Jimquisition: Copyright War

[Zepherus14]

Good. Lemme say that again: Gooooooooooooooood. I hope the publishers go buck wild and punish every LPer they can for every little reason they can. And then, when they come back whining that the indie crowd is growing larger because of a growth in free press and that they want a slice of that because their sales have dropped, we can tell them to go suck on it.

Here's your rope, publishers. Have fun.

Although I would love to see publishers get what's coming to them, I would rather see it through a way that doesn't kill the content creators in the process.

OT:
The one thing that bothers me about all of this though is how no one ever talks about this until it happens to them. TB never talked about it until the whole Sega or Garry's Incident. Jim didn't really talk about until one of his own videos were removed. It would be nice to see more talk about the subject before the person became a victim.

 

[uchytjes]

This is why if I ever started a gaming channel I would do almost exclusively non-triple A games. Mostly because of the automated content match system, but also because those games already get enough publicity as is, the ones that need the publicity are the smaller ones.

 

[Vausch]

Good. Lemme say that again: Gooooooooooooooood. I hope the publishers go buck wild and punish every LPer they can for every little reason they can. And then, when they come back whining that the indie crowd is growing larger because of a growth in free press and that they want a slice of that because their sales have dropped, we can tell them to go suck on it.

Here's your rope, publishers. Have fun.

The publishers are afraid of us.

We have seen their true faces. The shelves are extended gutters and the gutters are full of shite and when the drains finally clog, all the vermin will drown.

The accumulated filth of all their grubbing and crying will foam up about their waists and all the review whores and CEOs will look up and shout "Save us!"...


... and I'll look down and whisper


"Fuck off."

 

[Steve2911]

You could have just released the little speech at the end and called it a day. Brilliant stuff.

 

[JoJo]

Maybe it's time for an alternative to YouTube, since the site seems to be becoming rapidly taken over by corporations and Google +. Anyone got any suggestions for a viable alternative video site?

Unfortunately that's basically not going to happen. Any video site hosted on the servers of the size that would be required to hold the raw amount of video footage on youtube would probably have to be owned by a corporation of sorts.

Which isn't to say there aren't web sites with the same capabilities as youtube but they absolutely lack the capacity.

I don't necessarily mean one not owned by a corporation of some sorts, but rather not one which freely gives other corporations the right to remove any content they judge to be infringing without any sort of oversight as Google does now. I don't think YouTube's huge market share is impregnable, look what happened to MySpace, just the right competitor needs to come along... (and probably become equally terrible in the end, but such is the circle of life right?).

 

[IKWerewolf]

I think the point Jim made is actually a valid one at the end. Market forces dictate how people operate. If there is fear of playing a game because they are concerned that they will be unfairly receiving a strike, then they will choose not to play or promote them.

So who will be left and what will the effect be on them? A small group of people who will quickly lose all credibility, in some cases not being their fault.

There are two scenarios; the first one is that the publishers have left them alone because they said positive things and mean them, the second is those that have sold their soul and are lying to their audience and hereby lies the problem. There is so much distrust against certain publishers that everyone may be tarred with the same brush who is able to 'get away with it!' and are accused of being in the back pocket, even when it is false.

The publishers of games are making enemies of the people they want on side; 1000 years of history has always proven that if you do this, it will always end in disaster. Publishers need the goodwill of the players and the gatekeepers of the goodwill are people like Jim, TB, Northernlion, Indie Statik to name a few.

When the chaos of TB and WGS occurred I watched the fiasco evolve (just for fun). TB showed a 20 minute video and within hours:

1)WGS's Facebook Page was bombarded with people liking the page just to Attack them
2)Steam's DO:GI HUB page was swamped with messages started up attacking them.
3)The discussion pages of Steam were swamped that people showing their hatred faster than WGS could take it down.

Even when they caved, it left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. How many Video creators have blacklisted WGS for doing this and will never play their games again?

But know who the true enemy is. Who has allowed this to happen? Who designed the flawed system in the first place?

 

[The White Hunter]

Maybe it's time for an alternative to YouTube, since the site seems to be becoming rapidly taken over by corporations and Google +. Anyone got any suggestions for a viable alternative video site?

Make your own alternative video site and write your own video codec? That would be rather labour intensive though.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Pewdiepie. Within 5 comments on the first break of this news on Escapist, someone mentioned "If this gets rid of Pewdiepie then I'm all for it".

Which you can counter with a very easily-understood music scenario:

"I'm all for destroying every song Metallica has ever made if it also gets rid of Justin Bieber."

(Substitute a famous and infamous name for any other medium the person who says this enjoys. Example: "I'm all for destroying every movie Stanley Kubrick has ever made if it also gets rid of Uwe Boll.")

 

[The Great JT]

You should be afraid of me, Jim. I can kick you in the shin and make it hurt for a real long time.

(Nah I'm just playing, one love, man.)

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Indeed. Thank God for you, Jim. =w= b

Also, side question;

Who is happy about this!? [sub]Besides publishers, of course[/sub]

I guess if you don't like a specific youtube personality, you could be happy that they are getting the screws put to them, but I don't see one guy/gal you don't like getting burned being worth all the others you may like/don't hate also getting burned.

But rejoicing it as a whole? WHY!?

P.S. You really don't need them, Jim!
You have all of us. ;3

Pewdiepie. Within 5 comments on the first break of this news on Escapist, someone mentioned "If this gets rid of Pewdiepie then I'm all for it".

I think it's the most ridiculous that these publishers will sue for lets plays of games that are impossible to get any more. Like, you literally cannot get the game new, even digitally. But they will still sue.

Ah. I see. Figures.

Also; That is pretty ridiculous to go after someone over games you can't/don't sell yourself anymore anyway.
Even for games that you still sell, it's pretty dumb[sub](most of the time)[/sub].

For most games, watching them is not really at all the same as playing them yourself.

 

[Vedli]

Maybe it's time for an alternative to YouTube, since the site seems to be becoming rapidly taken over by corporations and Google +. Anyone got any suggestions for a viable alternative video site?

Unfortunately that's basically not going to happen. Any video site hosted on the servers of the size that would be required to hold the raw amount of video footage on youtube would probably have to be owned by a corporation of sorts.

Which isn't to say there aren't web sites with the same capabilities as youtube but they absolutely lack the capacity.

I don't necessarily mean one not owned by a corporation of some sorts, but rather not one which freely gives other corporations the right to remove any content they judge to be infringing without any sort of oversight as Google does now. I don't think YouTube's huge market share is impregnable, look what happened to MySpace, just the right competitor needs to come along... (and probably become equally terrible in the end, but such is the circle of life right?).

Right now I think the best rival for youtube would be something like Twitch.tv

 

[Costia]

This is a bad thing that can lead to a good thing.
I do want that good youtubers that create original content will be free to do so, but this shouldn't give a free pass for those who just stream entire games without adding anything of their own.
Maybe this mess will encourage the publishers, google and content creators to put some effort and solve this problem. So in the future no one will have to be afraid of random take down notices. Meaning that if you create something original - your video stays up no matter what, but if you post a "silent movie" of you just playing the game it gets taken down.
I think that it's the randomness and the unfairness that is the main problem here and not google's ability to take down gameplay videos itself.

 

[JoJo]

Make your own alternative video site and write your own video codec? That would be rather labour intensive though.

I'm no programmer, I'd rather give my custom to another video site though if it can supply enough variety of content to be worthwhile, at-least for some of my viewing.

Right now I think the best rival for youtube would be something like Twitch.tv

Thanks, I'll give it a look.

 

[webkilla]

Its a terrible thing really - a real kick in the nuts to anyone wanting to showcase anything about a video game...

But as Jim said: It also pisses off the LP and gaming community, leading to more reviewers not giving a shit about the publishers anymore... which might lead to more indie games getting coverage instead of triple-A games, and I really like that.

...but ya, US copyright law (heck, global copyright law, ideally) needs a serious revision

 

[The White Hunter]

Make your own alternative video site and write your own video codec? That would be rather labour intensive though.

I'm no programmer, I'd rather give my custom to another video site though if it can supply enough variety of content to be worthwhile, at-least for some of my viewing.

Right now I think the best rival for youtube would be something like Twitch.tv

Thanks, I'll give it a look.

As I remember a few years ago there were quite a number of alternatives around but I'd be damned pressed to actually name any of them and they all slowly died out.

Unfortunate.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Great video as always Jim.

After seeing most of the conversations going on in this thread I've now learned two things:

1)We should love and adore every LP'er out there (even Pew it appears).

2)We should hate,spite and scorn every publisher on Youtube because it's not their property apparently.

I can't seem to remember what life was like before LP'ers came along and what those LP'ers used to work as for a living but I'm sure we'll never find out because who needs a real job when you can sit home and play vidya games all day for Youtube.

 

[Moth_Monk]

You have to be pretty stupid to not realise that the biggest YouTubers get paid by publishers to market games.

 

[Makabriel]

Yeah, this whole thing just flabergasts me.. The big thing about the next gen consoles, especially PS4 is about sharing your game experience. With EVERYONE. I mean, Twitch TV? Hello?

It's not the content being out there that publisher's are scared of, it's the people that the content is associated with when it comes to highly viewed YouTube entries.

 

[Entitled]

Jim sounds about righ this time, but with his earlier video about which cases of piracy are and aren't "theft", he is also absolutely part of the problem.

You either buy into the "copyright is intellectual property" metaphor, or you don't. If you do, then removing youtube videos makes perfect sense, as they were also "taking" publishers "property" without their permission. Even if only little bits of it, and even if they didn't cause financial harm with it, and even if earlier the devs chose to give away pieces.

If it's their "property", then what happens to it is their call to the absolute. It's that simple.

You can't just buy into the analogy when you feel angry at a particular form of infringement, and reject it when it's about a type of it that you do want to liberalize.

Some copyright monopoly is needed to sustain basic industry activities, but it shouldn't be EVER be called "intellectual property".

 

[Roxas1359]

This is a bad thing that can lead to a good thing.
I do want that good youtubers that create original content will be free to do so, but this shouldn't give a free pass for those who just stream entire games without adding anything of their own.
Maybe this mess will encourage the publishers, google and content creators to put some effort and solve this problem. So in the future no one will have to be afraid of random take down notices. Meaning that if you create something original - your video stays up no matter what, but if you post a "silent movie" of you just playing the game it gets taken down.
I think that it's the randomness and the unfairness that is the main problem here and not google's ability to take down gameplay videos itself.

Thing is though, what about Long-Plays and other things, Walkthroughs have also been around for a while and also require editing down of footage as well, along with possible in-text stuff to show people things. Walkthroughs can tend to have just about as much work done on them as Let's Plays can. What's the main problem here is that Copyright Laws are so outdated, along with the fact that use content creators have to try to use the Fair Use Act of 1976 to try and defend ourselves, but it isn't enough anymore since the laws are so outdated. Jim is entirely right in this episode.

Mainly it also wouldn't matter because Google would just cave into the publishers to avoid any legal troubles, they've done it in the past before hand. The copyright system allows any random person to claim copyright on your video, it's all automated and there is no person actually monitoring it so most of the time content is falsely flagged.

Make your own alternative video site and write your own video codec? That would be rather labour intensive though.

I'm no programmer, I'd rather give my custom to another video site though if it can supply enough variety of content to be worthwhile, at-least for some of my viewing.

Well there is Game Anyone, a site entirely dedicated to uploading LPs and Video Game Walkthroughs and has been around since 2006. We use our own video codecs, support 60 frames per second on videos (YouTube only does 30 at max), and it's a rather pleasant site to say the least. ^.^