Update: YouTube Copyright Infringement Notice (Rift Let's Play)

Hey everyone,

This is an update about the notice I received after uploading a video with footage from Rift, as part of the let's play series I am producing to help new players out with the game, and overall give everyone else a new perspective from my point of view.

Firstly I contacted Trion Worlds. Unfortunately I have yet to receive a response, as I used the conventional e-mail method. Not sure if they respond to tweets faster :/

Then I found this.

According to this public note written about Rift by the CEO of Trion Worlds, they give permission, if not out right condone the use of their footage in let's play videos by YouTubers such as myself. He even went on to say that he considers people like that a part of their extended family. And of course, why wouldn't they? I mean, we're promoting their games after all, and we're not even asking for anything in return. (hint hint) ;)

Anyway, I used the link above in my dispute, explaining that according to this, I (and everyone else who does what I do) have permission directly from the CEO of Trion Worlds, to produce videos containing footage from their game.

Hopefully this doesn't have a negative impact on my account. I don't think it should, as it was not a content ID claim, and I believe I saw something that read "You are not being penalized..." somewhere near the copyright notice when I first read it.

I believe that YouTube has to cover their ass, because legal issues can be nasty. So yes, I do agree that there should be moderation in the scanning of copyrighted material in videos that are published for public viewing, much less monetization. But there should be a better system than these new policies that were just introduced. What if someone puts out a video every Friday night for instance? Well, now, you might not see that video until Saturday, even Sunday. Just because it's being processed and immidiately flagged should there even be a trace of anything that even looks like it may be copyrighted by someone.

The fact is that this is having a serious and negative impact, not just on the community, but also on the developers and publishers of these games. It's a waste of time and money for them to have to deal with each case on an individual basis, maybe even losing money from not having as much of their product out there as there would be if not for this new policy set out by YouTube. It hurts the community because there are people out there who love making videos, and they will feel discouraged now and probably produce less content as a direct result.

I am not bitching. All I am saying is that these three parties need to sit down, swallow their pride and talk like adults about the negative impacts of the new policies, and brainstorm a better policy that will keep the copyrighted materials in question safe, keep content flowing from producers, and for it all to be supported and backed by the developers and publishers who are getting some excellent PR brownie points and basically free promotion of their games.

Ok. Rant's over. Let me know what you think.

Also, a new video will be coming early next week so stay tuned, and keep it locked to SSP for more info.

Stay classy.


SSP