Ubisoft shuts down Youtube video game commentator over Splinter Cell Conviction videos
Ubisoft isn’t making a lot of friends these days with its digital shenanigans. Sure, sure we all know about that little mess with the current PC DRM. But did you hear the one about the video game commentator who got shut down because he uploaded playthrough videos of *GASP* Splinter Cell: Conviction to his Youtube channel?
Apparently, long time walkthrough reviewer, commentator, and comedic insult machine DarkSydePhil (no relation to DarkSideRob) has had his Youtube page shutdown and, many have assumed, expunged from the whole of the site for landing a third copyright claim against his channel. The previous two were from Rockstar and the WWE for GTA IV Lost and the Damned and Legends of Wrestle Mania respectively.
While Ubisoft has not gone out of its way to have every ‘Conviction’ video pulled down, DSP seems to be the victim of his own internet fame. Most of his playthrough videos gather around 30,000 viewers per video (some even more than that). And because he plays every game through to completion, it’s likely that Ubisoft saw that his videos were popular, felt they were also giving way too much of the game away, and filed a claim against him.
Here’s the upshot of it all. Although the damage against DSP is done, he’s working on trying to get some of the damage reverse: namely the removal of one of the three copyright claims against him. His argument? What he’s doing is not copyright infringement at all.
You see, there’s this little law called “Fair Use” and it’s a loop hole that has allowed for a lot of digital content providers, like Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw or Angry Video Game Nerd, to use copyrighted content as long as their review or commentary pertains to video games, the video game industry, and so on. Better still, in DSP’s case, the law doesn’t define how long or short a video pertaining to the copyrighted material has to be. So playing a whole video game online, as long as it contains a commentary, is A-OK under “fair use” — according to DSP.
Personally, I don’t think this claim has anything to do with Copyright Infringement or not. It just seems like Ubisoft wants people to pay to play the game themselves and not have anyone ruin it for them via a youtube video. Here’s my issue with the whole thing: how bad of a dent will 30,000 views really make Ubisoft’s profit stream? I wager probably not a whole heck of a lot. So why go through all the trouble? Why have more people see Ubisoft as a big bad wolf when there are hundreds of other games and companies out there who seem to get a kick out of these “extended reviews” being posted online? DSP himself even addresses the fact that in 7,000 videos he’s only been called out by a developer twice before.
Despite Ubisoft’s concern, I am of the notion that when someone goes to watch a DSP video (including yours truly) they’re there to see what DSP says about the game more than anything else. He’s crass, he’s loud, but he’s funny and, perhaps to Ubisoft’s displeasure, he adds another element to the experience they can’t profit off of.
Until he receives the final verdict from Ubisoft/Rockstar/WWE, DSP will continue to inform his fans about the issue via his review channel TheKingofHateHD. Phil also claims that, although his channel is gone, all of his playthroughs have been backed up and if his channel is gone for good, he might upload some of his most famous playthroughs again. We’ll keep you informed on the course of events as they unfold both here and on Ep. 43 of GameCrashers Radio.
Is Ubisoft the only company doing this? It seems kinda weak.
That must have been a short walkthrough. lol.
However 30,000 hits to lets say $50-60 a pop is 1,500,000-1,800,000. That’s some serious cash they would lose if those people don’t buy the game.
I understand that dude says he wasn’t doing anything wrong, blah blah blah and calls Youtube a pussy for not sticking their neck for him.
But if he is really that sure he is right, then why didn’t he then start his own website and hosted his videos? It was strike three, so he knew it was coming.
I am pretty sure he would think differently if he made his website and had to deal with the Ubisoft lawsuit directly, that even if he wins, it would take a serious amount of cash just to put up with the lawsuit, and a long time to be resolved.
Plus we all know the reason for him getting 30,000 hits isn’t because he is the funniest or best walkthroughs on the net, it is for the simple fact that he puts the entire game on video. That’s it. Ubisoft knows it, Youtube knows it, He knows it.
The reason I don’t like this is because, he is now claiming to be the victim here (for uploading full lenght video game walkthroughs? sheesh Do people need to have better problems in life) and using this to gain even more views, and get more ad revenues on his new channel.
He isn’t a victim. He knew what he was doing. He used Youtube to get revenue and precisely used it because he would get shutdown first and not sued like he would if he had made a website for this purpose. He isn’t going to sue Ubisoft or Youtube, he is just going to whine about it while getting payed for ads and views.
Plus, if he does succeed in making enough noise it will be very counterproductive. Because he could be the reason why the law would change to put a specific amount of time on what you can review, parody, etc.
and if that can of worms is opened and we end up getting shafted because some douchebag put the entire game to gain views, it is going to really really suck.
[...] Video (natürlich auch auf auf YouTube, via gamecrashers.net), die anderen finden sich auf gamecrashers.net und man sollte sie sich mal ansehen, insbesondere dasjenige, in dem er über das Thema [...]
I feel with you DSP! This whole affair is just a big mess. With Web 2.0 and the DRM shit we get less and less rights…
However I cannot keep two things to myself:
1) This is the THIRD time this happens… and… you made no backups? The original, edited footage – never saved, never backed up? Okay, this is a lot of data probably, but DVD-/+R’s are not THAT expensive anymore to store them. Or take an external HDD. Whatever, but just BACKUP your stuff.
As said: Today you have NO RIGHTS so using Youtube to store your stuff primarily is just a bad idea. If you need to rely on something, rely on yourself – not any company… and actually… you cannot blame them – IMHO. Backup is something I think everyone has a personal responsibility.
In the end – it’s just all your work you put weeks… months of work into.
2) You go to YouTube again? After fucking you three times?
I mean: There’s Blip for example… and there are still other ways of providing Video…
However, I wish you the best.
@zico: He did back everything up. He even said so in the videos posted throughout the article.
As for where he should post: Blip.tv doesn’t get nearly the kind of traffic that Youtube gets. And as for HD hosting sites, Vimeo and Viddler charge to upload more than a couple of HD clips a day.
He’s got enough people following him now, he could probably just host all the video on his own site, on his own terms. But that takes way more work than just posting stuff to Youtube.
Okay, may bad. That happens if just watching half the videos instead of reading the article before posting. Sorry for that. ^^
what we need is a youtube alternative using p2p. Think about it, no censorship, nothing…
[...] DarkSydePhil (DSP) zockt massig Spiele durch und kommentiert sie. Die dabei enstehenden Videos stellt er in seinen Youtube Channel. Dieser wurde nun kommentarlos gelöscht. [...]
[...] DarkSydePhil (DSP) zockt massig Spiele durch und kommentiert sie. Die dabei enstehenden Videos stellt er in seinen Youtube Channel. Dieser wurde nun kommentarlos gelöscht. [...]
[...] Die Story um DarkSydePhyl: Vielleicht kennt ihr DarkSydePhil, vielleicht auch nicht. Aber wahrscheinlich habt ihr schon einmal eines seiner Videos gesehen, wenn ihr nach Komplettlösungen zu einem Spiel bei Youtube gesucht habt. DarSydePhil hatte, bis vor kurzem, einem Channel indem er über 7.000 Videos hochgeladen hatte. Alles Walkthroughs von Spielen. Jetzt ist sein Channel dicht. Wahrscheinlich weil Ubisoft rumgespackt hat wegen einer Splinter Cell Conviction Lösung. Jetzt kann man wieder darüber streiten ob es geschäftsschädigend ist, wenn es eine Komplettlösung zu einem Spiel gibt oder nicht. Ich halte die ganze Aktion für doof. Hallo? Wir leben im Web 2.0 und dies Walkthrough Videos waren und sind einfach eine geniale Sache. Ich schau mir lieber an, was ich zu machen habe, als mich durch zig Seiten, häufig schlecht geschriebenen, Komplettlösungstext durchzuwühlen. Die komplette Story, mit DarkSyePhills Kommentaren etc. könnt ihr hier nach verfolgen: GoTo [...]