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Blizzard, Microsoft Codify Licenses for Machinima
Wired has up a piece looking at two recent licenses released by Microsoft and Blizzard clarifying their policies towards player use of their games to create Machinima. It's an interesting discussion, because while Blizzard's license grants rights for the first time since World of Warcraft was released (essentially deliberately opening holes in their EULA), Microsoft's new policy takes rights away from enthusiastic Halo players at a time when everyone has just been given the capability to create their own in-game videos. Despite some trepidations, both licenses seem to be well received: "Even digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation signed off on the rules ... Fred von Lohmann, an EFF senior staff attorney who examined both sets of rules, said the main difference between them lies in a user's base set of rights ... 'It's great news that both of these companies are taking machinima seriously enough that they have been willing to come out and authorize some kinds of machinima ... That's a huge improvement over where we were before, which was (that) no one wanted to give machinima guys any kind of guidance at all.'"
Does this license cover me making a machinima movie of a perfect operating system experience using the Windows OS to render the visuals?
liqbase
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if there was an internet back then, i wonder if Broderbund would have been pissed off at all the wonderful ways we found to splice screengrabs of that game into varied, complex, and ridiculous ways to kill the prince?
Well Slashdot's EULA allows you to use their engine to create crap.
But is it Art?
Do they really expect some 16 year old kid to go out and get a license before he makes some 5min movie with his buddies in WoW ?!... They've gotta be joking if they think anybody will actually respect their wishes. You've paid for the game, and you record yourself playing the game a certain way.. licenses? No thanks!
The magical number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Machinima is storytelling. Now what if you could not only break into, but copy and distribute all the props and actors from a Hollywood back lot?
So Steven Spielberg spends a couple dozen million dollars on models and props and sets and backdrops and... makes a movie and cashes in on it.
Bungie designs a three-dimensional virtual world with models and props and sets and backdrops and... turns it into a gameworld and cashes in on it.
If in EITHER of these cases, Random Joe comes in and uses any of these creative resources (the models, sets, props, actors) and makes an entertainment product and sells it... What do you call that?
If it WAS a studio back-lot, it's probably grand theft for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in props.
In a digital world, you're just manipulating and redistributing a data-stream. Sounds fair enough right? Well so long as nobody turns a profit from it...
The artist could argue that all art steals from previous ideas and creations. However you can't actually make a replica of Michael Angelo's "David" and name it Joe Average's "Bob" and sell it or otherwise claim it as your creation... Make a video of the statue, or a photo, paint over it, add a soundtrack, and call it "Mixed-Media" and THEN you can put your name on it.
You didn't actually read Blizzard's Fair Use Guide before posting that, did you?
No, they don't expect the 16-year-old kid to go out and get a license before he makes his movie. They only want you to get a "content use license" if your film ends up being used for a commercial purpose, or screened in public at a festival. That's not at all unreasonable, since you're making ample use of their artwork in your movie.
I must admit I didn't read the full story but I wasn't that far from the truth. It seemed a bit strange to me to be writing up a license when there was no Machinima ever used in a commercial setting where people made money off of it, at least none that I'm aware of.
Pardon my jumping to conlusions.
The magical number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
While it's nice to know what's kosher and what isn't, the Microsoft license forbids two common practices - one that is common for writers just getting their feet wet, and another that keeps the costs low enough for hobbyists and amateurs to dabble.
The first practice I'm referring to is fan fiction; a writer makes "baby steps" by writing sequels or prequels or side-stories or alternate endings, etc. that use the existing fictional world as a base.
The second is the use of sound and music from the original work. The machinima author, to comply with this license, has to produce new sound effects for everything in the film, new ambient noise, and new music. And has to synchronize those sounds with the action while also adjusting sound placement in the environment, something that games do for you automatically, just as they do the animation of characters and 3D rendering and physics.
I'm not saying that Microsoft is wrong to put these restrictions in the default machinima license for its properties; for the sound case in particular there are license considerations that make it understandable. But it will have a chilling effect.
Consider all the machinima out there that would never have happened had this license been in place six years ago. There would have been no Red vs. Blue (violates both rules), no Fire Team Charlie (violates sound rule), and so on.
I like to make machinima "arrangements" of games with good stories; I am in the process of making one of Shadow of the Colossus. After that's finished, I'd wanted to make one of either BioShock or Halo. This license certainly kills that idea (violates sound rule). Or if I do make it, I'll be the only one that can watch it.
Not only that, this means all walkthrough and speedrun videos will have to lack game sound, and it also leads to the slightly ludicrous situation that Halo 3 players can record gameplay and share it, but cannot save it in video form for posterity.
Hans
Well, it's a good thing Red vs Blue just ended, or else it would have to end now.
From TFA:
I'm sure some parents would call the language used in RvB "obscene" (and if parents don't, I know a lawyer who will...)
And that is the death of RvB right there. In fact, I hope it isn't retroactive, or else they can't sell the dvds anymore. And then there will be the giddy microsoft junior lawyer trying for a promotion who gets a part of the t-shirt sales too because it was quotes used in a video using microsoft ip, so it is "fruit of the poisonous tree". (IANAL)
On the other hand, this may not apply to roosterteeth at all, as they were even invited to bungie to try out the new versions before they were released.
Of course they could be making roosterteeth anti-comptetive like they are, by not allowing anyone to do what they did, so they have the monopoly :^) (no I don't think they'd ever do that)
Actually, there's a lot of machinima used in commercial settings. GameStop is running a series of machinima commercials right now, for example. Somebody got paid for those. Microsoft is also doing a series of machinima ads, online. MTV runs machinima eye-catches, and has a machinima music video show. "Make Love Not Warcraft" is a perfect example of using WoW machinima for commercial use.
Software purchased for the purpose of rendering 3d images,in realtime,with filmmaking capabilities,hmmm.
Software company included characters and add the ability to pipe output to a work by the purchaser.
Their contract means squat and the best reply they are to recieve from the bench is"attractive nuisance".
Machinima lives.
If you don't want your video game characters used in films,don't include them in the package.
Life's hard,don't make it harder on everyone by being corporate assholes.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Here are my rules; I'll use the videos I record of the games I paid for in any way I want, and there's nothing you can ever do about it. Hard to enforce your EULA across national borders when you can't even figure out the identity of the "violators".
...read these blog posts, and maybe also look and listen to this here.
Just FYI, Microsoft have taken a very personal interest in Red Vs. Blue, even going so far as to have exclusive Xbox live releases. Blizzard have been making their own machinima (L70ETC - I am murloc), and rumour has it they contribute to warcraftmovies.com . This all happened at a corporate level way before their lawyers laid pen to paper.
It's quite interesting to see how each company handled the situation - Blizzard financed their own works and bought the community a home. Microsoft financed buying the best of the community. Typical of each company, i'd say.
"If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever." - George Orwell, 1984
South Park won an emmy for their episode that was done 90% inside of WoW, if that didn't make them money I don't know what would.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
I imagine Parker and Stone or their agents had negotiated machinima permission, as Blizzard actively collaborated with South Park on the "Make Love, not Warcraft" episode.
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While some very early machinima was comprised largely of recordings of Quake gameplay, that certainly doesn't characterize most offerings, today. Most of what you'll find out there now is either music videos or narrative films. Heck, machinima has even appeared at Sundance. I recommend that you take a look around at what's available, before you knock the film-makers. "Red vs. Blue" is a good newbie's introduction to machinima, but if you want a taste of what else is out there, I recommend heading over to The Machiniplex for some flicks. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.