Discussing "Where's The Fair Use" Youtube Movement

[Shinko]

In case anybody is interested, there's been an update to the Where's the Fair Use movement. Good news (the issue is being discussed before the government) bad news (the recording industry is trying to make the DMCA even more strict) and hilarious news (huffpost missed the flipping point and called the petition a "cyer-attack" because so many people pitched in an opinion that it crashed the government site. Nevermind that wasn't on purpose. XD )

[Jae]

The hurting sales point is such garbage. Literally half my Steam library is games I never even knew existed before I saw previews, reviews or Let's Plays on Youtube.

Where do people even get news about game releases anymore outside of videos or articles where those creators are getting paid from ad revenue rather than by the game companies? Sure, some companies pay creators to specifically hype their games, but most don't.

E3 is once a year, and most people don't obsessively write down every date that every game is going to be released.

I'm glad it's gaining traction, though. The push-back from the companies is ridiculous and I imagine Google will probably be very displeased if any of that goes through and their most prominent content creators jump ship, which is likely to happen since some of the biggest Youtubers primarily do Let's Plays and parodies.

[Shinko]

Yeah, I've gone and bought several games I never would've touched if I hadn't seen a let's play of it first. (Bioshock, Bioshock Infinite, Assassin's Creed 2, Poke'mon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky, and Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance -got this one as a gift for my sister- to name a few). Heck, my sister knows I watch let's plays and she will buy games knowing if she gets stuck she can call me and ask "hey how do you get past XYZ" because chances are I've watched someone else do it. And a lot of the times the let's plays I watch are for nostalgic games I did in fact own at one point, but can't play anymore because the system crapped out or something. (I very much enjoy The Doctor With the Infamous Gentelmen's let's play of Starfox Adventures, whiiich I would totally still be playing into the ground myself if my gamecube hadn't fallen six feet and broke.)

Heh, I imagine Google would be very, very upset to lose the likes of Pewdiepie, Markiplier and The Fine Bros, all of whom would be hurting puppies if take-down-stay-down went through.

[Jae]

Pewdiepie especially because he's one of their flagship Youtube Red content creators. Anytime I get a YT Red advertisement, it's for Pewdiepie's series.

If things went south on the YT front, I imagine we'd start seeing the rise of other video sites with better DMCA takedown policies. Twitch has already gotten big, and I don't think /I've/ ever seen a stream canned because someone filed a DMCA notice on it. (I'm not familiar with Twitch's takedown policy so I can't say if it's because they put the burden of proof on the claimant or if companies just aren't monitoring Twitch 24/7.)

The take-down-stay-down would also hurt people who have permission from the developers to post games because it sounds like a blanket ban. Some companies specifically give games to LPers in advance in order to hype the game. And that doesn't even touch the fact that the example given - full movies leaked early on YT - would basically be punishing innocent people acting within the bounds of fair use for what SOME OTHER PERSON did. One dude drinks and drives so no one else in the entire world is allowed to drive ever again?

(also, RIP gamecube it's always sad when good consoles die young )

[Shinko]

Oh absolutely with the hyping. There are some indie games that exploded in popularity which likely never would've gained much traction at all if not for LP-ers; Amnesia The Dark Descent, Five Nights At Freddy's, and Undertale can probably all attribute their wild success stories to hyping on youtube. (Actually the genocide route on Undertale includes a nod to LP-ers, poking fun at "the people who just watch because they can't do it themselves.")

[Jae]

I don't think the creators of those games are the ones filing copyright claims. Indie games are about the only safe thing to post a LP/review of on Youtube. P: