GrieverXVII
Member
Hi everyone,
I've been doing a crazy amount of research over the past few days on copyrights and Youtube and their policies. All I am wondering is if I've got this all properly understood.
In the past, You could only become a Youtube partner through application, in which getting approved was already a difficult challenge in itself. But once you were there, money was coming and things were good.
Nowadays, any account can be considered "youtube partnered", as long as you enable monetization and throw ads on your videos to make money, it's that easy now especially for vloggers and the such...BUT unfortunately, gamers get a very difficult dilemma here...especially if you're not informed about this before you either make it big or made a lot of money from your videos as youtube I feel doesn't do a good enough job expressing these conditions to the general public or gamers, that's why people call it the "youtube trap".
Now that anybody can become a partner and start monetizing videos, that means a unsuspecting gamer may start monetizing their videos without knowing truly the consequences and technicalities behind what they are doing.
All raw video game footage, truly and by copyright belongs to the game developer even if you bought their game. And this is dangerous because if you start uploading videos of raw gameplay and start monetizing these videos and making huge money and get noticed by these companies or youtube and they force an investigation, if you don't prove or have direct permission from the game dev and you're not part of a gaming network that has these permissions of the games you are uploading and making money from...Bad things are going to happen, and quickly. Chances are Youtube won't want to deal with the legal end of things especially if it's a losing battle and chances are you're just not worth the cost to them and most likely close your account or remove most of your videos since that's the easiest way for them, and all that money you made...will be going right back into the game developers pockets as the money you earned has been earned illegally whether you knew this or not...it unfortunately "can" happen and most likely will.
To avoid these issues, there are 3 options from what I understand.
Option 1 - Get direct permission from the game developer you are uploading videos of the games they made. Some game devs even have permissions already stated on their websites in their policy sections. Some say you can upload gameplay and monetize, some say you can upload videos but NOT monetize, and some stick-in-the-muds like Nintendo...say NO to everything, regardless of how positive it can be for a business it still baffles me how they conclude to this...
Option 2 - Join a gaming network. A gaming network is...well a network. They go to these game devs and make deals with them (they get % share, network gets % share, and you get the scraps) so that anyone who is partnered with this gaming network has the permissions to upload gameplay videos and monetize them legally without consequence. But be careful and know exactly what deals have been made for the network you are either planning to join or are already in.
Option 3 - No permissions, and No gaming network? No problem!
(just expect lots of companies challenging you)
On youtube's policy page, they specifically mention that video gameplay "without" permissions or joining a network can still be uploaded and monetized...but the only way to do so is that it falls under the "Fair use" act, which means that you can use snippets or pieces of gameplay, and as long as you have commentary or voice-over that is educational, walkthrough, instructional, or sportscaster-like..then you can monetize.
This is literally copy and pasted from Youtube's policy, "Without the appropriate license from the publisher, use of video game or software user interface must be minimal. Video game content may be monetized if the associated step-by-step commentary is strictly tied to the live action being shown and provides instructional or educational value."
So if you're planning to make a gaming channel as I am, it is in your best interest to read this, understand this ALL before uploading or monetizing anything with video games in it. you have 3 options, I prefer option 3 personally, I will make sure I follow that policy strictly as I like doing How-to's and walkthroughs so it won't be a problem for me and I will contest them every time they try to challenge me as long as my videos follow the policy. If you want to monetize strictly raw game footage, you have to go with option 1 or 2, you have been warned.
If you need convincing, just check out popular gaming youtubers, they all seem to follow these policies, some do a good job masking it, but others are obvious...and some might just have permissions directly or are part of a network or the game dev has simply said yes to uploading and monetizing for everyone such as minecraft.
So this is kind of what I've concluded over the past few days, If I am wrong on ANYTHING, please let me know so I can make the changes, but also educate myself further on the matter. I'm hoping this topic will help many out there who helplessly google for this exact answer and have trouble finding a solid answer, which hopefully this can be the clear answer for all gaming youtubers.
I've been doing a crazy amount of research over the past few days on copyrights and Youtube and their policies. All I am wondering is if I've got this all properly understood.
In the past, You could only become a Youtube partner through application, in which getting approved was already a difficult challenge in itself. But once you were there, money was coming and things were good.
Nowadays, any account can be considered "youtube partnered", as long as you enable monetization and throw ads on your videos to make money, it's that easy now especially for vloggers and the such...BUT unfortunately, gamers get a very difficult dilemma here...especially if you're not informed about this before you either make it big or made a lot of money from your videos as youtube I feel doesn't do a good enough job expressing these conditions to the general public or gamers, that's why people call it the "youtube trap".
Now that anybody can become a partner and start monetizing videos, that means a unsuspecting gamer may start monetizing their videos without knowing truly the consequences and technicalities behind what they are doing.
All raw video game footage, truly and by copyright belongs to the game developer even if you bought their game. And this is dangerous because if you start uploading videos of raw gameplay and start monetizing these videos and making huge money and get noticed by these companies or youtube and they force an investigation, if you don't prove or have direct permission from the game dev and you're not part of a gaming network that has these permissions of the games you are uploading and making money from...Bad things are going to happen, and quickly. Chances are Youtube won't want to deal with the legal end of things especially if it's a losing battle and chances are you're just not worth the cost to them and most likely close your account or remove most of your videos since that's the easiest way for them, and all that money you made...will be going right back into the game developers pockets as the money you earned has been earned illegally whether you knew this or not...it unfortunately "can" happen and most likely will.
To avoid these issues, there are 3 options from what I understand.
Option 1 - Get direct permission from the game developer you are uploading videos of the games they made. Some game devs even have permissions already stated on their websites in their policy sections. Some say you can upload gameplay and monetize, some say you can upload videos but NOT monetize, and some stick-in-the-muds like Nintendo...say NO to everything, regardless of how positive it can be for a business it still baffles me how they conclude to this...
Option 2 - Join a gaming network. A gaming network is...well a network. They go to these game devs and make deals with them (they get % share, network gets % share, and you get the scraps) so that anyone who is partnered with this gaming network has the permissions to upload gameplay videos and monetize them legally without consequence. But be careful and know exactly what deals have been made for the network you are either planning to join or are already in.
Option 3 - No permissions, and No gaming network? No problem!
(just expect lots of companies challenging you)
On youtube's policy page, they specifically mention that video gameplay "without" permissions or joining a network can still be uploaded and monetized...but the only way to do so is that it falls under the "Fair use" act, which means that you can use snippets or pieces of gameplay, and as long as you have commentary or voice-over that is educational, walkthrough, instructional, or sportscaster-like..then you can monetize.
This is literally copy and pasted from Youtube's policy, "Without the appropriate license from the publisher, use of video game or software user interface must be minimal. Video game content may be monetized if the associated step-by-step commentary is strictly tied to the live action being shown and provides instructional or educational value."
So if you're planning to make a gaming channel as I am, it is in your best interest to read this, understand this ALL before uploading or monetizing anything with video games in it. you have 3 options, I prefer option 3 personally, I will make sure I follow that policy strictly as I like doing How-to's and walkthroughs so it won't be a problem for me and I will contest them every time they try to challenge me as long as my videos follow the policy. If you want to monetize strictly raw game footage, you have to go with option 1 or 2, you have been warned.
If you need convincing, just check out popular gaming youtubers, they all seem to follow these policies, some do a good job masking it, but others are obvious...and some might just have permissions directly or are part of a network or the game dev has simply said yes to uploading and monetizing for everyone such as minecraft.
So this is kind of what I've concluded over the past few days, If I am wrong on ANYTHING, please let me know so I can make the changes, but also educate myself further on the matter. I'm hoping this topic will help many out there who helplessly google for this exact answer and have trouble finding a solid answer, which hopefully this can be the clear answer for all gaming youtubers.
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