4 ms·

What do YouTube's "Let's Play" Takedowns Mean For Machinima?

33 points by thenomad 13y ago

sergiotapia 13y ago
Youtube content creators should unite and make some sort of union and reach out to Twitch.tv to see what they can offer and migrate off YouTube. I feel terrible for a lot of these people because they put out genuinely entertaining videos for free, and make a lot of their income off it.
- LandoCalrissian 13y ago
  I agree, at the very least Twitch should recognize this as an opportunity to expand their market. If they become the place for all game videos and live streams they really have something big going on. They already host previous live recordings so I would think they could at least leverage that to offer pre-recorded videos.
  - baldfat 13y ago
    AND this is the reason why Twitch won't touch this with a ten foot pole. They would lose everything if copyright = seeing someone play a game.
- drcube 13y ago
  That's what everyone on Youtube should do. If no one put up with their bullshit bot takedowns, they wouldn't happen.
  - nemothekid 13y ago
    And then that other video site can figure out which bot they will implement when Viacom slaps them with a billion dollar lawsuit.
post_break 13y ago
There is a reason why all of these people are on YouTube. Because you can actually make money. You can make a nice profit on YouTube and the competitors pale in comparison. I've been making a nice chunk of change on YouTube but luckily I don't do video game videos. I have a feeling people will put up with this crap because it's the only game in town.
- thenomad 13y ago
  Interesting! What's the key differentiator between YouTube and something like Blip.tv, in your experience? I'm guessing it must be either better monetisation of their ads or better network effects, but I might be wrong?
  - johnward 13y ago
    The weight that Adwords pulls in the industry brings in higher dollar campaigns which means better payouts to video creators.
  - werid 13y ago
    Blip is now actually owned by Maker Studios, which runs two large Youtube networks (Polaris and RPM)
- tieTYT 13y ago
  What about twitch.tv?
  - changdizzle 13y ago
    twitch.tv's archiving system leaves much to desired and i don't think plays prerolls (someone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong), in addition twitch's adfill is nowhere near youtube's
everettForth 13y ago
I'm confused. Some of the top channels are related to people playing Minecraft. Are these going to be taken down?
- LandoCalrissian 13y ago
  They shouldn't be, Mojang has given permission for people to make videos using Minecraft content. Although they still might, because videos are being taken down that publishers have given permission for, which is one of the major problems here.
- russellsprouts 13y ago
  DocM77 is a Minecraft YouTuber. He explained some of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNaLY_2_Uzc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNaLY_2_Uzc He only had 1 Minecraft video taken down. His intro music (not content from Mojang) was flagged, even though he had a license to use it. (The bot doesn't know about licenses). He Most other games have copyrighted background music. Even games that he was invited to play and record by the publishers were flagged because the bot finds the music in the background. He is filing counter-notices, but they must be filled out individually -- even if the same song is tagged in all 50 episodes of a series. Most go away, but when they are sustained, that is a strike against the account. Too many strikes bans a channel. The larger channels, like Doc's, have contacts at YouTube. They can get their channels reinstated, but smaller channels have a harder time.
obilgic 13y ago
It is because both xbox and ps have launched their own in-game screen sharing feature.
tehwebguy 13y ago
A lot of this is nonsense, lots of monetization actions are being reversed with a simple response from the uploader. Here are some comments from Jon Paula, a creator that has been earning his living via YouTube advertisements since 2009 or earlier (in '09 he convinced me that it was possible for non-top-10 channels to earn a living): http://www.reddit.com/r/letsplay/comments/1shutu/rumors_were_true_youtube_obviously_adjusted/ http://www.reddit.com/r/letsplay/comments/1shutu/rumors_were...
- thenomad 13y ago
  That's good news - and a great link, thanks. Still, it's great to see the games companies lining up to allow Let's Plays, Machinima, and similar uses of their content. Definitely a positive that's come out of the whole affair.

33 points by thenomad 13y ago

Youtube content creators should unite and make some sort of union and reach out to Twitch.tv to see what they can offer and migrate off YouTube. I feel terrible for a lot of these people because they put out genuinely entertaining videos for free, and make a lot of their income off it.

LandoCalrissian 13y ago
I agree, at the very least Twitch should recognize this as an opportunity to expand their market. If they become the place for all game videos and live streams they really have something big going on. They already host previous live recordings so I would think they could at least leverage that to offer pre-recorded videos.
- baldfat 13y ago
  AND this is the reason why Twitch won't touch this with a ten foot pole. They would lose everything if copyright = seeing someone play a game.
drcube 13y ago
That's what everyone on Youtube should do. If no one put up with their bullshit bot takedowns, they wouldn't happen.
- nemothekid 13y ago
  And then that other video site can figure out which bot they will implement when Viacom slaps them with a billion dollar lawsuit.

post_break 13y ago

There is a reason why all of these people are on YouTube. Because you can actually make money. You can make a nice profit on YouTube and the competitors pale in comparison. I've been making a nice chunk of change on YouTube but luckily I don't do video game videos. I have a feeling people will put up with this crap because it's the only game in town.

thenomad 13y ago
Interesting! What's the key differentiator between YouTube and something like Blip.tv, in your experience? I'm guessing it must be either better monetisation of their ads or better network effects, but I might be wrong?
- johnward 13y ago
  The weight that Adwords pulls in the industry brings in higher dollar campaigns which means better payouts to video creators.
- werid 13y ago
  Blip is now actually owned by Maker Studios, which runs two large Youtube networks (Polaris and RPM)
tieTYT 13y ago
What about twitch.tv?
- changdizzle 13y ago
  twitch.tv's archiving system leaves much to desired and i don't think plays prerolls (someone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong), in addition twitch's adfill is nowhere near youtube's

everettForth 13y ago

I'm confused. Some of the top channels are related to people playing Minecraft. Are these going to be taken down?

LandoCalrissian 13y ago
They shouldn't be, Mojang has given permission for people to make videos using Minecraft content. Although they still might, because videos are being taken down that publishers have given permission for, which is one of the major problems here.
russellsprouts 13y ago
DocM77 is a Minecraft YouTuber. He explained some of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNaLY_2_Uzc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNaLY_2_Uzc He only had 1 Minecraft video taken down. His intro music (not content from Mojang) was flagged, even though he had a license to use it. (The bot doesn't know about licenses). He Most other games have copyrighted background music. Even games that he was invited to play and record by the publishers were flagged because the bot finds the music in the background. He is filing counter-notices, but they must be filled out individually -- even if the same song is tagged in all 50 episodes of a series. Most go away, but when they are sustained, that is a strike against the account. Too many strikes bans a channel. The larger channels, like Doc's, have contacts at YouTube. They can get their channels reinstated, but smaller channels have a harder time.

obilgic 13y ago

It is because both xbox and ps have launched their own in-game screen sharing feature.

tehwebguy 13y ago

A lot of this is nonsense, lots of monetization actions are being reversed with a simple response from the uploader. Here are some comments from Jon Paula, a creator that has been earning his living via YouTube advertisements since 2009 or earlier (in '09 he convinced me that it was possible for non-top-10 channels to earn a living): http://www.reddit.com/r/letsplay/comments/1shutu/rumors_were_true_youtube_obviously_adjusted/ http://www.reddit.com/r/letsplay/comments/1shutu/rumors_were...

thenomad 13y ago
That's good news - and a great link, thanks. Still, it's great to see the games companies lining up to allow Let's Plays, Machinima, and similar uses of their content. Definitely a positive that's come out of the whole affair.