General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYoutube implements new IP feature that smacks of greed IMHO (some vids embedded)...
So I'm an avid YouTube watcher. Specifically I tend to watch a lot of YouTube "Let's Players". These are people who play video games while commentating. If you have no experience with it, it may sound boring, why would you want to watch someone else play video games? But it's actually quite entertaining. Here's an example:
Watch a few mins of this, the guy is quite humours and entertaining.
Another example is people who review video games. They take a game that has been released, record footage of it and edit it together into a review, a lot of work goes into some of these reviews:
Trouble is they don't technically own the rights to the video footage or music they have recorded, even if all the other content they create around it is their own.
Believe it or not quite a few of these people actually do this full time! Youtube partners with video content producers and offers them a percentage of the add revenue from the adds they place at the beginning of all videos. If you have a large enough user base watching your shows this can be enough revenue to make a small living off of. Some of these guys have 200,000 to a million or more subscribers and regular viewers. Now of course the big companies don't like this. You are making money partially off of their content, and they are not getting a piece of the action. So over the years they have been pushing Youtube to make it easier to make Copy write claims on videos. Well the other day Google caved and implemented a feature that made it MUCH easier for large corporations to blanket flag large numbers of videos and make copy write claims on them. They get a share of the profit or you take the video down!
As it is most of these small content producers don't make a huge amount of money off these vids, only the top few % are making a really good living off it. The vast majority of the rest do it as a passion project and are lucky they can make a small living off it. They really can't afford to have this happen and still make a living doing this. And believe me if you watch enough of these shows you come to realize quickly it's not just people lazily playing games and making a buck, these guys put a LOT of effort into these things. The amount of editing, writing, and general production values involved is indeed a full time job for many.
Now the most legitimate concern Sony, Nintendo, MS and many others have is that a small number of people are actually uploading whole movies, songs, TV shows etc. BUT what has happened is that these companies have used this tool to blanket flag ANYTHING that has any of their content in it at all. Have an amazingly artistic video that is all yours, you spend months and months working on that happens to contain a few mins of some Beatles song? Expect to get an email about it now!
The Youtube community is in an uproar about this right now and many fear they will be forced to stop doing the work they love so much. Here is one impassioned plea by a well known vlogger:
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)I worked in film and video production for years. You HAVE to get permission to use materials. And you'd be amazed how easily one can obtain permission.
And if you make money off of it, you better damn sure make you have permission.
I made films in film school, and we would ask permission from the copyright holders for any song we used. After that, I worked in advertising. Once again, we had to obtain permission and in some cases, pay royalties for use.
Locut0s
(6,154 posts)Though I've heard the opposite from some about the ease of obtaining permission. It varies a lot by company of course. I'm actually not arguing that what they are doing here isn't illegal technically. I just find the speed and zeal with which they have gone after small time content creators to be extra greedy. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'd prefer they went after the bigger fish in the pond and left the little guys alone. Though I fully agree with you it's their right.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)You actually like the "let's play" videos? I've found like 90% of them completely unwatchable, usually with bad music and worse commentary...The worst ones are when someone half my age tries reviewing something from my era and gets *everything* wrong...
I will say that recorded walkthroughs and the 'how-to' stuff has been invaluable to me over the years...
Locut0s
(6,154 posts)I like a small proportion of the let's play community Yes I agree there is a lot of junk let's platy stuff out there. But a small subset is really quite entertaining. Did you watch a few mins of the first vid I posted?
Actually now that I look at my subscription list only about 3 or 4 of the guys are let's players. The rest tend to be video game review shows. I think what I like more than anything are the personalities, a few of these guys are really quite interesting
BTW only tangentially related but do you know of Smooth McGroove? If you like game music this guy does some awesome acapella stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJvBEEqTaLaKclbCPgIjBSQ
countryjake
(8,554 posts)Does this mean he'll have to stop? In his earlier vids, he didn't include any real clips of the games, but he sure uses the tunes, very well. I love what he does.
My favorite Zelda song, right here:
Locut0s
(6,154 posts)I would hope that the worst is that he would have to remove the video game clips. I'm no lawyer so I have no idea where your own interpretations of copywrited stuff falls.
geomon666
(7,512 posts)Locut0s
(6,154 posts)Wow I can't believe how crappy those contracts with the MCNs are!
Giving away 40 to 50% of your small revenue just to avoid worrying about copy write stuff and getting nothing in return, yuck.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)are 2 of my favorite LPers. But regarding the copyright thing, that's a shame. Partnered YouTubers already barely get paid anything for their videos, but these corporations want to milk everything dry and they don't want people to eat.
Locut0s
(6,154 posts)Cool guy. Haven't heard of Slowflake, will have to look him up, thanks.