| psychicscubadiver said: 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. |
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.
