DSP and Machinima and Hutch, oh my!

Everyone loves a bit of drama. Some of it is manufactured, some of it is because some people have zero social skills and some of it is caused because opinions and the perception of “facts” fail to mesh. Add some pride and you can get yourself a doozy! (btw, the first two ’causes’ of drama are not relevant here, they’re just included for reference).

DSP – also known as Dark Syde Phil or The King of Hate HD (never really got that one as there’s not much proper hate in his videos) posted an “Inbox” vid. It’s the standard Question and Answer format that people seem to enjoy – you know, you send them a question, they read it out and give you a response but the only thing that you pay attention to is that they’ve read your name out!

Now he answered a question about being on Machinima and/or being partnered with Machinima. For the most part, and from what I understand about Machinima contracts, he’s correct in what he says. Not so sure about the Machinima Partnership bit though. So that you can get an idea of what I’m on about, here’s the vid (skip to 8.50 – and it goes on for about 10 minutes as DSP can’t half talk…):

From what I understand, Machinima has put the partnership umbrella over certain channels which is different to being actual partners and judging by the “watch the ads or GTFO my channel” attitude of at least one of the “partners” it would seem that the channel owners do get a cut of the advertising revenue. In that case DSP would appear to be mistaken. As for the rest of his opinion on Machinima – well, I don’t think he’s far off the mark.

It would seem that currently Machinima is in a state of flux. MW2 is on its way out and there’s a glut of new games on the horizon. Plus many of the established “stars” are splintering off to do their own thing, or set up rival enterprises, some are leaving gaming and others are losing their appeal. Over the past couple of months Machinima has signed a massive amount of new directors of varying quality. My only thought on that is that they’re scooping up as much fresh blood as possible to ensure they have enough content when the new games are released, and the most successful of those will get priority of the fifty million other directors on there.

But anyhoo – I digress. Back to the drama. So Hutch saw the vid, or was told about the vid and blew a gasket (I imagine).

There was also a video response, but I missed that as Hutch removed it, I only caught the aftermath vid:

So pride caused an overzealous defence of Machinima from Hutch. That’s fair enough. But after watching the DSP video and reading Hutch’s tweets it seems that he’s basically confirming what DSP said! Other than the current partnership issue, DSPs reasons for NOT going with Machinima were what Hutch said happened. Machinima wouldn’t feature his vids in the way he wanted them to, plus he didn’t want to go through the hassle of adding the pre and post roll Machinima clips (and it is a hassle adding in other peoples content).

Drama drama drama. I wonder how many extra views and advertising impressions both channels have received from that….

*EDIT* Skip to 6.22 for rant (not sure if this is the vid that was meant to be removed or what):

Peas and loaves.

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David Nicol is Articles Editor for hupitgaming.com, YouTube gaming commentator and blogger based in the UK.

Copyright…..Again…again…

Okay, this is a double topic. After my Copyright…..Again post I got to thinking about derivative works, transformativeness in works and holding your own. Basically, if you alter a work and make it your own then it is derivative – if you change it then it is transformative. So if you play a game and commentate it, or montage it then it becomes derivative AND transformative and so entitled to copyright protection IN IT’S OWN RIGHT. As far as I can tell that does not extend to music you use for a montage, for example, unless it’s a remix that you have made.

However, unless you yell that you know your rights (hahaha, yeah right) then copyright holders for the source material can pretty much just steamroller you. So I made this:

It’s totally free for anyone to use on their videos if they wish to, or perhaps base their own notice off it. I hope that it raises awareness and helps people.

****THIS VIDEO IS FREE FOR ANYONE TO USE****

Direct Download –
http://www.zshare.net/video/7530932079a7ce6c/

*NOTE* If you choose to use this intro for your videos you may still be subject to DMCA/EUCD take down notices. It is YOUR responsibility to prove your work is derivative and/or informative under copyright fair use “rules”.

I’m not a lawyer, and am not responsible for you, your videos, or your actions on YouTube or anywhere else. Do your research:

General Copyright: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

DMCA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmca

EUCD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Directive

Derivative works and transformativeness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work

Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org/

YouTube can, will, and do remove any and all content that is subject to DMCA take down notification. That is part of the Terms and Conditions that you agreed to when you signed up to the service. So even if you are “in the right” YouTube can still take down your video(s) – live with that reality, or use another video host. They’re protecting their business, and they have every right to do it.

After I posted that video to my YouTube channel I found that DarkSydePhil (DSP) who had been pretty much the centre of my thinking on this issue has posted a new video on his ongoing saga. Previously it was claimed that it was UBISOFT who sent the DMCA take down notices to YouTube regarding DSP’s channel…….well, it seems that wasn’t actually correct. In fact it seems that YouTube is now accepting take down notices from any random person who can type “DMCA”:


(Strong language at the end – Not Safe For Work (NSFW))

So there you have it. UBISOFT are not the enemy after all (well, not in this case anyway). But I still want to make it clear that regardless of your actual copyright status, YouTube can remove any video or user from their service whenever they want, and for any reason they feel like. That’s just how it is, and those are the rules that all YouTube accounts are covered by.

Peas and loaves.

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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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Find me on PSN – evaDlivE

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