Less than 24 hours after Frank Report posted news that the public could buy videos of Vanguard Week for 2015 and 2016, NXIVM has withdrawn them from sale.
It is unclear why the company decided to remove them.
The videos were more than eight hours of talent shows during Vanguard Week in 2015 and 2016 – which featured the followers of Keith Raniere showcasing their “talents” for their master. Kind of a low-cost version of America’s Got Talent – only without any celebrity judges and without any talented performers.
Mr. Raniere has given himself the title of Vanguard.
Mr. Raniere also appears on stage and in the audience.
Vanguard Week is a 10 day celebration of Mr. Raniere’s nativity. Followers pay from $2,000 and up to attend the festivities at Silver Bay Resort on the shores of Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains.
Not only are the videos gone but even the trailers have been removed.
When you click on the link for Vanguard Week 2016 or Vanguard Week 2015
you see:
: 
Fortunately a friend of Frank Report purchased the entire collection just after the glad tidings of their availability was posted:
Happily, she paid for and owns:
Wonder if Clare will offer to buy them back for a couple of million…
“Fair use” means limited use of limited amounts of copyrighted material without requesting permission of the owner.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
“Examples of fair use in United States copyright law include commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and scholarship. Fair use provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor test….
1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”
“A key consideration in recent fair use cases [on criterion 1] is the extent to which the use is transformative. ”
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformation_(law)
“Quoting portions of a work to criticize it, as in a book review, is transformative. Likewise, parody is transformative — repurposing a work to mock the work itself or the principles the work represents serves a very different purpose from that of the original work.”
In other words, criticism and parody are presumptively ‘fair use.’
Regarding criterion 2, according to https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html
“Nature of the copyrighted work: This factor analyzes the degree to which the work that was used relates to copyright’s purpose of encouraging creative expression. Thus, using a more creative or imaginative work (such as a novel, movie, or song) is less likely to support a claim of a fair use than using a factual work (such as a technical article or news item). In addition, use of an unpublished work is less likely to be considered fair. ”
So re-publishing songs or dances from the NXIVM talent shows, not as illustrations for criticism or parody, would not be presumptively ‘fair use.’ But re-publishing them with annotations for criticism or parody would be.
Regarding criterion 3, clearly less is more. Re-publishing individual frames from the NXIVM talent show videos is clearly ‘fair use.’ Short video clips, especially with annotations for criticism or parody, is likely to be ruled as a ‘fair use.’
Regarding criterion 4, the fact that NXIVM has removed the videos from sale on VIMEO is evidence that the copyright owners no longer consider them to have any potential market value.
While I am not a lawyer, it would seem therefore to be perfectly legal for the purchaser of the NXIVM talent show videos to send copies of them to Frank Report, so they could be made available for research, criticism, or parody.
Links to the copies of the videos on the Frank Report servers could then be published. They could be made available to users after they click to agree that they have read and understood an explanation of ‘fair use,’ and agree to abide by it. Frank Report readers could then do research on them, and publish criticism or parodies.
It is conceivable that NXIVM would sue Frank Report were this to be done. However, it appears that our host is eager to be sued, because his lawyers are prepared to use the discovery process of such a lawsuit to unravel the Raniere-verse.
There is no “mission”, at least the one the frauds at the top present (Preject and VanDouche). Their real mission is to keep an MLM afloat that hides a cult for the ego and sexual ingratiation of a sociopath and to maintain their lifestyles. To do this, they sell a perpetual cycle of course modules that use thought reform techniques ripped off from elsewhere to slowly indoctrinate you into the leader’s misogynistic and false way of life underneath a mask of ethics. The latter is there only to guilt and control and never to hold those at top accountable to the same set or more rigorous standards. The whole thing is a scam and a waste of time. Buy a $100 worth of self-help books and you’ll more than compensate for anything you “learn” in this sham.
100% true!
Anyone at VWeek should stream Holy Hell on Netflix. It’s a documentary about the Buddhafield cult. There are many parallels between the leader “Michel” and Vanguard.
Vanguard and Prefect promote that people in NXIVM should not read the negative media stories about them because it may “forever change your internal representation of the mission” and “prevent your ability to become integrated or work with Keith and Nancy.”
Translation: This is thought control of the highest order. Instilling fear in students that if they read or entertain ideas about negative information reported to the media by first hand witnesses of Keith and Nancy’s conduct, they may be forever lost. Never grow.
Massive contradiction: How does this relate to “Getting all the data to make informed decisions”? The getting all the data philosophy espoused in NXIVM only applies to everyone and everything but Keith and Nancy’s conduct?
Get all the data folks. Do your homework on Keith and Nancy, evaluate everything you have experienced and seen. Do it like your life depends on it because it does. The handful of super wealthy at the top of the hierarchy of NXIVM don’t have any conscience or concern for your life, your success. Zip. Nada.
They could be stealing your life as I write this. How would you know? What if that’s true?
Study. Research. Interview. Look around you. Ask questions. What’s the worst thing that could happen? What could be the downside?
Nothing will happen, there is no downside. You will then be in a position to make informed, rational decisions, based on the data. If it turns out all the negative things are true wouldn’t it be better to know now? If it’s not true, wouldn’t it be better to know that for certain?