesn't the use of screencaps come under fair use protections?

Are they doing this because they want to funnel traffic to their cringingly bad, incredibly poorly written blog?

Dramafever being bullies--not surprising! Screencaps aren't hurting anyone (didn't even know they could be copyrighted) and Dramabeans is such an innocent blog, so I don't get why Dramafever is being so possessive over the screencaps for the show. I guess DF should start trolling all the drama blog sites out there who are promoting the show and even taking time out to recap at all.

Had Dramabeans promoted Dramafever would they have been so intent on pressing issues about screencaps?! My guess is probably not, but since they're not getting anything out of it they have to attack the little guy. Business is most definitely cut throat. Well this is just another reason to avoid Dramafever and they're ad ridden shows, I'll stick to watching dramas from Viki and other sites because the communities are way nicer about drama legalities and don't resort to petty bullying.

Btw just finished Ep 14 of L7CS and it was great! I was looking forward to all the cute screencaps of Gil Ro & Seo Won. I still read the recap/comments by Dramabeans and Girlfriday, minus the cute stills of Joo Won!

Javabeans, I suggest you take out any advertisement for Dramafever from now on (ex. like the link down at the footer listed under 'Linky') . Can't believe how you guys helped them with advertisement for so long and they do this to Dramabeans...

I'm very annoyed with dramafever right now. They've claimed exclusive rights on a lot of shows. They are slow in subs and their website is slow too.

They have taken the fun out of drama watching.

Absolutely ridiculous. They must realise the traffic on this site. It's where drama-lovers go for awesome recaps and if we like the sound of the show then we'll go to Dramafever (well some of us at least... maybe not for long though). They obviously don't understand the idea of investment and promotion.
Just want to say keep up the amazing work girls - you make the drama watching experience so much more entertaining!

I thought you guys were friends? If it's true, then, what a way for Dramafever to backstab their friend. Douchebags. Yeah, you should take down their links. We love you Dramabeans. Thanks for all that you do.

WTF DF??!!! I hope some good hackers out there will shutdown your website!!

wow, what a load of bullcrap.

i know this is not a PC thing to say but hallyu owes much of its success to how forums/fansubbers/blogs promoted it and they were all illegal. so Dramafever wouldn't have a market this huge in the US if it wasn't for these fans.

Wow! Can't believe DF did that. I remembered when they first started out, you guys were promoting for them. Yikes!

I know so little about copyright laws, but can actions to close down DF's "competitions" be seen as a move toward creating a monopoly, thus violating U.S. antitrust law?

Also, there is this thing called Fair Use act that allows a certain use of copyright materials in the public domain:

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.

Source: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

Très lame. I'm sorry to hear it. :o/

Truly, it seems so money grubby for them to attack a completely dissimilar medium. You're not a competing site.

A Dramafever subscriber no more. Below is the letter I sent them:

I wanted to let you know how angry I was to learn about your recent request to Dramabeans to remove the screencaps for Level 7 Civil Servant. I didn't like it when you went after sites like mysoju and some soft subs sites, but this latest action is really too much. I found out about your site from Dramabeans. I use their excellent recaps to decide which dramas to watch. I believe that many of your current subscribers came to you through the Dramabeans site as well. You are really shooting yourself in the foot.

I liked your site and being able to watch dramas without commercials for a reasonable price. Your back catalog of older dramas is also impressive, though the subs not so much. I'm sorry that I will now have to find other ways to get my drama fix, but I really cannot remain a subscriber in good conscience. I understand that you are in legal rights to do what you did, but I don't have to like it and support you.

Oh, and I unliked you on Facebook, too!

WHAT INJUSTICE IS THIS!!! T_T But thanks for all the effort! I shall just imagine the pictures as I read the next time hahaha. Your recaps are always a joy to read. Keep up the good work!

Support DB! Boycotting DF. Email to that effect to DF.

I wonder if its partnership with Hulu affected DF's policies.

This DF notice is such a slap in the face because, besides DF advertising on DB to get DB's readership, DB did a lot to push DF during DF's infancy when it was not that great. Honestly, I went to DF b/c DB specifically touted it as a legal way to support K-drama. So, even though the service hasn't been that great even for a premium member, I tried to stick with them as much as possible. Now, forget it.

i don't know what to say!!! this is so unfair :(

I have also emailed Hulu since they are partners with Dramafever and pressure on them can in turn bring pressure to bear on Dramafever. Are there any other partners we can email?

Seriously??? I wonder what's going on with Dramafever are they some kind of insecure or just too proud of getting the licenses for the airing kdramas..They are so selfish! There uploaded videos can't even be viewed in other countries except for north and south american regions. They even had Krdrama.org shut down (who's the first one to upload raw videos aside from viki.com) and now they want DB to take down L7CS recaps..Gezzz! This issue got me more furious at Dramafever. I hope k-tv networks should be aware of what DF had been doing lately. They caused a lot of k-drama hosting sites to shut down recently and this isn't a good sign for the surging k-dramas. Its got to be DF that needs to be shut down. For heaven's sake we just wanted to watch the kdramas that we love then there is this bitchy DF who wanted almost all blog sites uploading k-dramas shut down.

wtf?? theyre mean.. >:( 1st tim seeing this tbh anyways... if i upload a drawing of joo won or chansung with my poor poor drawing skills tjey would be sending me one of those notices too xD

I am not a lawyer, but since the screen caps are only a small portion of the show, you might want to look up on whether your use of the images fall under Fair Use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

http://www.badmovies.org/sideshows/articles/fair-use.html

BTW good job with all the recaps, they are certainly fun to read and adds to my experience of watching the shows.

Where do you want us to send our drawings??? :)

I can't believe DF did something like that!! It's such a let down!!!
I too decide what to watch after seeing the recaps on DB!! It's so funny to see the photo + recaps from the episodes!! I feel in love with gaksital after seeing the recaps on DB and watched most of it on DF!!!
Seriously!!! I was watching Jewel in the Palace on DF and had just 10 eps left, but I won't watch it on DF!!! Drama Crazy have crap subs, but I prefer watching there!!
DF NO MORE!!!

Aussies don't even get access to drama fever!

F U Dramafever. I don't even watch this drama, but I'm upset. What are the chances DF won't pull this stunt with another drama recap? I end up watching a lot of dramas precisely because of these screencap filled recaps.

DRAMAFEVER has become/always was- very parasitic. They want exclusives and they want everyone to become a paying member.

They are getting more and more annoying. I was considering becoming a paying member, but I do NOT want to support such parasites. There are better sites to support.

Would recaps be covered under the fair use exemption? It covers use of copyrighted material for comment and criticism, which is what the recaps really are.

Of course it depends on other issues too, including amount of copyrighted material used compared to the original, and if the material is used for profit (which might apply to advertising?). But it's just images used versus an entire episode.

Ugh. Dick move, DF, dick move.

Can they do that? Doesn't seem to make sense at all. Lame!

I just wrote dramafever! I wonder how many DB readers will take the time to write (surely there are thousands of us who care about this!). Be sure to let them know if you are a premium member.

screw you dramafever!!!!!!!!!!!

i really hate them since they initiated the closing down of kimchi drama. it's not like they own the drama anyway so what with the dcma notice to most sites. they akso tried to take down kshownow but thankfully not successfull.

Hi everyone,

I've never posted before though I feel as if I almost know all of you from reading your many comments every week.

I just wanted to share this letter that I just sent to DramaFever. Feel free to use it as a model if you care to send a similar message to DramaFever ever.

Dear Drama Fever,

I love your site and I watch it all the time. I am a premium member and I have talked at least three of my friends into becoming premium members as well.

I feel you should know that I use the blog Dramabeans.com to decide what to watch on your site. In fact I found you because of advertising on that site. It has recently come to my attention that you have made demands to Dramabeans to no longer use screen shots for their blog posts recapping shows you show. This is entirely within your legal rights, but it does not make very good business sense.

Dramabeans is providing free advertising for your service in the form of their recaps. When I read a recap, it makes me want to see the show. If I don't have a recap to convince me 16 hours of my life is worth spending on the newest K-Drama, I am more likely to go watch something more reliably entertaining (or at least shorter) at Netflix.

Also, the community at Dramabeans.com is very close. We just LOVE Javabeans and GirlFriday to DEATH. We, as women, are much more invested in those relationships than we are in your company. I don't feel a close association to the other viewers at DramaFever, but I wait with impatience for each new Dramabeans post. There is a level of loyalty here that you do not have the ability to compete with while I can get dramas in other places.

Finally, I am a wealthy middle class American. I am exactly the kind of person you want to be able to claim uses your product so that your expensive car commercials, so recently added to your main page, have a reasonable target. But as an educated professional, I am also in a position to find your decision to claim that a series of screen shots is somehow infringing on your video streaming business to be a bit excessive. This has hurt your reputation with me a great deal, and since I talk about DramaFever to just about everyone, and I will include this unflattering information in the future, it will no doubt hurt your reputation with others as well.

It seems to me that you could do a great deal better by making a deal with Dramabeans by providing stills of high quality so that your shows look the best they possibly can in the posts we are all going to read anyway, than by taking this action.

I hope this issue is resolved by October when my subscription is due. If you find that I am no longer a member at that time, this letter should give you a clear explanation of why.

Sincerely,
Sophia Caramagno
National Board Certified Teacher
Mountain View, CA

This is ridiculous...the show isn't even that good! (To be honest I'm kinda disappointed with Joo Won's perf here).
On the other hand, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at that picture above XD

Wow! Dramafever is pulling a Nexflix*
(*as you might recall, a few years ago Netflix had the MOST EPIC FAIL when they simultaneously lost a large portion of content, raised the subscription rate and divided the site between digital and cds. Resulting in a loss of 800,000 subscribers and their own chapter in MBA textbooks)

I will remove the dramafever app from my tablet. Can someone tell me how to download dramas from the web? I will go get an external Harddrive and upgrade my internet so I can avoid using dramafever.

If we get organized in expressing our displeasure with dramafever we might be able to take some of the edge off of their ego.

Would someone like to call to order the first meeting of Dramafever Sucks Sweaty B*lls? (DFSSB)

Are there any copyright lawyers out there who are willing to donate their time to Dramabeans?

I just sent an email to Dramafever voicing my displeasure with this latest development, and reminding them that I have other options for watching Kdramas other than their service. My little email probably won't mean anything to them, but if enough people take the time to write, it may make them take notice.

Emails actually count a great deal. The current calculations, I think, are 1 email equals 20 people who feel that way, so 20 emails can represent hundreds of people.

What the hell!?! Why would they do this? Half the time (actually probably more than half) I wouldn't even watch the k-dramas i do if there weren't recaps here, and lets face it, The Pretty is a big reason why I do! It's half the point!

It does answer why my favourite sites like kimchidramas and epdrama were shut down. Bye Joo Won, see you on my computer screen. DB fightiiiiing!

Wow, this is ridiculous, and I hope everything gets sorted out (getting that DCMA notice must not have been pleasant :///). Seriously, I'd take Dramabeans over Dramafever any day.

Here's something I don't understand, the show comes on MBC America. So how can they say they own the rights to any image from this show? How would they prove that?