Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 201 posts

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#41

Post by xvector »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #38
probably_wrong wrote: post #30

It is perfectly clear that YouTube can stop it. As the article points out, we know there are things YouTube can do because those are the very same things The Verge asked about and YouTube refused to answer. The DMCA is broken, yes, but YouTube has made it worse with their kind-of-but-not-actually-DMCA counter-claim process. If they really wanted to solve it, here's an idea: if you get a takedown notice you also get a…

They wouldn't even need to go that far. The current way YouTube's system works is so deck-stacked against the creator to a ludicrous degree. Basically any "copyright holder" just has to say "this belongs to me" and YouTube immediately funnels all revenue for the video to that holder, with basically no oversight whatsoever, and as anyone in the space will tell you, a video makes 90% of it's money in the first few days…

Big tech has such a twisted incentive structure for devs that I don't see this getting solved unless it impacts YouTube's bottom line. Execs won't care, and ICs will be actively penalized for fixing this vs working on "business priorities."

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#42

Post by Vampiero »

probably_wrong wrote: post #30

It is perfectly clear that YouTube can stop it. As the article points out, we know there are things YouTube can do because those are the very same things The Verge asked about and YouTube refused to answer. The DMCA is broken, yes, but YouTube has made it worse with their kind-of-but-not-actually-DMCA counter-claim process. If they really wanted to solve it, here's an idea: if you get a takedown notice you also get a…

Consider the following: I make a form of parody that is known as a Youtube Poop. It was all the rage last decade, but now it's a dying art.

In part because of these stupid DMCA rules preventing people like me from expressing their creativity.

I can appeal the strikes, but every time I do so I risk losing my channel forever. I don't monetize, and I only make parodies of stuff that came out over 10 years ago. So I've already accepted that the existence of my channel is ephemeral and that one day it will probably disappear forever.

But I don't have any other platform to go to if I want to share my 5-10 minutes long edits with more than 4 people.

Why am I not allowed to continue an art form that owes its name to the platform that spawned it? Is protecting the copyright of some random anime adaptation or cartoon (that no one gives a shit about anymore) seriously more important than creating novel art?

Copyright lasts WAY too much.

And no, I don't really want to go to court over this bullshit. But I am firmly convinced that it's in my rights to produce it. It's just that what counts as "my rights" depends entirely on the jurisdiction, because the law is a joke meant to protect people who can afford good lawyers -- it's not meant to actually enforce justice. Or rather, the concept of justice is so malleable that it basically means nothing in a globalized world.

Also, I'm from Europe. Which court should I go to when I infringe on an american dub copyright for a japanese cartoon, exactly?

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#43

Post by [deleted] »

ternnoburn wrote: post #29

I worry about let's plays (especially let's plays without commentary). They pretty clearly exist in a "yes, this is copyright infringement but yes, they are generally considered positive for a game" space. The moment some game creator decides to test this will get very interesting. Not good interesting.

[deleted]

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#44

Post by Uehreka »

do_not_redeem wrote: post #39
ternnoburn wrote: post #29

I worry about let's plays (especially let's plays without commentary). They pretty clearly exist in a "yes, this is copyright infringement but yes, they are generally considered positive for a game" space. The moment some game creator decides to test this will get very interesting. Not good interesting.

It's not immediately clear to me that this is true. Video games are designed to be played interactively. Streaming a single playthrough via a non-interactive medium strikes me as transformative. Would you say a screen capture of Microsoft Excel is also copyright infringement? If not, what would you say is the legal basis for treating that differently than a video game?

> Video games are designed to be played interactively. Streaming a single playthrough via a non-interactive medium strikes me as transformative.

This is one of those areas where principles like “fair use” and “transformative use” don’t really matter, since we’re talking about YouTube de facto policy, not the law. If YouTube decides to honor the claims, then that’s what happens. And YouTube generally errs hard in the direction of rightsholders just to be safe.

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#45

Post by Aunche »

probably_wrong wrote: post #30

It is perfectly clear that YouTube can stop it. As the article points out, we know there are things YouTube can do because those are the very same things The Verge asked about and YouTube refused to answer. The DMCA is broken, yes, but YouTube has made it worse with their kind-of-but-not-actually-DMCA counter-claim process. If they really wanted to solve it, here's an idea: if you get a takedown notice you also get a…

> I am sure my content does not infringe copyright and I'm willing to go to court for it

This is exactly what the YouTube copyright counter notification is. The problem is that YouTubers aren't lawyers, so they don't want to risk going to court.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2807684?hl=en

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#46

Post by Jarwain »

do_not_redeem wrote: post #39
ternnoburn wrote: post #29

I worry about let's plays (especially let's plays without commentary). They pretty clearly exist in a "yes, this is copyright infringement but yes, they are generally considered positive for a game" space. The moment some game creator decides to test this will get very interesting. Not good interesting.

It's not immediately clear to me that this is true. Video games are designed to be played interactively. Streaming a single playthrough via a non-interactive medium strikes me as transformative. Would you say a screen capture of Microsoft Excel is also copyright infringement? If not, what would you say is the legal basis for treating that differently than a video game?

Some video games are a fairly linear progression where observing a single playthrough can give up the bulk of the story.

Reading a book is interactive; you imagine the narrative/interpretive voice as you go through it. You might read a phrase one way where someone else might read it differently. Listening to someone read a book removes that difference but still conveys most of the plot.

Aaand Idk if book reads are on YouTube but typically people pay for audio books and some revenue goes to the author

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#47

Post by blueflow »

Aunche wrote: post #45
probably_wrong wrote: post #30

It is perfectly clear that YouTube can stop it. As the article points out, we know there are things YouTube can do because those are the very same things The Verge asked about and YouTube refused to answer. The DMCA is broken, yes, but YouTube has made it worse with their kind-of-but-not-actually-DMCA counter-claim process. If they really wanted to solve it, here's an idea: if you get a takedown notice you also get a…

> I am sure my content does not infringe copyright and I'm willing to go to court for it This is exactly what the YouTube copyright counter notification is. The problem is that YouTubers aren't lawyers, so they don't want to risk going to court. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2807684?hl=en

Then hire a lawyer & sue, you have to enforce your rights.

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#48

Post by MichaelZuo »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #38
probably_wrong wrote: post #30

It is perfectly clear that YouTube can stop it. As the article points out, we know there are things YouTube can do because those are the very same things The Verge asked about and YouTube refused to answer. The DMCA is broken, yes, but YouTube has made it worse with their kind-of-but-not-actually-DMCA counter-claim process. If they really wanted to solve it, here's an idea: if you get a takedown notice you also get a…

They wouldn't even need to go that far. The current way YouTube's system works is so deck-stacked against the creator to a ludicrous degree. Basically any "copyright holder" just has to say "this belongs to me" and YouTube immediately funnels all revenue for the video to that holder, with basically no oversight whatsoever, and as anyone in the space will tell you, a video makes 90% of it's money in the first few days…

Why would they implement this instead of de-monetizing it completely?

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#49

Post by Aunche »

blueflow wrote: post #47
Aunche wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am sure my content does not infringe copyright and I'm willing to go to court for it This is exactly what the YouTube copyright counter notification is. The problem is that YouTubers aren't lawyers, so they don't want to risk going to court. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2807684?hl=en

Then hire a lawyer & sue, you have to enforce your rights.

Right. Part of the reason why it's hard to start a business is having to deal with unfair bullshit. Youtube streamlines enough of the process to get people started relatively easily, but they get a lot of shit from these same creators for not doing everything for them.

Re: Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it

#50

Post by nfriedly »

Nintendo's problem is that this was fairly believable because it lines up pretty closely with their own past behavior. Nintendo regularly drags some of their biggest fans through the dirt with bogus copyright claims and other legal nonsense.
Post reply on HN