[OCR monetizing mixes on YouTube]

This is a question of ethics, not just legality, and some people just aren't going to see eye to eye on this. Justifying your current actions with past behavior that you've gotten away with doesn't mean it's right, but it would help you build a case in court against the copyright trolls.

It really comes down to what people consented to in the first place when they gave you that free music for distributing. I don't like that this was basically done without telling anyone. I know there was an explanation given after it was discovered, but it feels more like back pedaling. Even if this isn't the case, it seems like this was done simply to gain momentum and justify it with "it's already been like this for X months so we're not changing because it took you this long to notice," instead of being up front about it and getting the artists's permission. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, right? How about artists get the choice to opt-in? Some people aren't comfortable with their work being monetized at all, regardless of the purpose.

I'm done here.

[OCR monetizing mixes on YouTube]

10 minutes ago, Patrick Burns said:

People subscribe to OCR's social media for the same reason they subscribe to anything---the perception that there's reliable quality/relevance being produced. All of those things I listed--all the peripheral work--enable OCR to have that reputation, and enable their relative success on social media compared to our individual efforts as remixers. In the past I've had certain songs on my own channels for years, and they don't get the same visibility that OCR gets in a few hours---on the same platform. So of course OCR provides benefit on YouTube, to bother remixers and listeners.

Regarding operating costs---my message was to point out that operating costs are not the only work going into OCR. (Which is why I'm not sure what you're trying to argue by pointing out that those things I listed are not "operating costs"---that's what I thought I was explaining to you.) You seemed to be arguing that OCR provides no added value on YouTube, so I listed the efforts that do in fact contribute to why OCR does provide added value on YouTube.

Tell me if I'm wrong---but you seem to be arguing that things which are "operating costs" in an accounting sense---e.g. web hosting---are the only things that we should consider when taking stock of the appropriateness of ad revenue---that the staff should not conceive of ways to ease the burden of volunteer efforts or invest in expanded efforts in the future.

They are monetizing a different component of the product, the portion that was provided to them free and rides under fair use (which suddenly, might not be fair use anymore). Ads on the site are fine because that has an operational cost and people that are using it are generating revenue for it. None of the benefits of the community are on youtube besides potential exposure, except the videos don't even link to the OCR/youtube profile of the artist. Each youtube description is just the same self-promotion for OCR, but doesn't contain the write up about the song or really promote the artists themselves. The only song-specific information it provides is the artist's name and a link back to the OCR page where the song is posted.

And yes, you're right. I am going about this from an accounting perspective. In court, I don't think putting ads on youtube videos of this music would fly with the mess that copyright law is right now. I don't think record companies would care that the reason OCR has monetized music they haven't acquired licenses for was to ease the burden on their volunteers. As it stands, I think ads on youtube videos for OCR songs is straight up unethical. If you had licenses for the songs and were giving the artists some revenue, then I think that would be fair.

[OCR monetizing mixes on YouTube]

9 minutes ago, Kenogu Labz said:

The primary recurring argument I've seen is that, "YouTube ads feel different than web ads."  No more, and no less.

A couple consisting of a patient and their own therapist feels different than a normal couple.

 

EDIT: Also, thank you zircon and Chimpazilla for clarifying that point. It was my understanding that all the staff of OCR were unpaid volunteers, and I didn't understand why someone would try to use that as an operational cost. I wasn't sure if things had changed recently.

[OCR monetizing mixes on YouTube]

59 minutes ago, Patrick Burns said:

That's because drugs pose a societal threat outside those channels. Not only that, but the pharmacist is personally profiting from the endeavor. While I agree that not all channels are the same, I'm not sure of how that metaphor applies to the situation.

As far as YouTube being divorced from the operating costs of this website, you're making the very incorrect assumption that some are making here: that operating costs are the only benefit provided by OCR. The diversity of work that goes into this community is much more than operating costs of the website.That work includes of course maintaining a website and forum (and all the hosting, tagging, organization requirements therein), but it also includes maintaining standards of curation quality that upset the fewest number of remixers/listeners, maintaining sufficient standards of transformation/remix to help the fair-use argument fly, providing a social media platform that consistently and quickly brings visibility that our individual pages do not, serving as a sort of proxy to educate interested parties when there are copyright issues (like when the youtube channel was brought down or when the final fantasy project was questioned), cultivating good will with hundreds of individuals in the game development community, planning and organizing ways to help the endeavor grow despite being volunteers with 'real lives,' maintaining the restraint needed to prevent arguments from grinding things to a halt, the list goes on. All of those things and more contribute to the recognition/viability OCR has as a whole, including what it is able to accomplish on social media.

I was just providing an extreme example of why changing how and where you're acquiring income matters, even if the method or product is technically the same. In this case, OCR is still getting income from ads, but the means of delivering them has changed. And those things you bring up, almost none of those benefits are provided on youtube. Last I checked, the song write ups weren't even in the video descriptions or in the videos. As for that fair use thing, you can actually acquire the rights to cover/arrange almost any video game songs through a particular website now very easily at essentially no cost. I won't plug it because that's not the point of what I'm getting at.

As for those volunteers and the work/labor that goes into maintaining this site, if they aren't getting paid, then they are not a part of operation costs. Period. And if they're getting paid, can you really call them volunteers if they're being compensated for their work? So which is it? Are they getting paid or not? Because if they're not getting paid, then operation costs should be strictly limited to maintaining the site and any record label type services OCR allegedly provides its contributors.

[OCR monetizing mixes on YouTube]

Forgive me if this has already been said, but how and where you get your money absolutely matters in terms of ethics. A licensed pharmacist cannot sell drugs from their home, a food truck, etc. They need to sell them through the proper channels.

While youtube ads might be functionally the same thing as website ads, they are distinct. You are changing the channels through which you are getting money and you really should evaluate whether it is ethical to be using someone else's work as a monetized commodity on a different platform. 

Youtube is divorced from the operating costs of this actual website, and I think that is something you need to examine closely. You are not paying for hosting costs on youtube.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

I suggest you do your research before you post false information about someone. I have never made a "False" discovery before this one. I've made a new video and it will be up soon. It shows that even if someone breaks out in the air you can still regrab them, well at least all of the people I've tested so far.

That looks pretty easily escapable if someone DIs up and away... When Lucas gets released into the air, he didn't jump out, and the point at which you can jump out of grab releases usually is somewhere near the peak of their trajectory. Just because the character is in that release animation does not mean they are helpless, a lot of characters can interrupt it with attacks or jumping.

Yes, the grab release gives Bowser frame advantage, but not enough so that he can infinite.

[Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)]

Slight derail, but the topic has been brought up several times about how artists should own the rights to their songs.

However, that's not how record label agreements work. When artists sign a label agreement, they often times sell at least a portion of their copyright to the songs they write/perform. Most composers who write lyrics/music for singers in the industry don't even see their name appear in the credits for songs released on albums, as I believe they sell their entire copyright for the song over to the record label.

I know that several of my friends who have written music for commercials, presentations, etc. have sold the rights to the song to the company that hired them. Obviously, well-known composers often are able to negotiate and keep the rights to the song, or at least partial rights, but small-time composers don't get that luxury, as they're just trying to make a living by selling their craft.

Obviously, there are several people in this community that actually have first hand experience on producing music for companies, so they could probably explain much better than I, I just figured that I would enlighten the people that brought up the subject in the first place.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

The four I've settled on since before the game was released in the US were Zero Suit Samus, Zelda, Link and Lucario. I tend to go through phases where I favor one more than the others, though Lucario has always been at the bottom of the four.

I guess Link, Zelda, and Zero Suit are all my "mains," since I play them all about equally and my mood is really what decides who I play as. Lucario is my "for fun" character that I'm somewhat decent with.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

I didn't know Samus was even in the Super Mario Bros. games.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

I am maining Link once again, not that it matters.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

Great job, Jam. PC Chris and Cort are pretty much 2 of the best in Brawl, so yeah. No shame in losing to them.

I also agree that this game is very much like rock, paper, scissors except with stages that can shift the balance (where paper can beat scissors, etc.).

Yoshi is not a horrible character in this game. They got rid of his DJC, but his boot and tail have tons of priority. Sure, he comes up short against some characters, but he does pretty well against a fair portion of the cast.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

I got a TV tuner card when I bought a new computer, so I can record matches now.

Here are some against a former student of mine... In order.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

My copy of Brawl is severely lacking matches in the Brawl mode...

Why must all the 1v1s I do be on someone else's copy or via WFC (which sucks balls)?

I need to get my butt over to some tournaments or bi-weeklies or into a crew, because I'm going mad with my limited exposure to skilled players and am being left behind by crews like DBR.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

Zombieforce, I just want to make sure you're using the right term. Sidestep dodges are where you step to the side (into the background or foreground) and do not move in terms of X or Y coordinates of the stages (which essentially are 2d planes for character movement). Rolls reposition your character to a new set of coordinates (based on terrain).

From your post, I am almost positive you're talking about rolling because you were talking about getting behind your opponent. Rolling is a very situational tactic and I find that the better I get at this game, the less I roll. Rolls often have less invulnerability than sidestep dodges and are much easier to punish. The are useful, but in very specific situations.

Ultimately, the only thing sidestep dodging is useful for is avoiding being grabbed, which perfect shielding cannot defend you from.

Sidesteps dodging (also known as Spot Dodging) have a certain number of frames of vulnerability at the beginning and end of the dodge (usually between 0-10 frames on each end, it's specific to each character). Perfect Shielding (formerly known as Power Shielding) is where you shield the moment an attack strikes you (it's similar to Just Defends or Parries from SNK, 3S, or CvS2). If done properly, there are around 2 frames of animation before you can react. Sidestep dodges are usually around 30 frames in total, and often have about 10-15 frames of animation left before you can act after they throw out moves. On top of that, Perfect Shields block multiple hits and cannot be broken or poked out of. Shielding is safer than dodging because invulnerability only lasts a certain amount of time and certain characters (like G&W) have moves with long durations that dodges do not work against (because the invul on the dodge is shorter than the active hitbox on the attack).

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

I am quite aware that shield camping isn't just sitting in one spot shielding (just like shield grabbing, you use it the moment you have to otherwise opponents will get smart and react to your anticipated shielding). But I agree that the game is much more focused on defense than the previous two iterations. They made perfect shielding far easier, and the lack of LCing makes it very difficult for characters without auto canceling moves or quick/ranged attacks to beat shield campers.

What they did to perfect shielding has made sidestep dodging pretty useless, though. Especially now that perfect shields last against multi hit moves, there's pretty much no point to sidestep dodge...

I think there's more to the game than just how well people do from their shield or how well they can destroy it. When I play against people who destroy shields, I don't shield. I use spacing like crazy and some people have even said "Why do you play like such a bitch?" to me after matches where they could not get in on me. Shield camping is a valid tactic, but it has varying degrees of effectiveness spread across the entire cast. Against those that it is very effective, you'll see people trying extremely hard to get around it. Against those that it isn't effective, you won't see it as much.

Shielding is one big feature of the game, that cannot be ignored. It's always been an important part of the game, whether it's a good idea to shield or not. As the Smash series has progressed, shielding has gradually become more powerful, especially due to less shield stun and more options have become valid as the series has progressed.

In my humble opinion, I think it will find itself in the same position that shield grabbing found itself in Melee (important as a tool, but not what the game revolves around). The game is still quite young and we have yet to discover everything about the game's engine, or even all the little nuances for each character.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

It really depends on the character for the shield camping. Trying to shield against G&W or Wolf is asking for a lot of trouble, with their multi hit, auto canceling, shield raping aerials.

I've found that it isn't too effective against people when I play. I used to shield camp a lot, but as my play style has developed, I've been forced to learn other ways at winning, because my opponents have gotten smarter and found ways to make shield camping disadvantageous. Characters like Wolf and G&W (or ANYONE with autocanceling aerials and some decent ground options) can make shield camping impossible for their opponent. Wolf and G&W can do this particularly well because of their good reach, good priority, multi hit, auto canceling aerial moves that lead into very safe shield pressure on the ground with 100% chance of shield poking.

Other characters don't have all the tools required to thwart shield camping as easily, but it is quite possible provided the players play smart (some characters might not have the ability to overcome it, period, and then you resort to other tactics to prevent them from shield camping).

The game pretty much boils down to 3 main elements that win you matches.

Spacing is one of the most important elements in this game, and whoever spaces better often wins when there is no innate advantage in the character matchup (some characters just do really well against others based on character and move properties).

Mind games are probably the second most important element in the competitive scene. If you can't space properly, it means you won't be able to use mind games very effectively. However, once you get a hang of spacing (not just your own character, but your opponent's as well), you can begin implementing mind games. Look at how your opponent plays and learn how they react to you doing specific things, then use that to your advantage and bait them into reacting when you haven't done anything. When opponents have around equal skill in spacing (and an even character matchup) it often boils down to whoever was able to read the other better.

The final element to competitive play comes down to stage control. This is one of the most important elements to winning because if you control the stage, you control your opponent. In a way, this is a highly specific form of mind game, as you limit your opponent's options. One of the many reasons why competitive people do not like FFAs (whether they know it or not) is because stage control cannot occur when it's so chaotic. The space a character occupies, he often controls, and the main objective of the game is to control your opponent's space and force him into situations that are unfavorable for him. Stage control doesn't necessarily mean controlling the entire stage, but it's forcing your opponent to reposition himself that is important. It's the easiest to do with projectiles, but characters without them often can, as well (it really depends, character matchups really can make this impossible).

Shield camping is only a tactic that allows characters to play defensively against opponents without projectiles. And it's sort of a form of stage control in those specific matchups, otherwise it's basically like shield grabbing in melee. People will adapt and find ways around it, I know I have and my friends have.

EDIT: To add onto the shield grabbing comparison. When the meta game was developing for Melee, shield grabbing was a very powerful tool. It was MUCH more effective than it was in SSB64, and I remember playing against many opponents that had never, ever seen the tactic before. Because of their inexperience, I would beat them without losing any stock, and rarely go above 100% damage out of 5 stock matches. Was shield grabbing unbeatable? No. Shield camping is essentially what shield grabbing was to Melee. It's just a tool in each characters' arsenal (just like shield grabbing, WDing, and LCing), some have more use for it than others, some might find it entirely useless.

The people I beat miserably because I was just shield grabbing them might've thought it was cheap, or unbeatable, or that it gave me an unfair advantage. The truth is that they couldn't open their eyes to look for a way around it. They were so convinced that how they were playing was "right" and that I had found some exploit in the game that was insurmountable. I told them how to overcome it, and they were able to avoid getting shield grabbed, but they never really opened their eyes to find creative ways to bait me into shield grabbing, so I would always beat them (about just as bad as before, sometimes they'd take a stock off of me). When you look at tournament matches, yes shield grabbing was used in Melee, a lot, but it was merely one of MANY tools that the skilled players used in order to win matches. Good players will use it, but it won't win the match for them in competitive games.

Shield camping will be no different as it is essentially the same, except you can perform most moves instead of just grab.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

Well, I'll agree that most of the Zelda players I've fought haven't impressed me, but I haven't seen any good vids even on the Zelda boards at smashboards yet.

She seems pretty limited to me, imho. She's obviously not in the gutter like the last game, but I don't think she's good, either. I haven't had any trouble getting around her smash attacks, and I hit her out of them very frequently (before her uncharged smashes come out) with characters like Link, ZSS, and Lucario.

As for shield camping... It's effective against most characters, but not against others. Notice that Azen was playing Ike? Ike has pretty much the slowest moveset in the game. Game & Watch can approach most characters incredibly safely (even shielding opponents) with his b-air because it has sick range, priority, multihit, AND it autocancels. He also has the most spammable jab A in the game, making it impossible to shield grab him, or do anything after he lands from a b-air (if you weren't hit out of your shield by it, as it rapes shields pretty badly). Shield camping is effective against characters with single hit attack approaches that have lag afterwards where they can be punished.

Shield camping ZSS is usually ineffective since her dash attack has an active attack hitbox until the end of the move, and her up-tilt comes out at frame 2, and her jab is active on frame 1, so she has 2 options if you dash attack with her properly to keep people from shield grabbing you. Her jab A is admittedly pretty poor, but if used properly (by changing the amount of time you delay between her jabs), it actually becomes a useful tool to hit people out of attempted shield grabs or move into a safer move by letting the jab progression cancel, or even moving out of range.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

Zelda's range is pretty poor. It's not the worst, but I would never, EVER say she has good range. She can KO at decent %, but they're not easy to land against a skilled player being careful (and they will probably be careful if they're at KO %).

Din's Fire is fast, but it's not powerful enough to KO at reasonable % (aside from edgeguarding), it often times doesn't set up into other attacks, and it still counts as a recovery move, meaning using it while in the air is very dangerous aside from SH retreats. It's a useful move for hitting people out of approaches that they've commited to, or forcing someone to move, but it's honestly not a dangerous move. The fact that it can only be directed so much up or down (and that it's dangerous to use in the air) make it a fairly easy move to deal with. Obviously, the times you can't do anything about this move is when you're in hit stun, and since it comes out fast, you can use it as a final hit in some combos (which, when they work, there's nothing you can do to avoid it anyway), but that's about it.

Link is one of the hardest projectile whores to approach (when played properly), and I can close the distance on him fairly easily with any character. Zelda has a single projectile that is still laggy in comparison to most other characters (considering you need to control it, preventing you from using a second one). If you think she's hard to approach, I pity you.

If you think Zelda's attacks set up into smashes (at least in the % where they can KO, which is the only point where they are really important), then the people that are victims to those moves do not know how to DI, escape the tumbling animation, or tech, which is very sad. Every Zelda player I've played and watched vids of gets their smash attack KOs from people making mistakes/doing something stupid, not setups.

The larger a character, the larger their hitbox (the one that attack hitboxes collide with to do damage). The sweet spot of an attack has a much greater chance of hitting a large hitbox than a small hitbox. The only reason Dedede is difficult to beat is because he can effectively (and easily) prevent Zelda from attacking him due to his tilt range, attack speed, and priority. His tilts are irritating since they beat out a ton of attacks and hit super far away and rack up damage relatively fast. Zelda lacks speed and GOOD range (she has medium range and medium priority), so she will get beat out by them. Her maneuverability on ground and air is pretty damn poor, and she cannot even be close to considered a fast character. She'll have trouble approaching him, and he can easily avoid her only long range attack while slowly getting in range for tilts. It basically turns into a game of cat and mouse because Zelda's ground game is entirely worthless against his tilts, and her air game is not what I'd consider strong (there are plenty of characters with much better air movesets or even one move in their air game which makes them better in the air than her). If you get hit by a sweetspot f-air/b-air, you probably deserved it.

None of Zelda's moves set up into her smash attacks at KO %, and that's the only time her smash attacks are really useful (since they are technically KO moves). Her dash attack pops people up, her f-tilt pops people up (both good to use an up-air afterward at KO % since the opponents can escape before they get close enough to up-smash). Her d-tilt is garbage until higher % and even then I don't know if it can set up into anything. Jab A can be followed up by a second Jab A, f-tilt, dash attack or Din's Fire. N-air is good to use when people are too close as it has fairly good priority (not much reach) and it comes out fast and is multi hit and knocks away enough to put an enemy back into her desired range. D-smash is probably her fastest smash and is good for getting people away, but not that great of a KO move unless you're at the side of a stage (in comparison to a lot of other d-smashes, this one is child's play).

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

Like Arek said, air dodging is important. If you don't air dodge, you'll get rocked by any decent player just because you'll become pretty much the ball in pong (except moving even slower). What does that mean? That means that all your opponent needs to do is do some simple intuitive calculations to see where you're moving and how they can attack you out of your movement (or dodge your attacks and then hit you).

Air dodging is really powerful because you get the most invulnerability out of it, and will usually keep you safe from successive attacks (provided you're actually timing them, not spamming the button).

The same goes for rolling and sidesteps, though I see a lot of people rolling across entire stages, which is just retarded. You use rolls as a tactical maneuver to get away/around people when they attack (provided the invul frames allow you to, this is very dependent upon both your own character and your opponent's attacks), not as a mode of transportation.

And as for Zelda, she's not very powerful, imho. Her range is quite lacking and her KO moves are pretty poor. Also, she is very easy to approach since her Din's Fire is her only projectile and while it's much better than before, it's still not great. Since it moves fast, she has very little time to actually hit a moving opponent with it (basically, she has to release the button at a specific time otherwise the move will miss), meaning it's very easy to air dodge to completely avoid the damage. You can also jump over the attack if you save your midair jump, since it can only be directed so much up or down it's easy to time your jumps properly to avoid it.

Her tilts, dash attack and jab are the only things you really need to worry about (since her aerials are pretty much crap aside from n-air and up-air), and most characters have easy times getting in on her as she's pretty freakin' slow. Just bait a tilt by jump near her and jumping away or something. Try and get her into the air above you, she's pretty helpless up there. Also, small characters are a nightmare for her since her aerials have sweet spots aside from n-air and up-air, meaning it's REALLY hard to hit smaller characters with the sweet spots. Big characters are super easy to sweet spot, so unless you massively outrange her like with Dedede (who she should never be able to beat if you spam f-tilt), you should probably stick to a smaller character (also one that is probably faster than her). Another thing about her side-air moves are that if you air dodge close to her, even if she waits to hit you, she will almost never sweet spot because she is so heavily dependent upon spacing those moves that if you do ANYTHING to mess up that spacing, she won't be able to get a good hit (and since those sweet spots are way harder to land now, it's much easier to screw with her spacing than it was before).

So basically, you need to worry about up-tilt, f-tilt, jab A, dash attack, n-air, and up-air (and only if your entire moveset is crap, each character will beat out some of these moves, you just need to figure out which ones your character can beat out). Din's Fire is a nuisance but nothing dangerous (unless she's edge guarding with it) and all her other moves are pretty much jokes since they're so slow.

Her smashes are dangerous but slow, and she can be hit out of them or they can be shielded/dodged and then she can punished for them. Nothing of hers really sets up into her smashes, so if you get hit by one, it's because you did something that left yourself open (like rolling as transportation about the stage or missing a laggy move).

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

Looking at Zamus' frame data makes me want to cry. At this point, I can't see anyone having a worse roll than hers.

Her forward roll is 29 frames long and only has 6 invul frames. Her backward roll is 40 frames long and only has invul for 8 frames. There is something seriously wrong there when just about everyone else has like 17-19 frames of invul on their ~30 frame rolls (somewhere between 1/2 to 1/3 of their roll is invul frames, as opposed to her 1/5). Oh yeah, on top of that, her invul doesn't start till frame 11 (forward) and 10 (back), while everyone else seems to get roll invul on frame 2.

At least her sidestep isn't horrible. It's worse than other characters', but only by like 4 or 5 frames as opposed to 10+. It also starts invul on frame 7 while everyone else seems to have invul beginning on frame 1 or 2...

Well, there are a bunch of characters that don't have frame data yet, so I'm sure there's someone at least as bad off as her (Sheik will probably have identical roll frame data).

And the site is http://smash.scribblewiki.com/ that is recording frame data. It's being done by respected players on smashboards who have experience with this stuff, so their data is reliable.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

If I'm not mistaken, the "rocket d-air" and the d-air after getting hit are different moves entirely. Call me out and tell me if I'm wrong, but I believe Sheik's even look entirely different.

I honestly don't know about Sheik. Sonic, Toon Link and Zamus (in my experience) appear to have no change in their move aside from the fall speed and whether or not you can DI during the move (need to midair jump for this to happen).

I'm 99% certain that Zamus' d-air is the same regardless of the float glitch. Toon Link's and Sonic's I'm about 80% certain since I only play TL sometimes and I only play against a Sonic player (though he uses it a lot and I haven't been able to tell a difference).

I have no clue whether Sheik's move is different or not, but I would say it's entirely possible for her to have a different attack when slow falling or floating.

Jam, my connection is incredibly questionable. When I try playing people in California (even people that live less than 20 minutes away), I get horrendous lag that makes the game really twitchy. I just played against 4 different people from Texas last night, though, and the worst lag I had was considerably better than what I've had against local people (still bad, but not where the game stops ever few seconds). The best lag I had against two of them last night was about a 1/4-1/2 second input lag, which isn't too bad considering I live over 1000 miles away from them. So yeah, we can exchange FCs and see how the lag between us is.

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

They are like Falcon Kick... You could never cancel that move before. Also, they do end after a certain amount of time, it's just that they travel so fast that most of them will land on the ground before they're done.

Sonic's travels the least amount of distance out of all of them and can be recovered the most easily. Everyone else can fall super slow with their rocket d-airs if they are hit upwards (you can use this to kill upward momentum). There are videos on Youtube of people floating in place with TL's d-air when he jumps from getting hit upward (jump + upward hit momentum = staying in place). A video example below...

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

Fast falling can only occur after you've reached the peak of your jump, just like in Melee. I'm pretty sure they've diminished the fall speed increase on most characters, since the game is floatier than Melee was overall.

Link automatically fast falls if you C-stick downward to get a d-air (after the peak of your jump). Not sure if this works for everyone, since I have settled on a small cast of characters, and everyone else I play either has d-airs that rocket them downward (ZSS) or stop them midair (Lucario).

Most of my SDs are from failed edge guard attempts with Zamus, though. Going under the stage is not a good idea with her, most of the time (but it's that some of the time that keeps me coming back!).

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

I honestly have no clue where the image originated from either, but it's been around for a while.

As for which one am I? I guess I'm closest to #1. I mostly play by my instinct and reflexes. I don't really consciously think of anything like #1 does, though I play much smarter than #2, who can only seem to care about landing a Falcon Punch. Then again, I do get myself killed sometimes when I get greedy looking for a chance to use an awesome move...

[Super Smash Bros Brawl]

Not true, necessarily. Assume the next playable F-Zero character is Samurai Goro. He's nothing at all like Falcon in concept, and logically he'd have a totally different moveset.

How do you think that Ganondorf is similar in concept to Captain Falcon? Just curious. They're not even from the same game and they got slapped with very similar move sets two games in a row.