basically, because of the popularity of the sonic 2 tas, youtube is willing to pay me for ads. at first i was going to decline, because i wouldn't feel right taking money for it and because its not eligible unless i have all rights to the video (or have permission). but i was thinking that (with the blessings of the players) i might simply donate all the money to tasvideos (or even the players themselves, lol). would this be acceptable?
To re-imagine every obstacle as just means of honing craft and learn to laugh at failure's funny dream.
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Donating to the site would certainly be a blessing for us.
And if they are paying for popular movies, maybe we should be uploading to the TASVideos youtube account :o
Joined: 11/4/2007
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I see no reason not to, it is your account and you do whatever the hell you want with it, though I do see it ethically correct to donate to TASVideos the proceeds.
About making a TASVideos account on YouTube adelikat, that won't be happening unless we somehow converted rogueyoshi's account to a TASVideos account, and personally, it's still his account in the end.
I don't know how relevant this is, but take into account that Sega Corporation owns the copyrights for the graphics and music of that game, and putting entire playthrough videos of the game on youtube is redistribution which is most probably beyond fair use. I assume Sega Corporation doesn't mind, but if you start making money out of it, that might change.
Joined: 8/8/2005
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For the benefit of those in the discussion, this page provides a background on exactly what constitutes fair use.
In short: Four pillars of fair use:
* Nature of the usage (commercial/noncommercial, transformative, etc)
* Nature of the copyrighted material (factual vs original, largely)
* Quantity of material used (I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts on this, but IMO the game is only valuable insofar as allowing people to play it, and a demonstration of the game played extraordinarily wouldn't be considered redistribution under that definition...)
* If this use were to become widespread, how would it affect the market for the copyrighted material?
They consider the first three before looking at the fourth. I'd say there's not a great chance of it holding up... but I am not a lawyer.
EDIT: Oh, Warp was talking about the graphics and music... that's substantially different. Yeah, not much chance I would say.
I see no reason not to, it is your account and you do whatever the hell you want with it, though I do see it ethically correct to donate to TASVideos the proceeds.
My only major concern is that if uploading TASes becomes profitable, then we might start getting many accounts uploading TASes in the hope that they'll be able to make some quick cash off of it. Some of them might be uploaded without the permission of the author, or without the "this is a TAS" disclaimers, etc. I can't really just how likely this would be, though.
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Derakon wrote:
Flygon wrote:
snip
My only major concern is that if uploading TASes becomes profitable, then we might start getting many accounts uploading TASes in the hope that they'll be able to make some quick cash off of it. Some of them might be uploaded without the permission of the author, or without the "this is a TAS" disclaimers, etc. I can't really just how likely this would be, though.
if it ever came to people trying to abuse it, you could simply flag their video and have it reviewed by youtube.
anyways i havent enlisted the vid for the program yet. going to wait a while for more input...
To re-imagine every obstacle as just means of honing craft and learn to laugh at failure's funny dream.
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adelikat wrote:
I intend to make a page with update information about the costs/donations info. Right now the operating cost is $40 for the server rental. We have received enough donations that I have paid for that server for 12 months plus have some money left over for next year. For TASvideos to continue to survive, it will require continuous donation money to trickle in. But for now, we are running at least :)
I think the money from this would be a perfect solution to the problem.
Joined: 3/14/2008
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A quick google search turned up many yahoo answers questions and the like, mostly saying around $2.50 per 1000 views, so 0.25 cents per view, and they also say you get something like one cent per channel view and ten cents per subscriber, but I don't know if this is 100% correct.
I could expect the channel making $1 per day at least using those figures, if a new video was uploaded weekly.
Looking at it from a legal perspective, I'd say you would be opening yourself for a lawsuit. You would be making money using Sega's trademarks. Plus this would also get you in trouble with the copyrights on that game.
Most gaming companies don't mind you posting videos (let's play, TAS, etc.) because it is free advertising for them. However when you start making money off it, then you really make yourself vulnerable. So far TAS's have evaded the eye of the gaming industry's lawyers and I'd hate to see this bring down the lawsuit.
Joined: 5/1/2004
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duksandfish wrote:
A quick google search turned up many yahoo answers questions and the like, mostly saying around $2.50 per 1000 views, so 0.25 cents per view, and they also say you get something like one cent per channel view and ten cents per subscriber, but I don't know if this is 100% correct.
I could expect the channel making $1 per day at least using those figures, if a new video was uploaded weekly.
That sounds like a good money, I want ads on my 40k views videos :P
Well, you seem to forget that not even half of the viewers would bother klicking that stupid ad anyways.
Also: Lawsuit? How? Your not making money with their trademarks, your just having an ad enabled on the site. If that would be illegal, many sprite comics who use ads would have had legal problems by now...
I can almost guarantee the offer was made automatically. As for whether these videos are infringing, I don't know; you'd have to ask an American copyright lawyer.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Ask a lawyer.
This said, on your notice of acceptance, I would refuse to view videos on and block any access to your account from my machines. Youtube ads are very intrusive and annoying and I don't think the amount of income it could provide is worth the nuisance.
Well, you seem to forget that not even half of the viewers would bother klicking that stupid ad anyways.
Also: Lawsuit? How? Your not making money with their trademarks, your just having an ad enabled on the site. If that would be illegal, many sprite comics who use ads would have had legal problems by now...
Depending on the sprite comic, they could be protected under fair use (parody). TAS would have no such shield.
Joined: 3/14/2008
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Location: United Kingdom
This guy: http://www.youtube.com/user/montagical is a partner, and has recently been uploading video game "let's play" videos, and I don't think he's had any problems with copyright.
There's no harm in trying. Christ.
Given that there are (as said) LPers out there that do partnerships...
Also lol at the YouTube ad whiners. You get a popup (silent) in the middle of the video that you can close the instant it appears. Do they seriously bother you that much? How do you live?
In short, hey, go for it.
There is theoretical harm in trying.
Until now copyright owners have not noticed or cared about tasvideos.org. By blatantly infringing their copyright for commercial purposes we might draw their attention not only to those videos, but to the entire website.
When the first "cease and desist" notice drops into some tasvideos.org admin email box from some overprotective copyright holder who has so far not noticed us, that's when the harm will have been done.
