Youtube Monetization Legal Question

GasBandit · Oct 13, 2014

Youtube's dangling the tantalizing "become a youtube partner and get paid!" stick in front of me lately, and now that my videos are actually starting to get some views, I'm half tempted to take them up on it.

The thing is, my videos pretty much all involve using copious amounts of video game footage and music. Especially my most recent and most popular space engineers videos. Would I be in an actionable position if I earn ad revenue from videos that use video game gameplay/cutscenes/music?

Some notable examples -

Obviously all the video game tutorials and "let's plays" have the gaming footage of the games they're about.

My "Paddy Wagon Newsreel" video's soundtrack is all directly lifted from the Lucasarts game "Tie Fighter."
My "Today I am somebody else's bullshit" robocraft video has a youtube-flagged Bloodhound Gang song in it.
My "Vindicator" video uses cutscene footage from Origin System's Wing Commander 2, and music from both that same title and Masters of Orion.
My "Ghetto Bird" video uses music from Major Stryker, Star Control 2, and XCOM.

And so on in that matter.

I worry that monetizing my channel will open up a legal can of worms that will have the current owners of these IPs coming to me with their hands out, or with takedown notices.

Anybody got an informed opinion on the matter?

Dei · Oct 13, 2014

There are video game YouTubers out there who are practically millionaires, I'm sure there is some fair use thing out there. Don't know it though. :/

SpecialKO · Oct 13, 2014

Fair use comes down to "percent of originals" as well as total time/content used, so there's no hard and fast rule if the original creators don't use creative commons (or give you explicit permission).

I hate to say it as it means some money out of pocket, but you should go and talk to an actual IP/copyright lawyer. Getting rules and basic guidelines to follow should not take too much time and put you out of pocket too bad, going over each video independently will.

GasBandit · Oct 13, 2014

Dei said:
There are video game YouTubers out there who are practically millionaires, I'm sure there is some fair use thing out there. Don't know it though. :/

Yeah, I know what you mean. Game Grumps visual data is 99% somebody's game, but the sticky wicket for me is the music. I've had videos get their audio jacked for music before.

PatrThom · Oct 13, 2014

As I understand it, whether you are legally entitled to use content which was not originally created by you (including in-game footage!) comes down to some questions: Is it permitted due to the 1st Amendment (i.e., Parody/criticism)? Are you an educator using these assets for the purposes of instruction and under limited circumstances? Do you have a license or other agreement with the copyright holder (or their agent, like BMI/ASCAP)? Is the work public domain (if so, go nuts!)? Are they orphan/abandoned works (a very grey area)?

In any case, anyone can make a takedown claim, regardless of whether or not they have standing, and you have to respond to each one of them or else lose the ability to fight 'em. Also if you get too many, YouTube may kill your channel OR divert all profits to the entity(ies) making the claim(s), regardless of your legitimacy.

--Patrick

Bowielee · Oct 13, 2014

I know for a fact that you will get tagged on the music issues.

As for gameplay videos, they are fair game.

GasBandit · Oct 13, 2014

Bowielee said:
I know for a fact that you will get tagged on the music issues.

As for gameplay videos, they are fair game.

That was kinda what I was afraid of. All my royalty free stuff only goes 60-90 sec per track, and it would be both a pain and crap quality to have to go through and redub all the audio on the videos in question.

Bowielee · Oct 13, 2014

Audio is one thing that they have the auto scrubbers on for.

GasBandit · Oct 13, 2014

Bowielee said:
Audio is one thing that they have the auto scrubbers on for.

Well, they also have video bots, which is why a lot of people who upload TV episodes/clips mirror or in other ways distort the picture.

But plainly the audio robots don't have a universal library. The robot caught my bloodhound gang song before its first view, but once I "acknowledged the third party content" in the video by clicking the button to do so, it went right on being online with no problems - I can only assume behind the scenes it means some ad revenue is diverted to BMI/Ascap in their name, or perhaps it made the video unavailable in certain countries, though it didn't say so (and other videos I've posted that use WMG music do say that explicitly).

But there's been nary a peep from the robots on my use of the various old video game music tracks.

Of course, that doesn't mean that, if I pull the trigger on going partner, some lawyer won't crawl out of a dank pit to come smack me upside the head with a sheaf of documents. I'm pretty sure Lucasarts - which means Lucasfilm, which means DISNEY - wouldn't have any qualms about stomping on a tiny youtube channel using midi music from one of their games from the mid-early 90s.

Bowielee · Oct 13, 2014

I'd say worry less about what you've already posted, but be mindful of it going forward.

Null · Oct 14, 2014

I know that with RoosterTeeth, with the Let's Plays, they can't have any in-game audio (or at least very little), since that isn't their original content, while the footage that they record, even when it involves emergent NPC behavior in game, is considered to be original content. It's kind of weird. It sounds odd, but you might actually find it useful to try and contact someone who has a channel like yours could become and ask them.