I'm a bit uneducated when it comes to copyright law. All I know is fair use pertains to being able to use content not owned by you freely mainly for commentary, criticism, and/or parody. So far, I haven't really seen any videos of Nintendo games being blocked under those circumstances. I could be wrong, but I don't scour around YouTube or comments just to search if anyone had those issues. Though personally, as much as I am a fan of certain youtubers, I'm not really invested in their issues with the law and such. I am educated enough as a gamer to know what games interest me or not. I don't necessarily need to see long walkthroughs unless I'm stuck at something (though I just use guides).

YouTube itself is in a grey area because almost anything can be posted (except the more obvious ones). I'm not sure about the policies of NicoNico so I'm interested in seeing the difference between YouTube and NicoNico.

Regardless though, I'm not a fan of pirating. Sure, there are Japanese exclusive games I'm interested in playing, but to pirate games for the heck of it (and to spite Nintendo), I'll leave that to whoever cares about it. If I have FE Blazing Sword or Fates, why should I pirate them? Plus Nintendo hasn't really done anything wrong to me as a consumer, personally. They've given me so much as a gamer anyway. I'll always remember Mario World and ALttP being my first games that I've played. I'll remember playing Mario 64 for the first time. I'll remember seeing Smash 4's final roster and putting it up there among the greatest of all time. So I am not obligated to do such thing. If you want to do to spite Nintendo, fine, it's your life and your choice.

Pirating isn't morally acceptable just buy and play the original. Nintendo make good games so if you like those don't be a cheap bastard.

I thought you where against piracy? Doesn't matter if you think it's morally okay, it's still wrong.

Lucky for me I'm a bad boy and I pirate stuff anyway.

This is also what i get from the video.

The video is a comedic hyperbole abt yt content policy and nintendo's ignorance on fair use law. 

I doubt it's Nintenod ignorance. Most likely they ahve program just scanning for content and when it finds it sends out warning. The program probably can't tell if the content was a legal fair use usage or an illegal "let's play" use.

I say illegal "let's play" becuase I honsetly can not see how let's plays are in any way fair use and not just blatantly showing off teh game, such as if you uplaoded a movie online.  Illegal.

The way I consider this stuff is using MST3K and Rifftrax.

No matter how old or crappy the movie is, if they want to use it for their comedy they must pay for the rights or otherwise get permission. It doesn't matter that all the fans are there primarily for them, not the movie. They use the original footage and must pay for that right. If they can't/won't pay for the original footage then (in Rifftrax's case) they produce a wholly original audio file and let fans seek out a copy of the original footage themselves.

Critiques and parodies are (and should) be protected, and if Nintendo is targeting them then they need to be held accountable and corrected. However, Let's Plays and Walkthroughs do not fall under that banner. Those content creators are using the original footage and owe something to the original creators. If those content creators don't like the terms that Nintendo sets for using their original footage then they should not use it.

Also, in regards to the hyperbole of 'pirating Nintendo games' two wrongs do not make a right.

Nintendo's draconian policy on fair use is bullshit, that's for sure, although "Let's Plays" fall outside fair use. Those aren't creating an entirely new product using small portions of copyrighted content. They're just broadcasting a game in toto.

I'm sure Jim is just using the idea of piracy to prove a point, as piracy in all its forms is inexcusable.

I think this is pretty well put. I find the equivalence between, "I made a lets play and/or talked over game footage" and a wholly original product like a video game to be annoying. 

I get JIm's point and I think Nintendo should be a whole lot more forward thinking here. But come on man... we're talking about the right to make money off of Let's Plays here.

Jim sending his army of fans (even if only a small percentage of them take him at face value instead of understanding the idea of a rhetorical argument) out to hurt Nintendo just so that some YouTubers can make money doing Let's Plays doesn't sit well with me. 

I do think there is a good cause at the core of what Jim is saying here, but the cynic in me can't ignore the glaringly obvious ulterior motives. One, which I've already mentioned in this thread. Another is that Jim kind of makes a living being the Steven A. Smith of games journalism. He trades in hyperbolic opinions and picking fights with video game companies. Any little consumer or creator unfriendly policy from a video game company gets hyperbolized to the nines and then packaged up into a hot take. 

This makes me all the less sympathetic to the plight of the youtuber against content ID when compared to the plight of the game maker vs. piracy. 

And there are hundreds of other games they can cover that can generate considerable income to them. They can always just ignore NIntendo and review all the ps4/xb1/PC games, especially the popular ones. Hell, they don't even have to be popular as long as they can be used in a way to make the video more intrestesting or entertaining.

Personally, I'd say its justified to pirate Nintendo's old games based simply on how atrocious Virtual Console is.

Slowly dripfeeding games and starting from scratch with every new system is ridiculous; Switch Virtual Console should launch with all the content Wii U's already has and then add to that at a decent rate.