Nintendo is claiming ad money from Youtube user content

A Youtube user by the name of Zack Scott, who runs Let's Play videos on the site, has been targeted by Nintendo for using its games in his videos and the video game giant is now claiming advertising revenue from him, despite the fact that his commentary of the games is covered by fair use law.

Using the content ID match system that is often automatically implemented on videos where people use copyright protected music, Nintendo is now claiming all ad revenue from videos that Scott has featured its games in.

However Scott wasn't going to take this lying down. He headed over to Facebook to complain:

“I’m a Nintendo fan. I waited in the cold overnight to get a Wii. I’m a 3DS ambassador. I got a Wii U at midnight when I already had one in the mail. I’ve been a Nintendo fan since the NES, and I’ve owned all of their systems.” Obviously the guy is a big, big fan, though why he ended up buying two Wii Us is anyone's guess.

“With that said, I think filing claims against LPers is backwards. Video games aren’t like movies or TV. Each play-through is a unique audiovisual experience,” he said (via Gamefront). “When I see a film that someone else is also watching, I don’t need to see it again. When I see a game that someone else is playing, I want to play that game for myself! Sure, there may be some people who watch games rather than play them, but are those people even gamers?”

What were they thinking?!

He goes on to point out that the reason people watch his videos, is to hear and see his reaction to game stimuli, whether for educational gameplay or entertainment purposes. Nintendo's actions seem to suggest that it believes those people then won't play the game themselves because Scott has showed them what happens.

He's not the only one either. There are tens of Let's Play video makers getting hit with notices. Fortunately Nintendo has a response for those affected:

“As part of our on-going push to ensure Nintendo content is shared across social media channels in an appropriate and safe way, we became a YouTube partner and as such in February 2013 we registered our copyright content in the YouTube database. For most fan videos this will not result in any changes, however, for those videos featuring Nintendo-owned content, such as images or audio of a certain length, adverts will now appear at the beginning, next to or at the end of the clips. We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on YouTube, and that is why, unlike other entertainment companies, we have chosen not to block people using our intellectual property.”

How kind of Nintendo to stop people from monetising their own content, by doing it for them and taking all the profit.

This not only shows how out of touch Nintendo is, but it is horrific timing. Nintendo needs as much support as possible to get its horribly poorly selling console, the Wii U to attract gamers. This is not the way to go about it.

KitGuru Says:  No word from the AVGN's youtube channel, JamesNintendoNerd, though it hardly seems like it'll take long before Nintendo goes after him too.

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