Day One: Garry's Incident Developer Copyright Claims Critical Video

[StriderShinryu]

Nah, I mean that the developers are pure dicks and decide to purposefully piss off the internet by pulling a move like this. At what point did they think that pissing off TotalBiscuit would have done any good?

I think developers just don't seem to understand how large of an impact the internet personas on YouTube actually do have when it comes to the industry. I mean hell even some of the big game companies have learned this the hard way and now seem to be getting smarter about it. Remember a few months back with the Nintendo thing, and how big that got really quickly and how much bad PR it did for Nintendo; or when the agreements for the new FF IVX came out and they weren't gonna allow for LPs, and how quickly Square Enix retracted that after seeing the outrage on the internet.

Well, I wouldn't say Nintendo learned anything from the last incident. They recently filed a content ID match against the Co-Optional podcast (which TB is involved in, and the one in which Jim Sterling was a special guest) for using about a minute long Pokemon X/Y trailer during the nearly 3 hour podcast video.

 

[Ironshroom]

Nah, I mean that the developers are pure dicks and decide to purposefully piss off the internet by pulling a move like this. At what point did they think that pissing off TotalBiscuit would have done any good?

I think developers just don't seem to understand how large of an impact the internet personas on YouTube actually do have when it comes to the industry. I mean hell even some of the big game companies have learned this the hard way and now seem to be getting smarter about it. Remember a few months back with the Nintendo thing, and how big that got really quickly and how much bad PR it did for Nintendo; or when the agreements for the new FF IVX came out and they weren't gonna allow for LPs, and how quickly Square Enix retracted that after seeing the outrage on the internet.

Its just baffling. When you see how many subs these people have, when you see how many followers on Twitter and Facebook they have, I just can't understand why these companies would think that directly angering these people would ever be a viable option

 

[SpaceGhost]

Well, that was fast. Per Luke Plunkett via Kotaku http://kotaku.com/studio-accused-of-blocking-youtube-vid-over-criticism-1448796126 :

[blockquote]We contacted Wild Games for comment, and were told by "Stephane" that, "after seeing all the negative impact today we decided to withdraw our complaint to YouTube."[/blockquote]

Nice to see them reacting to outrage but it would have been better to engage their brain in the first place and not attempt to censor a critic.

Making up for this slight is going to require a lot more than undoing the damage caused. On the bright side it might be a good way to convince Youtube to change their censorship rules.

Well, the cynic in me (which I believe is apropos the situation) would say that they were most likely not reacting at all to the outrage, but were, in fact, reacting to a brief (yet informative) telephone consultation with a lawyer.

I do hope said hypothetical lawyer charges double-time for Sundays...

 

[Abomination]

Well, that was fast. Per Luke Plunkett via Kotaku http://kotaku.com/studio-accused-of-blocking-youtube-vid-over-criticism-1448796126 :

[blockquote]We contacted Wild Games for comment, and were told by "Stephane" that, "after seeing all the negative impact today we decided to withdraw our complaint to YouTube."[/blockquote]

Nice to see them reacting to outrage but it would have been better to engage their brain in the first place and not attempt to censor a critic.

Making up for this slight is going to require a lot more than undoing the damage caused. On the bright side it might be a good way to convince Youtube to change their censorship rules.

Well, the cynic in me (which I believe is apropos the situation) would say that they were most likely not reacting at all to the outrage, but were, in fact, reacting to a brief (yet informative) telephone consultation with a lawyer.

I do hope said hypothetical lawyer charges double-time for Sundays...

Well, the reasons for the change are impossible to really know. The fact that they have gone back on a bad decision is a good thing... or at least a neutral thing.

Then again this is an entirely "only did it because we got caught" scenario so they deserve little, if any, sympathy.

 

[SpaceGhost]

Nah, I mean that the developers are pure dicks and decide to purposefully piss off the internet by pulling a move like this. At what point did they think that pissing off TotalBiscuit would have done any good?

I think developers just don't seem to understand how large of an impact the internet personas on YouTube actually do have when it comes to the industry. I mean hell even some of the big game companies have learned this the hard way and now seem to be getting smarter about it. Remember a few months back with the Nintendo thing, and how big that got really quickly and how much bad PR it did for Nintendo; or when the agreements for the new FF IVX came out and they weren't gonna allow for LPs, and how quickly Square Enix retracted that after seeing the outrage on the internet.

Well, I wouldn't say Nintendo learned anything from the last incident. They recently filed a content ID match against the Co-Optional podcast (which TB is involved in, and the one in which Jim Sterling was a special guest) for using about a minute long Pokemon X/Y trailer during the nearly 3 hour podcast video.

Your post brings up an interesting point, in my opinion. I think you could make an argument to the absurdity of the automated copyright claim system on YouTube, which I believe was the bugbear responsible for the claim, and not an actual human effort. In this case, the only learning that could have taken place would either be Nintendo removing the program, or expending the time/money to refine the program to include an absurdly advanced AI system capable of separating actual copyright theft from the free marketing it was benefiting from.

Of course, this is all supposition on my part. There could have been an legitimate moron behind the keyboard...

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Ohhhhhh Snap! A youtube reviewer is pissed, Stephen will rue the day he tore down a youtube video. RUE I SAY!!!

This character needs to get over himself. If he doesn't like YouTube's copyright bullshit, he should leave. Oh what? Would that "large follow" and his "network" not back him if he jumped to blip?

 

[Erttheking]

Well, I couldn't buy their game anyway, but this isn't doing much to inspire me to.

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

Just checked the steam community hub for this game, and it's full of people up in arms. It would seem the devs have another game trying to get through Greenlight and due to this incident it is being mass 'down-voted'.

 

[Dragonbums]

Nah, I mean that the developers are pure dicks and decide to purposefully piss off the internet by pulling a move like this. At what point did they think that pissing off TotalBiscuit would have done any good?

I think developers just don't seem to understand how large of an impact the internet personas on YouTube actually do have when it comes to the industry. I mean hell even some of the big game companies have learned this the hard way and now seem to be getting smarter about it. Remember a few months back with the Nintendo thing, and how big that got really quickly and how much bad PR it did for Nintendo; or when the agreements for the new FF IVX came out and they weren't gonna allow for LPs, and how quickly Square Enix retracted that after seeing the outrage on the internet.

Its just baffling. When you see how many subs these people have, when you see how many followers on Twitter and Facebook they have, I just can't understand why these companies would think that directly angering these people would ever be a viable option

That's because they still are under the impression that these people are nothing but basement kids with $10,000.00 camera equipment.

You can see that when Angry Joe reviewed the guy in charge of Xbox One. It's clear that he looked down on the guy hard. Probably thinking he was throwing him a bone. But Microsoft quickly realized that man with the mustache and beard with a baggy jacket was a Youtube reviewer that has views that can reach a million just did an interview with you that spread all over every single game review site on the web.

 

[Saulkar]

I want to share this video with you just because it is funny.


OT: TB's video makes me worried over how this could have been going on behind our backs for a while to much smaller channels. I really do not want to think about how much TB also opened my eyes to the concept of AstroTurfing (something I was aware of but did not put serious though into its potential impact if not kept in check) and the act of censoring consumer reviews.

Like, I was not unaware of the potential, just never considered it a credible threat until I saw the impact it has on a channel that is likely a decent revenue stream for youtube.

 

[IKWerewolf]

Well, that was fast. Per Luke Plunkett via Kotaku http://kotaku.com/studio-accused-of-blocking-youtube-vid-over-criticism-1448796126 :

[blockquote]We contacted Wild Games for comment, and were told by "Stephane" that, "after seeing all the negative impact today we decided to withdraw our complaint to YouTube."[/blockquote]

Nice to see them reacting to outrage but it would have been better to engage their brain in the first place and not attempt to censor a critic.

Making up for this slight is going to require a lot more than undoing the damage caused. On the bright side it might be a good way to convince Youtube to change their censorship rules.

How long does it take for YouTube to remove a complaint? Just checked TB's website and it was still hidden from searches.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well Wild Games devs just ate a shotgun with that move and hopefully this will convince other content makers to speak out when blanket claims are made because most people don't even realize this shit is done every day.
And if TB wouldn't be signed up with a bigger network his entire channel would have been permanently removed due to a broken system where matters of legal conduct are left to automated fucking bots that everyone can abuse, you don't even need copyright claim on anything in order to file complaints and get channels eradicated.

It is probably high time Google/Youtube start getting hit with legal charges from content creators because this shit is fucking insane, sadly Google has a legal defense wall that won't budge unless entire countries come after them or threaten to ban their services.
So what do they care if the ants of youtube lose their livelihood.

 

[OneCatch]

Firstly, it's to raise awareness of the situation and inform those who may not know.
Secondly, to ask a question: What's stopping other similarly 'wronged' developers from doing the same thing, and on the same bases presented by Wild Games Studio? Is a precedent being set here, or will this blow over like so many controversies before it?

This kind of crap has actually slowed down recently because there were a few high profile incidences of false reporting being sued. It used to happen all the time.
And they can be - if they filed a wrongful DMCA complaint [http://targetlaw.com/consequences-of-filing-a-false-dmca-takedown-request] then they can actually be sued in a civil case for damages.

That said, youtube is notoriously bad at dealing with DMCAs, but I'm pretty sure they have at least banned channels and users who have made vexatious claims.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Who is total biscuit and why should i give a fuck what he/she/it says? I keep hearing people quote him/her/that but never really know why...is this person a replacement for so many brains...all i hear is bleating

 

[Balimaar]

Ohhhhhh Snap! A youtube reviewer is pissed, Stephen will rue the day he tore down a youtube video. RUE I SAY!!!

This character needs to get over himself. If he doesn't like YouTube's copyright bullshit, he should leave. Oh what? Would that "large follow" and his "network" not back him if he jumped to blip?

the network and the following probably would (a significant portion of it anyway).

But that is not the issue, the issue here is a the devs of a game deliberately going out of their way to take down the most popular this-game-sucks video. Then the main guy turning around saying, "We are defending our copyright as TB has no right to make money off our licence." (Ignoring the fact that later on in that same discussion he says to someone else "Sure! You can make a YouTube of our game!!")

On a side note let me remind you that the there a fair few other monetized videos of reviewers negatively reviewing the game and THEY werent taken down.

TB was taken down only because he was the biggest.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Who is total biscuit and why should i give a fuck what he/she/it says? I keep hearing people quote him/her/that but never really know why...is this person a replacement for so many brains...all i hear is bleating

He's does gaming critique and first impressions videos. A lot of which are indie games like Day One with no other means of advertising due to not being on Steam, which due to Steam's nigh monopoly on PC game sales, hurts indie developers.

He's also got 1.2 million subscribers, so that's probably on of if not the largest consumer base to show a game to instantly as TotalBiscuit does quite a few First Impressions videos a week. It's about 2 a day and that's just one of his series.

TB is known for not reviewing, but doing a critique based on first impressions. Reviews for gaming have been all but ruined due to many factors (the false importance of Metacritic, the fact that major game sites are practically paid for reviews, etc), so many people look to TB's videos as a look into the game. He also doesn't use a number scale, which makes people happy. For gaming reviews there days people trust Total Biscuit, Rev3 Games, and Angry Joe due to them not being subject to corporate ties or in the case of some reviews, using their review as a mouthpiece to voice a personal opinion of an aspect of the game while barely talking about the game itself.

He plays a few hours of the game to get the mechanics and general idea of the game down and then starts to record his 20-30 minute in depth look at the game while playing it so that the viewer can see the game played.

Its not that TB replaces people's brains as you put it, but he gives you as much of an objective look as he can even if he can't see himself playing the game afterwards as he know that while he may not like a genre, someone else does.

And he was censored by these developers because he had a negative opinion of their broken ass game. Him and him alone.

Its less about TB and more about Wild Games Studio censoring someone who didn't like their game and lying about why they filed a false Copyright Claim to get the First Impressions video of Garry's Indecent pulled down. That's on levels that Sega Japan and Nintendo Japan have been doing with the going after people's channels simply for lets plays. Its the willful ignorance of Fair Use laws that's the issue here.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Ohhhhhh Snap! A youtube reviewer is pissed, Stephen will rue the day he tore down a youtube video. RUE I SAY!!!

This character needs to get over himself. If he doesn't like YouTube's copyright bullshit, he should leave. Oh what? Would that "large follow" and his "network" not back him if he jumped to blip?

Yes, someone who gets paid in ad revenue should just leave when someone actively detriments how he makes a living and puts food on the table. :/

What you've effectively said is Roger Ebert should never have been paid for any movie review he did when he said he didn't like the movie." or "Jeff Gesterman's firing from Gamespot due to not liking Kain and Lynch was totally justified because reasons."

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Ohhhhhh Snap! A youtube reviewer is pissed, Stephen will rue the day he tore down a youtube video. RUE I SAY!!!

This character needs to get over himself. If he doesn't like YouTube's copyright bullshit, he should leave. Oh what? Would that "large follow" and his "network" not back him if he jumped to blip?

Yes, someone who gets paid in ad revenue should just leave when someone actively detriments how he makes a living and puts food on the table. :/

What you've effectively said is Roger Ebert should never have been paid for any movie review he did when he said he didn't like the movie." or "Jeff Gesterman's firing from Gamespot due to not liking Kain and Lynch was totally justified because reasons."

he's bitching about YouTube's copyright policy. Well hey look, theres Blip! He doesn't have to stay there if he doesn't want to.

EDIT: I'm also very much against the practice of reviewers getting acess to media for free weeks ahead of time before the general public. They should have to pay like the rest of the audience.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Ohhhhhh Snap! A youtube reviewer is pissed, Stephen will rue the day he tore down a youtube video. RUE I SAY!!!

This character needs to get over himself. If he doesn't like YouTube's copyright bullshit, he should leave. Oh what? Would that "large follow" and his "network" not back him if he jumped to blip?

Yes, someone who gets paid in ad revenue should just leave when someone actively detriments how he makes a living and puts food on the table. :/

What you've effectively said is Roger Ebert should never have been paid for any movie review he did when he said he didn't like the movie." or "Jeff Gesterman's firing from Gamespot due to not liking Kain and Lynch was totally justified because reasons."

he's bitching about YouTube's copyright policy. Well hey look, theres Blip! He doesn't have to stay there if he doesn't want to.

EDIT: I'm also very much against the practice of reviewers getting acess to media for free weeks ahead of time before the general public. They should have to pay like the rest of the audience.

You do realize that TB does this as a full time job right? He can't just pick up and leave YouTube. He makes money from Google paying him to draw in viewers. YouTube is the only Video Sharing site that pays enough to support a family on. TB is paid enough to cover home and board for his family to eat off of.

No other video sharing site that offers that level of quality of life. Not dailymotion, not liveleak, no other site. Him leaving YouTube to do what he does would probably reduce what he earns to barely an 8th. What you're saying is that if he doesn't like the fact that someone abused YouTube's faulty Copyright Claim system to censor his opinion, that he should just fuck off.

That's an asinine point to make.

The very fact that the developers have blatantly only use the YouTube policy to censor the opinion of someone who's job is to give his opinion of the game is disgusting and I don't know how you can side with them in this manner other than sheer ignorance of how bad this is for everyone who does videogame media with YouTube as their primary of secondary means of providing for themselves.