Nintendo Allows (Japanese) Fans to Post Derivative Works Without Concern

[Steven Bogos]

Nintendo Allows (Japanese) Fans to Post Derivative Works Without Concern

Nintendo will allow fans on NicoNico Video ("Japan's YouTube") to post derivative works of its IPs without consequence.

Well, there's a headline I wouldn't have believed I'd be writing just a few years ago. Nintendo has just announced plans to allow its games to fall under NicoNico Video's Creative Endorsement Program, which reward creators who make highly-viewed videos. If this sounds a lot like YouTube's "Parters" system, it's because it more or less is. NicoNico is essentially "Japan's YouTube", providing users in Japan with many of the features YouTube gives us in the west.

Nintendo's endorsement of the program means that Japanese fans will be able to post derivative works of Nintendo's IPs without fear of any consequence from the developer. This means Let's Plays, walkthroughs, machinima, music covers, and reviews will all be safe. This is a big change from just a year ago, where Nintendo was actively flexing its copyright muscle on YouTube [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124066-Nintendo-Suddenly-Claims-Ownership-Of-Many-YouTube-Videos].

The Creative Endorsement Program was originally created by NicoNico and its parent company Dwango back in 2011, as an incentive for creators to continue making high-traffic videos for the video streaming site.

The announcement of Nintendo's endorsement was made by its top banana Satoru Iwata, who revealed the information as part of a promotion of Dwango's Tokaigi "Game Party Japan" 2015 - an event celebrating playing games together in Japan. Nintendo will be a main sponsor of the event, which will take place on January 31 and February 1 next year.

We don't have any word if Nintendo will be offering similar endorsement and permissions for derivative works on YouTube or any other media in the west, but we have reached out to Nintendo of America for comment.

Source: Nintendo Everything [http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-ips-can-officially-be-used-for-fan-projects-endorsement-scheme-announced-for-japan/]


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[144_v1legacy]

A step in the right direction. The YouTube debacle was a big misstep, and made me very disappointed. I hope this is proof they've learned from that mistake, and not something else.

 

[Roxas1359]

A step in the right direction. The YouTube debacle was a big misstep, and made me very disappointed. I hope this is proof they've learned from that mistake, and not something else.

I agree with this. I'm hoping that they eventually do some sort of provision or something for YouTube in the US as well as in Europe. I've purposely not been doing Nintendo games on my channel after that whole debacle, and out of fear of my channel getting slammed hard.

Hopefully a plan or something comes soon because then I can finally do my full LP on Dark Moon.

 

[marioandsonic]

That's pretty cool.

After what happened with the whole YouTube debacle, I hope they allow something like this for Youtube as well.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Well, I'm glad someone with some leverage in this industry crawled out from under their pre-1999 rock. If YouTube (along with the chumps trying to content ID and copyright strike every video remotely mentioning their works) don't fix themselves soon, I'd love to see content creators go to NicoNico. That would be hilarious.

 

[KazeAizen]

A step in the right direction. The YouTube debacle was a big misstep, and made me very disappointed. I hope this is proof they've learned from that mistake, and not something else.

I agree with this. I'm hoping that they eventually do some sort of provision or something for YouTube in the US as well as in Europe. I've purposely not been doing Nintendo games on my channel after that whole debacle, and out of fear of my channel getting slammed hard.

Hopefully a plan or something comes soon because then I can finally do my full LP on Dark Moon.

Imagine that though if it comes to pass. No more bad Youtube shenanigans and they may be moving away from Region Locking. What would be the last "bad mark" on their list of business practices to fix? For consumers anyway.

 

[Roxas1359]

Imagine that though if it comes to pass. No more bad Youtube shenanigans and they may be moving away from Region Locking. What would be the last "bad mark" on their list of business practices to fix? For consumers anyway.

For me I don't care if I make money or not on my videos, but claims like the ones Nintendo makes on the videos gives control of the video to them and I don't like that. I like being able to have free control over the videos on my channel, which is why when this whole thing came to a boil I had to delete things like my Mario Party 2 run. Luckily I was able to keep my Luigi's Mansion run, which is good since on that run I got a Gold Frame on Boolossus and I'd rather not have to go through that pain again.

The only video I have on my channel that is claimed is by TuneCore for Daniel Sadowski, primarily for his last track in A Boy and His Blob Wii. I was actually able to talk with Mr. Sadowski, he's a really nice guy, and we agreed that I could retain control over the video, while he could put ads on that video to get revenue from it. What I mainly want is to know that I'm not just signing away control over things on my channel, since when that happens if the video gets removed by them it adds a strike to your channel no matter what. While you only need 3 strikes for your channel to be terminated, having one strike already puts you at a disadvantage as it removes the ability videos past 15 minutes. And while Nintendo at the time is fine with the videos, one day they could just decide "we don't want them" and take them down. Have 3 or more videos under that by Nintendo, boom your channel is gone and unless you're extremely popular you're not gonna get any defense which sucks. That's mainly the entire reason why not only I, but many others such as boogie, didn't continue with Nintendo videos on our channels. Which sucks because I want to do my Dark Moon LP dammit! >.<

The region locking thing I generally have as a separate thing for me, as it'd help greatly since I doubt we'll be getting a lot of Wii U games. Heck, still no word on the localization for the new Fatal Frame, and it's been out in Japan for almost 2 months now. I don't want another repeat of Fatal Frame IV, which required me to modify my Wii to play imports. Same with the Unlimited Cruise series which never made it to the US.

 

[Queen Michael]

That's pretty cool.

After what happened with the whole YouTube debacle, I hope they allow something like this for Youtube as well.

What is this YouTube debacle of which you speak?

 

[Roxas1359]

What is this YouTube debacle of which you speak?

Nintendo pretty much claimed millions of YouTube videos with content ID matches suddenly, causing huge outcries from many and getting a lot of channels banned due to the whole "3 strikes you're out" rule YouTube had. It happened around the beginning of the year and came from Nintendo of Japan, which made things awkward and difficult for Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe when they were trying to see if they could get it undone. It gave Nintendo a lot of negative PR due to how it was handled, and it honestly made many people see Nintendo as completely out of touch.

As a result, many people stopped doing Nintendo videos on their channels because of fear of Nintendo placing claims on the videos. This all occurred after a similar event had occurred last year in which Nintendo placed claims on many videos to get all the ad revenue from people LPing the games. LPers who had strong connections with Nintendo like Chuggaconrroy were hit really hard and it damaged their reputation. Then after that Nintendo had tried to block the EVO Fighting Game Tournament after Super Smash Bros Melee was going to be streamed. Melee was chosen as part of a charity drive, so that damaged Nintendo PR-wise even more.

After all of that, Nintendo has been on damage control because of it and have slowly been trying to improve things. For one, they sponsored this year's EVO Tournament after the debacle that happened last year, and then they announced a new partnership program for places like YouTube and other sites. Now we have this, which will hopefully take off and people will start doing Nintendo content on their channels again. I know if it happens I'll be doing Nintendo content again.

Another problem with the whole thing is YouTube's algorithm for handing out Content IDs which lead to Copyright Strikes, but that's another rant that I could probably take up the entire posting limit with. But to summarize how bad it got, the claims from Nintendo didn't just affect Let's Players. It hit podcasts, reviews, fan-projects and fan videos, and was just a giant mess. To equivilate, SEGA also got a lot of shit for what happened with the Shining Force series when SEGA of Japan forced all videos of the Shining Force series off of YouTube, giving everyone an automatic strike on their accounts and banning many. SEGA of America and SEGA of Europe are still doing the damage control on that, and that happened 2 years ago.

 

[Haru17]

There's plenty of Nintendo lets plays, even one-off series from people that normally do xbox / playstation / pc games.

 

[Roxas1359]

There's plenty of Nintendo lets plays, even one-off series from people that normally do xbox / playstation / pc games.

While that is the case, the debacle that happened last year didn't just affect LPs, although it did convince some not to do them. The claims also hit things like podcasts, fan animations, and most importantly reviews. There are a lot of people who might not like LPs, I've seen a lot of them on this site, and feel that they aren't protected under the Fair Use laws set by the Fair Use Act of 1976 (which is sadly outdated and needs updating). Thing is though, reviews are fully protected under the Fair Use Act and all of its provisions, which is where a lot of problems came from as well.

 

[Travis Fischer]

I cover a lot of Nintendo news on my channel (youtube.com/teekvids) but I've learned to either crop the video or otherwise modify it so it doesn't get picked up by the automatic filters. Seems to work.

 

[RandV80]

With that whole youtube thing I've always wondered how much of it is 'Nintendo' and how much of it is 'Nintendo of America'. I mean I could be wrong but that whole debacle feels like a Reggie move for some reason.

 

[newwiseman]

Not that big a surprise really. Japan has long embraced the doujinshi market, and that nearly 100% derivative works. America on the other hand has a tradition of suing anything remotely close to any other work.

 

[Svarr]

Nintendo is learning faster then some other companies, not bad Nintendo, not bad.

 

[Strazdas]

Oh wow. Thank you Nintendo for "allowing" me something that has been my legal right since birth. You are so awesome for finally confirming that yes laws are in fact lawful. how would we do without it!

Oh, thats right, you already shown us how you would act without laws las year....

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

What is this YouTube debacle of which you speak?

Them taking down videos of their games made by those who didn't get permission. Funny thing is, Nintendo was completely in the right there. It's against the Youtube Partners EULA to post monetized Let's Plays; anything involving games needs to be either educational (like reviews) or satirical in nature and just posting game footage is in violation of that.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Oh wow. Thank you Nintendo for "allowing" me something that has been my legal right since birth. You are so awesome for finally confirming that yes laws are in fact lawful. how would we do without it!

Oh, thats right, you already shown us how you would act without laws las year....

You have had a legal right since birth to do videos of games that didn't exist on a website that didn't exist with technology that didn't exist?
I'm not fully convinced you know what laws are dude at the very least if you have a legal right to use their material to make money with no payment to the company, that won't have been legal until at the earliest Youtube's Terms and Conditions were written down.

 

[Czann]

Welcome to the XXI century Nintendo!

 

[Something Amyss]

Well, I'm glad someone with some leverage in this industry crawled out from under their pre-1999 rock. If YouTube (along with the chumps trying to content ID and copyright strike every video remotely mentioning their works) don't fix themselves soon, I'd love to see content creators go to NicoNico. That would be hilarious.

All they've really done is undo what they did last year, and even then, not for YouTube.