http://kotaku.com/youtube-copyright-chaos-continues-game-publishers-to-t-1481517758
My take on the situation.
Some background before you click: Video game players have found a way to make money from YouTube…it’s called “Let’s Play”. They record footage of themselves playing a game with a microphone on so their own live commentary can be recorded, then upload said footage to YouTube. Then, under YouTube’s ad revenue feature (you allow YouTube to run ads on the video that YouTube chooses…YouTube gets some of the revenue and the game player gets some), the “Let’s Player”, as they’re called, makes money.
YouTube recognized that this causes potential copyright disasters: if game studios look to sue, Let’s Players just have an average Joe’s money, while YT has potential billions behind it. So, to cover themselves, YT (and Google) created a new algorithm on their pages that copyright claims thousands of vids over their site automatically. Amazing, really. Once the claim is made, the YouTuber stops making money and the entity making the claim (or the entity named by YouTube’s bot) has the ability to put ads on a Let’s Player’s video and monetize it for themselves, but block out the person who uploaded the video from making a penny.
I know about this because, as a video gamer, I watch Let’s Plays…some of these have better comedy in them than a sitcom; some of them are just as exciting as an action movie…I guess you just have to be into it as a gamer, like I am…lol. Some of the studios that create the games are relinquishing these “auto-claims”, some are re-inforcing them. One thing is clear at this point…music companies are not budging at ALL.
Let’s Players are shouting “Fair Use” right and left, saying that the commentary over the vids makes it a separate entity and protected…(transformative, or something like that), I just don’t see it. The game footage is still the owner’s IP to do with as they want to (claim or not claim) and, correct me if I’m wrong, just because a game company paid a music company a license fee for some music doesn’t mean the music company completely relinquishes it’s rights when the music is re-published like this. One particularly snarky YouTuber called it “double dipping” by the music company saying that they got paid a license fee and it should end there for them; I don’t know about that. :/
For my part, it really aggravates me when the Let’s Players whine about this; maybe because of my background of being stolen from by torrent boards and such. Whether these people realize it or not, their Let’s Play videos are NOT covered by Fair Use (my opinion), and their ability to make money is governed by the studios, both game and music. Game studios (some, at least…Nintendo is not budging an INCH on this) realize that Let’s Plays give their games exposure and are releasing auto-claims (my word for it…seems to fit) made by YT/Google’s bots right and left, music studios are not…and while I hate to side with big corporate entities, I get it. It’s their music and it’s being republished without their permission…if they want to be paid for it, they should be. You’re more or less selling someone else’s property…”Intellectual”, tho it may be (IP), and cutting them out of their share of it all.
My take. If you’re interested in learning more (I really LOVE copyright stuff…I think I have a closet-copyright-lawyer in me…lol), click the above link. A Google search of “YouTube Copyright Chaos Let’s Plays” will prolly lead to some other info as well. 🙂
Tolstoy