Trouble picking a gaming network

YouTube's policy is basically (sumarised) this: You either need to own the copyrights to the content or have permission from the copyright holder to post the content. No 1 can protect you if you violate this. YouTube do not care about fair use, think of it like this, if you're an Aussie and go on American soil you obey American laws in the sameway that when you use YouTube's site you're on YouTube's virtual soil. Unless you can join a big network like Polaris for example who can help (not protect) against claims/takedowns that are in the grey area, otherwise you're on your own.
 
Makes sense ... what I meant by "protect from copyright issues" is that I was under the assumption that most gaming networks already took care of the "behind the scenes" work and have permission from certain developers for their channels to make videos of those developer's games. I thought it could be a shortcut as opposed to individually e-mailing each developer myself and crossing my fingers for a positive response, if I even got a response at all.

With the existence of the Playstation 4's "share" button, there are going to be A LOT more people doing this pretty soon (that's what I predict, anyway). I think, at this point, each developer really needs to just do what Mojang did with Minecraft and make it clear as day what their stance is on the topic. Most developers don't have a "Youtube Policy", but they should. As long as no one is making copies of the videos and distributing them, and any income just comes from ad clicks and not the game itself, it's really just free advertising for the games as long as it's positive. I've even watched (IGN) or read something talking about Youtubers becoming the major advertisers for games in the future.
 
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If you're looking to join a network for monetization purposes, I wouldn't worry about it until you're a bigger channel. But if you're looking for a confidence boost, or some music you can use, you could join a network like Freedom! for those reasons.
 
JSHendrickson said:
Makes sense ... what I meant by "protect from copyright issues" is that I was under the assumption that most gaming networks already took care of the "behind the scenes" work and have permission from certain developers for their channels to make videos of those developer's games. I thought it could be a shortcut as opposed to individually e-mailing each developer myself and crossing my fingers for a positive response, if I even got a response at all.

With the existence of the Playstation 4's "share" button, there are going to be A LOT more people doing this pretty soon (that's what I predict, anyway). I think, at this point, each developer really needs to just do what Mojang did with Minecraft and make it clear as day what their stance is on the topic. Most developers don't have a "Youtube Policy", but they should. As long as no one is making copies of the videos and distributing them, and any income just comes from ad clicks and not the game itself, it's really just free advertising for the games as long as it's positive. I've even watched (IGN) or read something talking about Youtubers becoming the major advertisers for games in the future.
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No networks have anything like that, at most they might get promotional benefits like a game publisher may sign a small contract (by small I mean short term and 1 off) with a network to help promote a game like Shadow of Mordor. Recently WB had Machinma (maybe a few other networks I'm not sure) pick a few channels to hand out free copies and asked them to do videos for it. Microsoft Australia also had some channels promote the Xbox One and as an incentive they gave prizes to the channels to be handed out, I think it was either a to win an Xone or a ticket to a gaming event, maybe comic con can't remember. As for the emailing part; even in a network it has to be done by you. It's company specific and game specific at times but otherwise there's no licenses that networks have to bypass copyright laws.

I don't trust the PS4 Share at all, there's nothing that says they can't rip your videos down. But I do think publishers need to start placing proper YouTube policies on their website, it isn't mandatory but YouTube is becomming a very big part the gaming community now as a good portion of gamers are YouTubers and it's only growing. A companies stance can effect sales drastically both to YouTubers and potential viewers. Because I won't buy a game that I can't let's play unless I'm absolutely sure I'll enjoy the crap out of it in my free time and it's problematic if a publisher did allow it but didn't say that's potential sales they might have lost from the YouTuber part of the gaming community. It's part of the reason I didn't buy Shadow of Mordor straight away, because of WB, which requires you to go through a bit of paper work to get permission, really not worth it for me. The other issue is, even with a policy on their website, YouTube still requires you to have written permission, usually in the form of an email. I once got rejected for monetisation even with blanket permission provided in a written form to YouTubers and even with Ubisoft's PDF I still got rejected for some vids. Good thing is I wouldn't have made any money to begin with so I don't monetise anything and I don't have anything monetised anymore xD
 
Thanks for all the info, and helping me get this figured out. I've decided that I won't be joining a network for quite a while now. The biggest advantage I see right now is the music some networks let you use, but there's PLENTY of non-copyrighted music to choose from on Youtube. And you can buy avatars/banners through the forums on here from what I've heard, so no need for a network. I've emailed the company that makes "Pix the Cat" for permission and clarified that I'm looking for permission even if they don't allow monetizing, saying I don't have a problem turning off monetizing for those videos if that's what they'd like. Has anyone ever been able to reach SONY or figure out how to get permission from them (for DriveClub)?
 
JSHendrickson said:
Thanks for all the info, and helping me get this figured out. I've decided that I won't be joining a network for quite a while now. The biggest advantage I see right now is the music some networks let you use, but there's PLENTY of non-copyrighted music to choose from on Youtube. And you can buy avatars/banners through the forums on here from what I've heard, so no need for a network. I've emailed the company that makes "Pix the Cat" for permission and clarified that I'm looking for permission even if they don't allow monetizing, saying I don't have a problem turning off monetizing for those videos if that's what they'd like. Has anyone ever been able to reach SONY or figure out how to get permission from them (for DriveClub)?
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Nope, SCE seem really hard to get into contact with. I ended up not doing a review for Killzone ShadowFall cause of them.
 
WolfWraith said:
Nope, SCE seem really hard to get into contact with. I ended up not doing a review for Killzone ShadowFall cause of them.
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Look what I found! :D www .soe. com /player-direct (you'll have to get rid of the spaces in the link)

I had a little help finding that link ... I got a positive response from the developers of "Pix the Cat" and I responded back with a request for help contacting SONY or finding their Youtube policy

edit: I really don't understand why this forum tries blocking ALL URL's like that ... if there's a problem with the link, delete it I guess.
 
JSHendrickson said:
Look what I found! :D www .soe. com /player-direct (you'll have to get rid of the spaces in the link)

I had a little help finding that link ... I got a positive response from the developers of "Pix the Cat" and I responded back with a request for help contacting SONY or finding their Youtube policy

edit: I really don't understand why this forum tries blocking ALL URL's like that ... if there's a problem with the link, delete it I guess.
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SOE and SCE are 2 different companies, they are subsidiaries of Sony.
 
I feel dumb now ... looks like the only slightly relevant game they make is DC Universe. Thanks for pointing that out before I kept running with the wrong idea. Looks like I'm looking for Evolution Studios' contact info now.
 
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