will my gaming channel get hit with copyright infringement?

[ProjectXerxes]

Will my thumbnails (the overlay images of video games/characters ), the music in my videos (it's supposedly royalty free) and MKX trophy tutorial ( has gameplay in it with the background music) infringing copyright?

Also I will be doing a newscast on games and showing trailers whilst talking about upcoming news about the game? Will I be able to use inages/trailers if im talking about new rumors/content being released?

Are walkthrough guides illegal to use?

When am I allowed to use a character image of a game?

Whats the response time of a company to get back to you if you use any of their content?

 

[iBreakMatter]

Its your own fair use of content if it includes commentary over the gameplay and non-copyright music. All you have to be careful with is with which content creator brands don't allow YouTube monetization, such as Nintendo, never upload Nintendo.

 

[Mr Kerbibble]

There is actually a list out there that I believe is fairly up to date of which gaming companies are fine with you monetizing their content for Let's Plays and reviews. Reviews, as far as I understand it, are okay for you to use gameplay footage, trailers, and images so long as you are providing commentary and list sources of where you got the footage and images. And they could be argued as journalism or a sort of trans-formative work. Granted, take what I say here with a grain of salt, as some companies will still be fairly childish about certain issues, even if you are playing by the rules.

 

[ProjectXerxes]

So pretty much I can put it in fine print on my video of where I got the trailers and images?

 

[Mr Kerbibble]

So pretty much I can put it in fine print on my video of where I got the trailers and images?

It's a good practice to do. I know some of the bigger channels like WatchMojo will be sure to list in their video where they got the source footage and music. Again, it isn't a guarantee that you won't get a claim, it's just something to help cover yourself if you wish to contest it if it ever happens. I mean, provided you can defend that it's fair use, which from what you are describing, sounds like it is. Again, grain of salt.

 

[Shendijiro]

There's a Let's Play Wikia with all the companies

http://letsplaylist.wikia.com/wiki/"Let's_Play"-friendly_developers_Wiki

 

[Mr Kerbibble]

There's a Let's Play Wikia with all the companies

Ah ha! Thank you! That's the one!

 

[ProjectXerxes]

Thank you guys. What about the still image for my youtube banner? I'm thinking of taking out link since everyone's saying nintendo are buttholes

 

[Mr Kerbibble]

Yeah, considering that things that are a bit weird with Nintendo right now, and you probably won't be covering Nintendo games as much due to that reason, you might as well. At least, I'm assuming you won't due to Nintendo being a bit backwards right now.

 

[ProjectXerxes]

We'll they would make some good news with their bad publicity but it's not worth the potential mark for using anyimages of theirs. Also I searched "royalty free music" on youtube and used a youtube downloader to download my music off their page. Since its royalty free do I need to ask permission?