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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Why It's Morally Okay To Pirate All Of Nintendo's Games (The Jimquisition)

 

I reported this thread for copyright violation.

Yep 50 100.00%
 
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Frogger on 20 February 2017
vivster said:
Acevil said:

Yes because the logic of two wrongs make a right, is a good argument. Lets ignore one is actually against the law, and the other has yet to be proven in the court of law (Lets Play being Fair Use). 

This is not about legality or Let's plays for the matter. Nintendo is claiming revenue from people if their content is used in critique, which is by definition fair use, i.e. part of copyright law. It's about morals. Nintendo is obviously morally bankrupt when it ignores clear cases of fair use. So should we respect laws that are meant to protect them if they do not respect laws that protect other content creators?

It's quite philosophical.

...Yes. Obviously.

If it's a question about morals, the answer is yes. Someone being a jerk doesn't give you the moral grounds to be a jerk in return. Like Acevil said, he's just trying to argue why two wrongs make a right. They don't.



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Ljink96 on 20 February 2017

Before Watching: No, it's never moral to pirate anything...except if you own the software.

After Watching: He's made some...very solid points this time around. Nintendo only thinks the copyright law works for them and that's not how it works. They're undermining fair use and something really needs to be done about it. But going as far as to pirate is kind of childish. Just be the bigger man in this situation and hope Nintendo follows suit.



IsawYoshi on 20 February 2017

What a childish way to deal with things. When someone does something shitty that doesn't give you a moral right to do something shitty in return. When someone breaks the law you have no right to "get back" at them by breaking it yourself. If you dislike nintendo's policy, then don't give them your money. Tell others to stop doing so to. Heck, try to make them stop doing it. Just don't try to use it to justify yourself doing something you shouldn't do.



vivster on 20 February 2017
Helloplite said:
vivster said:

You obviously didn't watch the video. None of it was about actual pirating. It's about Nintendo's blatant disregard of the copyright law by ignoring fair use yet refering to the same law when it's pestering content creators for their fair use.

Yes, I didn't watch it. I will and will amend my response accordingly, but I have a certain sort of distaste for Jimquisition, even at those few instances when I happen to agree with him. Fair use is not a simple legal concept, which is why many times people end in courts over the intepretation of the doctrine. In particular, article (1) is quite restrictive, and posting stuff (e.g. on YouTube) does not necessarily mean it is fair use (in other words, do not associate fair use with common use -- common use is not necessarily fair use). Article (3) also complicates things, essentially since to reproduce a videogame you need to use substantial amounts of assets/portions of the work (e.g. graphics + sound + depiction of gameplay). Finally for (4), if the product can be monetized Nintendo can still claim that it is not fair use, as long as it does not violate the First Amendment.

Fair use, for the most part, entails 'transformative' use. For most videogames, this is a very vague thing as we are not in agreement over what constitutes 'transformative' use of a video game. As someone who works in academia, I am fairly aware of fair use, as I come across it every time I have to do anything, from printing a chapter of a book for my students, to using copyright material as educational tools. Even the fact that I work in education does not make this a simple thing. This is not just simply 'copyright law' stuff.

The way you described it it sounds to me like exactly "copyright law stuff".

But we shouldn't let vague wording in laws get between us and civilized human behavior. Using a video clip to illustrate a point about a video game is naturally transformative. Take Digital Foundry videos for example. They're using game footage for the clear purpose of education. Nothing of the video is taking anything away from the content creator of the video game.

The human way to handle this for example is not copyright striking the video. Unless you are a dick of course. But we know for a fact that dicks have questionable morals, so we should be able to say so. Easily.

Also thanks for responding in a concise and neutral manner.



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numberwang on 20 February 2017

Fair use is not a blank cheque, in particular it does not cover a whole play through just for the point of showing it.

Youtube as a company can have stricter standards, they could delete all videos that contain the letter "e" if they wanted.

YouTuber that use game footage just as background are really on thin ice.

17 U.S.C. § 107 Actual law

...the fair use of a copyrighted work, ... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (...), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1 the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2 the nature of the copyrighted work;
3 the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4 the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.



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alternine on 20 February 2017

Damn I usually disagree with this guy but hes been making some good points lately



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Darashiva on 20 February 2017

Generally speaking I agree with Jim. Nintendo's way of abusing copyright laws is reprehensible, and for people to defend their actions is just odd. Also, I think a lot of people are missing the point, although not watching the video does that I suppose.

It's not about advocating piracy, but about showing what could be done within the letter of copyright laws if users treated them as Nintendo does. Nintendo (they are not the only ones) is effectively ignoring parts of the law that they don't like. Naturally it's not right to pirate games, but I don't get people who condemn those who do so and then defend Nintendo or any other company who are breaking the exact same laws in a different way.



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Green098 on 20 February 2017

Well, I know not to take anything this guy ever says seriously.



specialk on 20 February 2017

Read between the lines. Jim is a YouTuber who makes money covering games. He can only cover (very popular) Nintendo games on their own terms and thus this hurts his ability to make money.

So he is using his audience and influence to strike back at Nintendo. His fans (who coincidentally probably like free stuff), will jump on this as an excuse and hurt Nintendo, possibly getting Jim closer to getting the ad revenue he thinks he deserves.



specialk on 20 February 2017

Personally I think that Nintendo could stand to be a little less dickish with regards to fair use, but ultimately I don't really care that much. There are a million Jim Sterlings and Angry Joes out there. There's only one Nintendo.