Geoff Does Machinima, Copyright, and uber-PWNAGE

Geoff Does Machinima

Congrats to Geoff (sasbenjr) on his first Machinima video which went up today. It’s Rush game mode on Laguna Presa (BFBC2) and has a special guest appearance from Hugo, Javier and Barry – the red men. I think Geoff has raised the bar again in this commentary, and Machinima has already had an impact – almost 6000 subs.

Check out the vid directly here in full-size HD. Or click the YouTube icon on the bottom right of this preview:

Copyright

I’ve posted a couple of times recently about copyright and YouTube and the pitfalls that are waiting for the unwary. Well BlameTruth posted a video about a chum of his called DarkSydePhil whose channel had been deleted for copyright infringement. DarkSydePhil does gameplays and it would seem that the publishers of the games he was playing felt he was infringing their rights. My personal view on this is that the people who actually make the games probably think it’s awesome that people play their games, but the legal teams for the publishers are arseholes. Interestingly BlameTruth in his video mentions that he has two copyright strikes against him on YouTube notably for GTAIV gameplay. I say notably because I would have thought that RockStar (but not necessarily Take-Two) would not have an issue with gameplays…..but I digress.

I disagree with BlameTruth’s stance on the whole “wrongly suspended” message. YouTube is very clear on how it deals with copyright issues. It’s unfortunate that people trying to share their enjoyment of something get stomped on in this way – but it’s the reality of the situation. In fact I remember shortly after Gears of War came out some guy made a really cool anime-esque model/sculpture of the main character Marcus Fenix for his little brother. It was a really beautiful piece and he posted pics of it on the internet. Then the GoW lawyers wrote to him and told him that if he didn’t destroy it, the plans for it, and any other copies he’d made they’d sue him so bad his great-great-great-grandchildren would be paupers (or something like that). Thankfully in that scenario there was outcry in the gaming community and with a PR disaster looming the GoW legal guys backed down saying they didn’t realise it was a one off and apologised for being heavy handed. On YouTube you get some grumbling and the suspended guy opens a new channel.

So what’s the point of this post…..erm I’m not really sure. Probably how the concept and caveat of “fair use” in all current copyright law is ignored by the big companies while they ride rough shod over the people who support them.

While you consider that, here’s BlameTruth’s vid:

and lastly – uber-PWNAGE!!!!11!!1eleventy!1!

I’ve had some stinkers in my time. I’ve had some awful results and I’ve had my fair share of bad beatdowns…..but nothing as bad as this:

Sandy Ravage – you filthy filthy beast!

I’ve been David, and you’ve been awesome!

Peas and loaves.

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