Youtube responds to Nintendo ad hijack complaints

Last week we reported on how Nintendo has been taking over the advertising of those making Let's Plays featuring games from the the Japanese firm, leading to all revenue from said videos heading eastward. Understandably many of the channel owners complained and Youtube has now got back to them. The response is pretty lackluster.

The gist, is that you should know when you're breaking rights law – though there is no mention of fair use law. “You should ensure that you have all the necessary rights to commercially use all content in a video before you submit it for monetisation,” the statement begins. It also offers some handy “tips,” for you to consider when making a video.

“Check the video game publisher’s license agreement (Terms of Use, EULA etc). Some publishers allow you to use all video game content for commercial use and state that in the license agreement.” It then goes on to suggest that you should receive written permission from the company if you want to monetise your videos that feature content from said firm. With giants like Nintendo, how long does Youtube think a response would take? Days? Weeks? Never?

If a few channel owners owe Nintendo money, this guy owes it a career. Source: Cinemassacre

Youtube then goes on to say that the one big thing you can't monetise without permission is a “software user interface”. What?

If you do manage to get the “appropriate license,” (language like this shouldn't be anywhere near a creative site like Youtube) you'll still need to make a video that's highly educational or informative and not feature much user interface. Surely if you get the license, you can show whatever you want?

How many hoops does Youtube want you to jump through?

KitGuru Says: Part of this must be down to Youtube trying to protect itself from being held responsible by game companies, but it really does seem to be going way over the top here. Nintendo too.

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