Minecraft Forums

There has been a lot of drama lately about content creators, youtube, monitization, and everything else and I thought it would be nice to sort of sort out what's legal and what isn't. So lets get some things straight:

1. Companies hold the right to claim revenue from ads on videos that you made

2. Companies hold the right to pull your videos for any reason, if it includes their content

Sad I know, but being aware of this, there are companies that openly accept Let's players, machinima's, and everyone else. I thought it would be good to sort out what companies allow this so us little guys don't get it in the butt by the big man. So I compiled a list (always in progress):

https://docs.google....k2V3FrUGc#gid=0

and

https://docs.google....twNd0cG-NQ/edit

The latter document goes more in depth of me translating the legal mumbo jumbo that the companies spurt out, and the first is just a quick re fence on what is safe. Any additions to this would be appreciated (include a link to the statement to the company in the post).


Note: I plan on making a video explaining the situation and why people like the yogscast are much safer then us guys with no youtube partnership.


I know people are going to talk about the fair use act, but its even stated by the us government that the act is so vague what is copyright and what is fair use, it will always be arguable. An official statement from the government on said subject:

"The distinction between what is fair use and what is infringement in a particular case will not always be clear or easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission." (2013)

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

First off, In the U.S. the Fair Use Act gives the content creators rights over the ad revenue no matter what the company says because creating videos with commentary and editing gives a unique experience different from playing the game. Youtube will undoubtably side with the company if they make a claim though because it is easier and less expensive to take that side; however, if your account has content id appeals then you can plead your case through the Fair Use Act and YT should then side with you and that will be that. It can be annoying having to do that but these companies are trying to steal from content creators and those affected should fight back. These compaies have NO RIGHT to your content and should not be allowed to profit from your work.

You can complain and argue about it as much as you want, the law and youtube will always side with them. For our sake, (or the ones that care to not be the target of these stupid campaigns) its better to stick with companies that will not decide to go on these crusades.

Like I said the law is on the content creators side(at least in the U.S.) all you have to do is stand up to them by appeling your case. Youtube will always go with the law and as long as you can prove your case then they will give it to you. The reason so many are butthurt over this is because they would rather just let it go than have to appeal for their content all the time.

Quote from The_Xseption

Like I said the law is on the content creators side(at least in the U.S.) all you have to do is stand up to them by appeling your case. Youtube will always go with the law and as long as you can prove your case then they will give it to you. The reason so many are butthurt over this is because they would rather just let it go than have to appeal for their content all the time.

Please refer to the government site I posted about fair use. Its even stated in there "The safest course is to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material." If you aren't worried about copyright infringement fine, this this post wouldn't apply to you. I'm trying to help people that are worried about it, not debate the legality of the matter.

You are saying that people should ditch the big companies that havn't said their games can be used for youtube videos, and that they have a right to your content that you made or will make. I completly disagree with this. If you dont have the right to make money by using some of their content then they can't take money for doing the same thing to you. If it was illegal then the only action the companies could take was to pull down your video which they aren't doing. They are saying that you can make the video but we are going to take the ad revenue from it which is what they are saying is illegal for you to do.

I think that it is good for starting Lpers to start with games that have been pre-approved and I like the list as well as that you are offering it to people, but no one should be scared that these big bad companies are going to take your money and content because while you may get copyright strike or whatever you can appel it and even if that fails, which it likely wont, the company has no right to your content because it has your commentary and your unique style added to it.

I don't know if you know about the Sega incident a while ago, where there were mass pull downs of videos, and even lead to several channels being shut down. I think once you hit a youtube partnership, or join a group like machinima, you become safer from these types of crusades as you have a representative company to back you up. Morality reasons I agree with you, but legality its up for debate, and because of this, I'm making a list for careful youtubers who want to play games from companies that have stated they are fine with such things. This whole thing is to help small youtubers without a voice avoid being a target of these campaigns we saw from Nintendo and Sega. You're debating with someone who's opinion isn't that different from your own.

Pull downs is one thing but the big thing happening at the moment is that nintendo wants to take your revenue which is illegal because it contains your content as well as theirs putting fair use aside, this is stealing and your first point says they have the right to do it. I just wanted to make you aware that they dont have that right. If you really want to inform people then they should know this part as well because having your video removed might be a debatable thing but them taking your money is not.

I think your doing a good thing here, but I felt the need to interject because of what you said in your first point. If you hold similar views to me then you should make sure to point out the points I have brought up.

Alright fair enough. I do think that what Nintendo is doing is wrong, and actually goes outside the bounds of fair use, but apparently they can get away with it (for now). I do think that we, as a community, should continue to fight when companies do this, and hopefully help them realize that youtube is actually beneficial to them.

Some of the stuff Sega did was blatantly illegal, for the record - since a number of the pieces of content pulled contained -zero- copyrighted content from Sega (they were audio/video recordings petitioning for Save our Shining, with no in-game content, among other cases where it was blatantly illegal).

This set of lists is a good place to start, though it is worth noting, that you need to fight in many cases to protect yourself - especially if they try to pull you for a critical review or a walkthrough/tutorial (sorry "entertainers", that's a greyer area, and I can't recommend fighting there)