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Nuvendil on 27 October 2016
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Ouroboros24 said:
Nuvendil said:

As a writer, I know the authority copyright affords.  I know my rights, what I can control and I know what I can't.  I know - I don't think, I know - that the Content ID system and the use of it by Konami, Nintend, Activision, and many others is not ok, it is not ethical, and it is at times outright illegal. 

And selling a Nintendo branded costume is trademark infringement, totally different thing.  Covering a Nintendo game in punditry, parody, or review is universally, incontravertably covered in fair use.  It would be upheld in any court and they definitely have no right to take money from such through some back door YouTube put in.  If I write a Review of Nintendo's next game, I can have 50 screenshots to go with it for illustration and I could sell it.  And Nintendo could do nothing.  It is no different for a YouTuber using illustrative footage. 

So no, this is not OK, it is not ethical, in many cases it isn't even legal. 

I'm not gonna pretend to know the legal system reguarding what Nintendo is doing.  All I know is that Nintendo is able to do what they do to youtubers and so far they're doing it.  Youtube is not a rinkydink mom and pop business.  Yet here we are, people talking about ethics and fair use.  If it's illegal, why is it still happening?  Tell me that.  Apparently Nintendo is above the law now.  And if loopholes and other shenanigans are involved, well apparently if that option is there to choose, Nintendo chose it. 

It's still happening mainly because YouTubers have not sued YouTube or any of these companies yet. That's partly on the YouTubers, since that's kinda how copyright laws work, only very few intelectual property violations (like counterfeit goods) are enforced via police.  And Nintendo and others use it because the way it's all written up they have some measure of "protection" (not really) since they can claim YouTube provided the tools. And then YouTube will claim that Nintendo used the tools. 

And there's no denying that YouTube and the internet are still the wild west, a lot of crap happens that would never happen outside it because people can hide behind faceless avatars and companies can easily do things through backdoors that is not at all even possible in the real world.  And let's not forget that there's a lot of lawyers who don't rightly understand what YouTube is and what goes on there.

Edit:  To better illustrate the problem here, if someone took a book I wrote and photocopied it 50 times to sell at their own store, I could walk in and shut them down with no issue.  That's fine.  That's my right.  However, if I waited until they had sold the books and then mugged them outside the store and took their money, I'm going to get arrested and charged with theft.  Why?  Because even though my copyrights were violated, I don't have the right to circumvent the legal system and rob the person like some intelectual property vigilante.  And that's what Content ID on YouTube is.  They aren't enforcing their copyright, their robbing people without making their case through the proper legal channels.