from the where-did-I-leave-that-koopa-troopa dept.
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The Minecraft community is one of the most video-centric gaming groups online, with hundreds of thousands of players routinely streaming and sharing gameplay and mods through YouTube and Twitch without issue. Nintendo, on the other hand, is one of the most restrictive game publishers when it comes to video, with a history of taking videos of its games offline and threatening to shut down livestreamed tournaments. It has also had problems sharing ad revenue with video creators.
When those two sides effectively merged through the recently released "Super Mario Mash-Up Pack" for the Wii U version of Minecraft, problems were bound to arise. And arisen they have, with a number of YouTubers publicly complaining about Nintendo making copyright claims on their Minecraft videos.
The issue appears to stem from the game's use of Super Mario 64 music, which is actually included as part of the Mash-Up Pack but still triggers a copyright match with the original Nintendo 64 game.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Monday May 23 2016, @05:40PM
Why Nintendo driving away potential fans with this video policy when their market share is flagging? And why if they're so uptight about this are their ROMs as proliferated as AK-47s?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 23 2016, @06:23PM
Automated takedowns FTL
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 23 2016, @05:45PM
This is perfect! A no-gray-area legitimate example of copyright takedowns punishing innocent users. The amount of resources wasted chasing down the evil copyright infringers is staggering. The artificial walls we have erected around our own culture are now hurting the whole for the benefit of the few. If someone is selling bootleg copies of your games/music/movies then sure, I'm all for throwing some fines at them. Any other instance is a waste of time, and automated takedowns are just plain wrong.
For a car analogy, imagine speed cameras on every overpass and sign. If you go 1mph over the limit in sight of these cameras you will be getting a ticket based on the license plate reader. Woops, were you going downhill and didn't notice you'd crept up to 68mph? Have fun paying $135. Hey I have a great idea, lets make the fine match the crime! Going 70mph? Now you pay $180, and we can scale it up exponentially to discourage unsafe driving! Think of the children!
I would truly like the people to have a say in how they are governed, it is beyond painfully obvious how badly the special interest governing is going...
Yes, another post devolving into government policy, but if shit wasn't so broken then maybe these records would be able to play the whole song instead of the shitty drum solo making us all deaf.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Monday May 23 2016, @06:26PM
Sorry, the copyright is almost certainly valid. It seems a stupid enforcement action, but that doesn't make it invalid, and so those who published it aren't "innocent", but merely "customers".
It's a great reason not to buy or support Nintindo materials, but that doesn't make it a frivolous suit.
What this is, is a good reason to say copyright laws should be revoked. Mended would be better, but mended means reducing the term of the copyright to perhaps 5 years, perhaps 20, perhaps somewhere in between. And forbidding corporations and companies with more than 20 employees, or more than $?????(one million? 5 million? 10 million?..but indexed for inflation) in assets from renewing any copyrights they hold.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 23 2016, @07:03PM
Sorry but you're incorrect and made me actually click the article link (the summary seemed to have all the details I needed, and I was vindicated in that choice)
To its credit, Mario Mash-Up Pack developer 4J Studios responded quickly, saying on Twitter that "we're hearing reports of copyright strikes on Super Mario Mash-Up videos. We were assured this wouldn't happen. Following up with Nintendo." In responses to other users, the developer said that "Nintendo are going to investigate and resolve" these copyright issues.
These takedowns were not supposed to happen, and this highlights again the issue with automated takedown notices. My point was just about copyright reform but automated systems that harm innocents with little to no oversight Its like automating speeding tickets with license plate readers and radar guns, you WILL end up with innocent people getting speeding tickets simply due to equipment errors and environmental coincidences. People already don't like red light cameras and one research article said they caused more problems than they solved.
If protective laws are not worth hiring a real person to enforce, then they are not worthy of becoming laws. While humans can be corrupted you still have to corrupt ALL of them, while a computer system can be corrupted / gamed with a simple update by one person.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 23 2016, @08:37PM
Sorry, the copyright is almost certainly valid. It seems a stupid enforcement action, but that doesn't make it invalid, and so those who published it aren't "innocent", but merely "customers".
Copyright exists in the use solely to encourage innovation. If this sort of copyright rule does not do so, it is unconstitutional and the copyrights are invalid. Not that the courts would ever make such a 'bold' ruling.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday May 24 2016, @12:06PM
Copyright exists in the use solely to encourage innovation. If this sort of copyright rule does not do so, it is unconstitutional and the copyrights are invalid. Not that the courts would ever make such a 'bold' ruling.
No, the clause in question is:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
That means merely that Congress has the power to create finite duration copyrights and patents, but doesn't constrain them to use that power only for the expressed reason. This is the same problem as with the Second Amendment. Just because a reason or excuse is provide for the power or right, doesn't mean that the power or right is constrained by that.
Instead, I think a better avenue here is the "limited duration" aspect. Life plus 50/75 years is excessive despite the court rulings to the contrary. Further, it's just fantasy to keep allowing extensions indefinitely on the argument that they are still "limited".
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 23 2016, @06:56PM
Perhaps one way to create an environment that would allow culture to evolve as it should once more is to create awareness that any imaginary property created by a corporation is diseased and toxic. Maybe it's more like an invasive species that is a threat to the natural ecosystem of ideas and stories.
I say created by corporation but I suppose what I actually mean is created in the interest of profit by an entity that has every resource and intention to keep it out of the public domain even if that involves using destructive tactics like auto-takedowns. Maybe we need a new kind of license that is copyright for 7 years or so then morphs into copyleft.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 23 2016, @07:40PM
..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @12:24AM
I don't post videos myself, but if I ever were to start doing video game reviews/letsplays/etc, I would NEVER touch a Nintendo game with a 100 foot pole. Why? Because I KNOW this is what Nintendo would do. And so, fuck them, I'll praise someone else's work instead.
And really they've been this way since before the internet became a Thing. I still have an ancient "Nintendo Power Flash" newsletter from like Spring of 1989. In this 16 page newsletter (which rapidly reduced to a folded piece of paper within a year or two - Nintendo's way of pushing these people onto the actual Nintendo Power magazine.) they spent a quarter of one of the pages warning people not to use Nintendo licenses. That small yellow-highlighted notice was titled "A word to the wise..."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @11:18AM
Remember when Nintendo was taking down Let's Player's videos (who were basically free advertising), and then got Youtube to automatically monetize the LP'er vids and give the money to Nintendo?
Yeah, that removed incentive of LP'ers to cover Nintendo vids. This copyright crazy bullshit has got to stop. It's hurting their brand in ways they might not even realize. Look, marketing is shifting hugely away from game journalism into the Let's Play camp. A play by a prominent Let's Player can skyrocket a little known indie and have them starting a studio rather than not quitting their day job.
This is shit. Stop it Nintendo. The Japanese really do have a hard time navigating the cluster fuck of the US legal system, and they fear they're not as "competitive" as US IP lawyers. This is fucked though, the PR disaster is very bad for Nintendo -- Alone it's just "meh", but taken together with a stream of other missteps and it could spell the end of a beloved console maker.
The MPAA isn't something to look up to. STOP TAKING DOWN FREE ADVERTISING YOU CRAZY NIPLANDERS!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 24 2016, @12:20PM