Copyright Infringment on gaming. Where do you stand on it?

[Wiz]

A couple of days ago, my "no time limit" on YT was reduced to 15 min for the "Content ID Matches" that I had, but luckily it's been fixed and wanted to express my thoughts with this video.

Very well articulated I might add

I pretty much agree with everything that guy says (1:50-6:12 is the cream-filling inside if you want to know).

When I decided to actually get some confirmation for myself, I found two sources that contradicted  each other when it comes to recording game play

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6022824_copyright-laws-video-games.html <-- States that putting video game footage on the internet is illegal.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=7e81ccf275addacc&hl=en <-- Popular/Best Answer from replier states it isn't copyright infringement because it follows under the fair use clause and provides a .gov link along with it, I'm inclined to believe that this is true, but don't know with absolute certainty. Anyone want to confirm that >.> ?

[formerdeathcorps]

Personally, I think we need to loosen copyright laws overall.

1) There shouldn't be patents on life (genetic modification), or they should be no stricter than the norms that prevailed in the 1920s when modern plant breeding came into being.  Thus, a company can sell GM/hybrid seeds, but they shouldn't be allowed to stop the farmer from saving them or make seeds that are automatically sterile, just like how a software manufacturer making copy-proof CDs is violating fair use and is essentially marketing a defective product.

2) Copyrights need to have a requirement on social use so companies can't just buy the rights to competitor technologies and then never use them.  Similarly, old copyrights should be fading into public domain within 1 human lifetime (rather than the current system of inventor lifetime + decades more, which Congress keeps extending).  Furthermore, nuisance copyrights on generic items (like bolts and screws...this is a tactic to win rights to products made by competitors) should simply be thrown out.

3) Similar to 1), digital media that can be copied (just like how plants can copy themselves) should not be subject to further rules provided there's no resale, it's a backup copy, or it's for creative/instructive use (i.e. hacking/LPs...just like how farmers who got some different varieties of the same plant would then mix and match between varieties until they got what perfectly suited their land and then pass information to others in the same profession).

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Patents should be between 7 and 10 years, end of story.  No extensions, no excuses.  Copyright, however, is a different story.  I'm okay with copyright being 30 years - if you're book isn't selling after 30 years, just quit - but that's the max.  This "Life of the author + 70 years" crap is complete and utter bullshit.

Video games, being works of art, fall under copyright more than patent.  Some people think that the game engines themselves should be uncopyrightable (they should be patent only), and that only the content should be copyrighted, which kinda makes sense, seeing that such a setup would allow game engines to progress faster once they're in the public domain, but the way our software patents work today, such a system is worthless.

This whole thing is moot though.  The lobbyists who represent corporations that want copyright extended even more are fighting yesterday's battles; as soon as they make one thing illegal, a thousand more will pop up.

[Celdia]

Fair Use is the only shield anyone doing a review of anything has to hide behind. That said, a lot of asshole producers will go out there and drop s copyright infringement threat on anyone and anything saying anything negative about their product even if there is no legal precedent to do so just to stop the negative comments. This tactic works wonderfully when its used because its only ever used against people that they already know won't fight back and bring the matter to court. Just like that Popular Answer in Wiz's last link says, if this had any solid legal standing there would be lawsuits all over the place about it. They just don't want negative advertisement for their product. On the other side of the coin and injecting a little conspiracy theory here, I'm inclined to believe that game review magazines and websites get paid by developers to produce good reviews of their games as another form of advertising that is positive and will be trusted by the gamers that read those reviews as opposed to just being ignored like normal advertising is a lot of the time. However when they produce a shit game and it gets shit reviews (anyone seen Mindjack? Ugh, now there's another SquareEnix bomb) there aren't piles of lawsuits coming down on the magazines and websites because they know they'll get taken to court and likely lose in the long run AND the whole damned company will lose face over it.

Its all just a big corporate version of bullying. Now that the common man has an easy one-to-many form of communication via the internet which is easily the largest 'soapbox' ever and reaches more people than ever could have before, these companies have to extend their giant, corporately-funded e-peens and show their dominance whenever they can get away with it.

[philsov]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWDsD6Zs_p0



~

Though more seriously, the reason some big names produce and create this expansive audio/visual masterpieces is because it's profitable.  If every jackbutt with a screencapture program wanted to upload awesome footage that should ideally be sold for money in order for the developers and such to at least breakeven, then I highly doubt we'd have such high quality works in the first place.

The company and creator have total rights over their products, and the enforcement of their copyright is wholly up to them.  If they're fine with some scenes and tracks available, that's great.  If they want to squash everything in sight with intentions of trying to draw maximum profits (although doing so is sometimes counter-productive) that have that right both legally and socially. 

[Celdia]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWDsD6Zs_p0

Oh god, the laughing, it hurts... XD