Gary M. Gadsdon's Blog

"You don't need a reason to help people "
- Zidane Tribal, Final Fantasy IX

What is Content ID?

Content ID is a system for YouTube developed by Google, to allow copyright IP holders to register their audio or visual content into a database that'll help protect their content and deter piracy. Sadly, the system is poorly thought out on Google's part and does not respect law, making false possitive claims out the wazoo, many companies understand the concept of fair use and will release a claim on such grounds relatively quickly, but there are some, typically in the music industry trying to hold onto dinosuar business models and Japanese video game developers who don't understand the way the western world works will reject disputes even when they have no legal right to do so. (Nintendo comes to mind)

My View of Content ID

My personal stance on Content ID is that it's a poorly thought out system and shouldn't be used at all, but because Google and the music industry believe in it religiously, it's something we'll have to put up with. The content I create are pure gameplay videos and generally do not contain my voice on them unless I'm doing a colaboration with friends. For that reason, I will allow video game publishers to claim advertisement revenues on my videos so long as they are the company issuing the claim, if a music company makes the claim, (such as in a song licensed for use within a game I played) then the song that is being claimed on, MUST match the song being used by the game, there are no exceptions.

For me this is not about money, since I will allow companies to use Content ID on my videos (Square Enix and Konami to name a pair of examples), but it's about principle, in that I will not permit a company to make false revenues from my videos.

Overview

Claimed Content	Stance
Video Content claimed by publisher of the game	Claim left as is. The publisher claiming is matched to the publisher of the game. (eg, a Final Fantasy video claimed by Square Enix)
Video Content claimed by a third party	Disputed through an alternate method (eg Twitter or Email). I only allow the publishers to make claims, unless they can prove they have a license to claim.
Audio Content claimed by publisher of the game	Claim left as is. The publisher claiming is matched to the publisher of the game. (eg. a Final Fantasy video claimed by Square Enix)
Audio Content claimed by Record Producer, song match	Claim left as is. The song matches up. Though sometimes the song may be removed from the video with YouTube's editor, depending on if removing the song takes away from the charm of the game. (eg, the Best is Yet to Come from Metal Gear Solid by Rika Muranaka is claimed as such)
Audio Content claimed by Record Producer, song mis-match	After tracking down the mis-matched track, the song is disputed thorugh an alternate method (such as email or Twitter). I only allow matched song claims. (ie, the claimed song must match the song I used)
Audio Content claimed by Record Producer, song remixed by another third-party where I'm using the original	After tracking down the mis-matched track, the song is disputed thorugh an alternate method (such as email or Twitter). I only allow matched song claims. (The track is likely to be owned by another third party that is not the Record Producer and as such as no claims over content they don't own. Eg. Tintin theme song is claimed as Song X by Record Producer Y on Behalf of Z.)
Royalty Free Music	Disputed, with links to license information.
Self-Recorded Video and Audio	Disputed.
Sounds of Nature	Disputed. Really? What you gonna do, sue the birds for chirping?

Boycotted Companies

The following is a list of Video Game companies who do not support Lets Players in any way and have taken a constant stance against it. Despite not being me not being in it for the money (aside from attepting to break even) these companies I have decided to boycott and wont be playing any game they've published or produced.

Nintendo