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Video Game Movies "Not Creative Expression"
GamePolitics is one of many that is reporting on the impending removal of video game movies from the video hosting site Vimeo. While they have agreed to leave machinima alone, all walk-throughs, strategy videos, pvp battles, raids, etc, will be deleted on September 1st. "The Vimeo staff does not feel that videos which are direct captures of video game play truly constitute 'creative expression.' Further, such videos may expose Vimeo to liability from the game creator(s), as we have already seen action from popular video game companies against videos such as these... Gaming videos are by nature significantly larger and longer than any other genre on Vimeo ..."
"While they have agreed to leave machinima alone" RTFS
They just don't want to come out and say "The only reason is that we're afraid of getting sued by the game companies and we're a bunch of poor pussies who can't afford lawyers. So please stop investing in us now that you know we're too poor to withstand even a small lawsuit."
From the Vimeo staff blog, quoted IN THE SUMMARY.
Further, such videos may expose Vimeo to liability from the game creator(s), as we have already seen action from popular video game companies against videos such as these.
Armour is spelled correctly, you ignorant American. Armor and armour are both legitimate ways to spell the same word. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences#-our.2C_-or
Don't they already do that? Wasn't it a few years ago that the instituted a "you keep it, you buy it" policy on all of their rentals? (Of course they disguised it as "no over-due fees ever!" but the end result was the same.)
Remember that /. story a few weeks ago "Your Mashup is Probably Legal?" It talked of a group of copyright experts who issued Fair Use guidelines for the use of copyrighted material in videos. In it, they issued 6 guidelines. Quoting:
FOUR: REPRODUCING, REPOSTING, OR QUOTING IN ORDER TO MEMORIALIZE, PRESERVE, OR RESCUE AN EXPERIENCE, AN EVENT, OR A CULTURAL PHENOMENON
DESCRIPTION: Repurposed copyrighted material is central to this kind of video. For instance, someone may record their favorite performance or document their own presence at a rock concert. Someone may post a controversial or notorious moment from broadcast television or a public event (a Stephen Colbert speech, a presidential address, a celebrity blooper). Someone may reproduce portions of a work that has been taken out of circulation, unjustly in their opinion. Gamers may record their performances. (emphasis mine)
PRINCIPLE: Video makers are using new technology to accomplish culturally positive functions that are widely acceptedâ"or even celebratedâ"in the analog information environment. In other media and platforms, creators regularly recollect, describe, catalog, and preserve cultural expression for public memory. Written memoirs for instance are valued for the specificity and accuracy of their recollections; collectors of ephemeral material are valued for creating archives for future users. Such memorializing transforms the original in various waysâ"perhaps by putting the original work in a different context, perhaps by putting it in juxtaposition with other such works, perhaps by preserving it. This use also does not impair the legitimate market for the original work.
LIMITATION: Fair use reaches its limits when the entertainment content is reproduced in amounts that are disproportionate to purposes of documentation, or in the case of archiving, when the material is readily available from authorized sources.
I use GameFly, which works on a Netflix-style model. They have plans where, for a monthly fee, you can have one to four games out at a time. If you like a game, and it's listed as for sale, you can keep buy it used from GameFly. They'll send you the case and the manual. I've done this with Mass Effect and Soul Nomad and the World Eaters (it's Ogre Battle on crack).
The turn-around time is about five days, in my experience, and once in a while GameFly will send a disk that's had the everloving hell scratched out of it, but GameFly is good about handling defectives. You can report a defective disk at their site, and they'll let you choose between having a new one sent out right away, or having the next game in your queue sent out.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Red vs. Blue = Machinima.
PS: If you don't know what a word means try wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima) And yes that is a picture of Rev Vs. Blue on the freaking page with a nice caption "A scene from the popular machinima series Red vs. Blue."