Gaming channels aren't going anywhere, at least I'm not.
However, we will probably see a drop in coverage for AAA's in favor of indie games and friendly developers. Some big people have already come out to say they will stop covering AAA's (MangaMinx, for example). It seems that the Japanese companies are leading the charge on being YouTube-hostile, as expected Nintendo/Konami/Square-Enix and others are the leading offenders in the copyright notices.
I for one will be continuing as usual and see what happens. I haven't gotten any notices yet, and of my current two ongoing series (Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition and Starbound) one has explicit permission from the developer and I'm awaiting official written permission for the other one. I'll also be doing more Twitch-streaming going forward, it has been on my to-do list for a while since it's fun to do, and I'll be staying away from certain developers.
A few tips for gamers:
- Do some research on the games you intend to cover. Consult lists of friendly and hostile developer and if the developer isn't listed or doesn't have a clear stance make sure you ask them directly through their contact info.
- Cover indies and smaller companies games. You can often just tweet at them and get replies, they're usually happy for the attention and glad to promote the videos promoting their content.
- Related to the previous point - be active on Twitter and make sure to connect to the developers, publishers and PR out there. I highly recommend Evolve-PR and Tinsley PR for a start.
- Make sure you add to the videos through commentary, you can claim fair use. Before I got partnered I had a few copyright notices and always successfully disputed them by using this:
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
- If you're doing gameplay of singeplayer campaigns, consider not showing cutscenes.
- When contacting new developers, make sure you emphasize that your content is advertisement at no cost to them. If you have a high number of subscribers say so and mention that they are potential customers.
- If you run into copyright notices, make sure they are legit or bogus. There is no harm in disputing a notice, the worst case scenario is that you will lose it and have the claimant put ads on your video. Strikes won't occur unless you fail a secondary appeal.
- If a claim is legit, make sure to spread the word. Name and shame!
If this new system is going to have any sort of chance of working, YouTube is going to have to step up on cracking down on bogus claimants.
dafuq
