5 ms·

> More confusion than I expected to see on a site like Hackernews. Kinda funny, because... you're here claiming that Nintendo is (likely) doing something illeg

by lrae 5y ago

> More confusion than I expected to see on a site like Hackernews. Kinda funny, because... you're here claiming that Nintendo is (likely) doing something illegal here and are adding to the confusion. The thing is, the removals that are in the press right now, especially the Steam Deck one, had gameplay in them... and as far as I know and understand US law and its current interpretation, Nintendo is likely well within its rights to DMCA gameplay.

ThrustVectoring 5y ago
The problem is using the process of threatening legal action to suppress speech. This is the very problem that anti-SLAPP statutes are designed to protect against; if they're ineffective in this case, they should be amended to explicitly cover DMCA notices in a way that dissuades using them to suppress speech. For what it's worth, using a brief clip of an emulated Switch game seems to me to clearly fall under Fair Use. It's transformative and does not substitute for the original work, often non-profit and/or educational, is a small portion of the copyrighted work, and fails to displace any sales.
namlem 5y ago
It depends on the nature of the gameplay footage in the videos. There's a high likelihood that it was Fair Use.
danShumway 5y ago
> and are adding to the confusion. > had gameplay in them... and as far as I know and understand US law and its current interpretation, Nintendo is likely well within its rights to DMCA gameplay. No, not for informational purposes. Nintendo doesn't have the right to (for example) demand a review video come down just because it doesn't like the coverage -- even if the video includes gameplay. If the emulator tutorials showcased large swaths of gameplay then that would be a problem, but snippets would not fall into that category. Copyright has limits. Companies often try to create the impression that every review, article, tutorial, or blog post that references their products only exists at their pleasure. But that's not actually how copyright works. You can't take down a news article or tutorial unless it's using those snippets in a way that goes beyond fair use. Of course, Nintendo technically can take down those videos, but not because there's a legal right to or because they're protecting their IP; Nintendo can take down those videos because it has a bunch of lawyers and can threaten to ruin your life regardless of the eventual outcome of any lawsuit, and because Youtube will take down the videos for Nintendo without ever checking to see if Nintendo is abusing the DMCA/takedown process. But that's a separate conversation. As always, IANAL, but including a snippet of gameplay from a Nintendo game in a tutorial about a Nintendo emulator is probably perfectly legal.

by lrae 5y ago

ThrustVectoring 5y ago

The problem is using the process of threatening legal action to suppress speech. This is the very problem that anti-SLAPP statutes are designed to protect against; if they're ineffective in this case, they should be amended to explicitly cover DMCA notices in a way that dissuades using them to suppress speech. For what it's worth, using a brief clip of an emulated Switch game seems to me to clearly fall under Fair Use. It's transformative and does not substitute for the original work, often non-profit and/or educational, is a small portion of the copyrighted work, and fails to displace any sales.

namlem 5y ago

It depends on the nature of the gameplay footage in the videos. There's a high likelihood that it was Fair Use.

danShumway 5y ago

> and are adding to the confusion. > had gameplay in them... and as far as I know and understand US law and its current interpretation, Nintendo is likely well within its rights to DMCA gameplay. No, not for informational purposes. Nintendo doesn't have the right to (for example) demand a review video come down just because it doesn't like the coverage -- even if the video includes gameplay. If the emulator tutorials showcased large swaths of gameplay then that would be a problem, but snippets would not fall into that category. Copyright has limits. Companies often try to create the impression that every review, article, tutorial, or blog post that references their products only exists at their pleasure. But that's not actually how copyright works. You can't take down a news article or tutorial unless it's using those snippets in a way that goes beyond fair use. Of course, Nintendo technically can take down those videos, but not because there's a legal right to or because they're protecting their IP; Nintendo can take down those videos because it has a bunch of lawyers and can threaten to ruin your life regardless of the eventual outcome of any lawsuit, and because Youtube will take down the videos for Nintendo without ever checking to see if Nintendo is abusing the DMCA/takedown process. But that's a separate conversation. As always, IANAL, but including a snippet of gameplay from a Nintendo game in a tutorial about a Nintendo emulator is probably perfectly legal.