Games Publishers Stick Up For Fans Against The Internet
THERE are a lot of companies who still don’t understand the value of fan-made tributes to their products. Prince takes all his stuff off YouTube as soon as he can and some movie studios get riled at clips of films been shown. However, one industry that really understands it is the world of gaming.
YouTube is awash with walkthroughs, compilation videos, nostalgia clips and more, all made by fans for fans. The gaming community understands that it is all free publicity and enables gamers to feel at one with the games they enjoy.
However, YouTube and Google have been taking down videos because of ‘illegitimate’ copyright claims, and major games publishers are not having it.
There’s been a flurry of activity, which has seen clips from games being taken down, but it isn’t the people who made them who are instigating it.
Capcom, Blizzard and Ubisoft have come out and said they wanted footage of their games to remain online.
Google are using a system called Content ID to seek out videos that contain copyrighted material. “We recently enabled Content ID scanning on channels identified as affiliates of MCNs [Multi Channel Networks],” YouTube said. “This has resulted in new copyright claims for some users, based on policies set by the relevant content owners.”
Publishers are on the side of fans, who have loudly protested Google and YouTube’s move.
“If you’re a YouTuber and are receiving content matches with the new changes, please be sure to contest them so we can quickly approve them,” tweeted Blizzard, publisher of the Diablo series. Capcom added: “YouTubers: Pls let us know if you’ve had videos flagged today. These may be illegitimate flags not instigated by us. We are investigating.”
Ubisoft noted that take-downs might have something to do with the music they’re using, rather than the game footage.
“If you happen to be hit with claims on any of your Ubisoft content, it may be that some of the audio is being auto-matched against the music catalogue on our digital stores,” the company explained in a statement, while developer, Deep Silver, also chipped in saying that they haven’t called for removals.
So there we have it. The internet, headed up by a lot of progressive thinkers, now looking rather backward compared to their gaming equivalents.
Are we seeing sections of the internet turning into Old Media bores?
Posted: 13th, December 2013 | In: Reviews, Technology, The Consumer Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
