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Japanese YouTuber convicted of copyright violation after uploading Let’s Play videos
(www.theverge.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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It's even more complicated because he posted it to YouTube two days before the game even came out, potentially devastating their early sales
It's impossible to prove the harm piracy does or does not do, and in general I agree that it shouldn't be illegal in the first place or at least shouldn't carry more than a slap on the wrist fine, this is the world we live in and the dude uploaded a game to YouTube in its entirety before the game released, which is the kind of thing you don't do in a world where copyright claims send you to jail
Yikes, this is the part where I side with the developers.
Let's play as a consumer helps me determine if I should buy the game or not. Because watching someone play a game isn't the same as playing it. But, showcasing the whole game before release? That feels wrong.
I wouldn't necessarily say it's wrong for a lot of games, but for a visual novel, that can definitely be damaging to sales. If an entire let's play of cities skylines 2 came out, showing every progression milestone and all of the features, I'm still buying it on release. If anything the video would help cement that decision. For a visual novel? Well I've already seen the entire novel so, who cares. Generally though, if you have early access to a game before release, you should be respecting the developers guidelines, and are likely contractually obligated to do so.
Yeah, avoiding copyright infringement (at least in the US) usually requires that your derived work is transformative in some way. And in most games’ cases, simply playing the game and adding some commentary is enough to qualify. Basically, the argument is that you’re transforming the game from being something played to something watched. That the game was originally meant to be played, so the streamer is transforming it into something new by playing it in their own unique way and adding their own commentary about the game.
But for a visual novel, this all goes out the window. At best, the games are a Choose Your Own Adventure book. You make some small decisions to direct the game’s story, but the game is largely just something that you watch. You make those decisions, then you watch it play out until it’s time for another decision. So the added commentary by itself isn’t enough to transform the game into something new.
But all of this happened in Japan, and I have no idea what their copyright laws are like. I know part of their laws require rights holders to actively attempt to shut down infringement, or else they risk losing rights. That’s one of the big reasons Nintendo is so notorious for taking down emulation sites, because they risk losing the rights to their own IPs if they can’t prove that they’re actively defending them. That’s probably a large part of what started the original lawsuit.