Youtube has begun to cull game content on the website, by sending copyright notifications to multiple channels that post game related content, such as Let’s Plays and reviews, and putting one strike against their account. Their policy on game related videos is only set to be harder going in to 2014, and now, it seems like the gaming industry is fighting back, reports CVG.
The culprit at the heart of the issue is Youtube’s new technology that detects copyrighted content and flags it automatically; any content flagged in this manner gets all the revenue it generates redirected to the copyright holder, and not the channel owner, cutting many Youtube personas and celebrities short in the act.
Now, the gaming industry is rallying against these measures. Major publishers are all sending assurances to channel holders and Youtube users, telling them that they will assist in getting flagged content cleared.
‘If you’re a YouTuber and are receiving content matches with the new changes, please be sure to contest them so we can quickly approve them,’ wrote Blizzard on the official Starcraft Twitter. Deep Silver also told users to contact the company immediately if their content is flagged.
Ubisoft pledged, ‘If you happen to be hit with claims on any of your Ubisoft content, it may be that some of the audio is being auto-matched against the music catalogue on our digital stores – it might show up as being claimed by our distributor ‘idol’. In such cases please take the following steps and we can get it cleared for you.
- 1. Leave the video live for now.
- 2. Send us the URL of the affected video and let us know who flagged it.
- 3. We’ll get it cleared hopefully same day.’
Capcom chipped in, assuring users that copyright flags were not initiated by the company, and that it was investigating the matter, ‘YouTubers: Pls let us know if you’ve had videos flagged today. These may be illegitimate flags not instigated by us. We are investigating.’
Youtube certainly has a lot of work on its hands, as it attempts to placate users and copyright holders alike, and tries to work out a new algorithm.