{"id":2606,"date":"2014-02-27T20:16:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T20:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/?p=2606"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:53:44","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:53:44","slug":"twitch-plays-pokemon-still-going-strong-lets-play-losing-major-opposition-to-fair-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/twitch-plays-pokemon-still-going-strong-lets-play-losing-major-opposition-to-fair-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitch Plays Pokemon Still Going Strong: \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d Losing Major Opposition to Fair Use?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are about one year removed from Nintendo\u2019s scorched earth campaign against \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d videos on Youtube.\u00a0 In Spring 2013, the Electronic Gaming giant contacted YouTube, \u00a0seeking t the totality<\/a> of ad-revenue generated from videos featuring Nintendo IP, like those of the popular \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d genre: a category of videos<\/a> where users record and narrate themselves playing a video game.
\nYou can kind of see where Nintendo was coming from here.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d videos arguably infringe on Nintendo\u2019s exclusive rights under copyright law<\/a>, reproducing and performing their work publicly, distributing it online, and even perhaps creating a derivate product.\u00a0 But, the public also has a right<\/a> to fair use<\/a> of copyrighted work, and a credible argument<\/a> exists that \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d falls under this haven.
\nTwitch\u2019s content is very similar to the \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d category at issue above. \u00a0For those uninformed, Twitch<\/a> is a website dedicated to the live-streaming of video games; literally a place to go and watch other people play video games.
\nOne stream in particular, Twitch Plays Pokemon, has absolutely exploded in the last two weeks.\u00a0 Summed up, a Twitch user has uploaded a digital copy of Nintendo\u2019s popular 1996 game, Pokemon Red, and invited the website users to pilot the main character.\u00a0 All 50,000+ of them.\u00a0 Simultaneously.\u00a0 The game really must be experienced<\/a> to be understood.\u00a0 But it has resulted in madness, nostalgic fervor on Reddit<\/a>, the emergence of game item pseudo religions<\/a>, and, oh yes, 30 million ad-revenue generating views.
\nIt doesn\u2019t just stop at advertising money either. Twitch also solicits each viewer to pay an optional $5 subscription fee for certain elevated privileges on the site. \u00a0Results of how much Twitch has raised since the spectacle are unavailable, but the question remains: why hasn\u2019t the traditionally vociferous Nintendo, who went after the ad-revenue of smaller YouTube creators, stepped up to Twitch?\u00a0 Nintendo arguably has a better argument for Twitch infringement relative to Let\u2019s Play.\u00a0 The users of Twitch are not just watching a game transformed into video, but actively playing it as they would a normal game (granted one fought over by 50,000 people).\u00a0 And Twitch has mechanisms<\/a> to discipline IP infringing content.\u00a0 Why not push the issue?<\/p>\n

This could very well be one of those areas of \u201cbusiness pragmatism,\u201d where what the law says you can do, and what is prudent to do, are completely different things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It might be Nintendo is recognizing this content is fair use.\u00a0 More likely, this could very well be one of those areas of \u201cbusiness pragmatism,\u201d where what the law says you can do, and what is prudent to do, are completely different things. \u00a0Indeed, a number of major developers have actually encouraged<\/a> \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d creators, enjoying the free publicity and good will the videos freely create.
\nGoodwill and publicity that Nintendo is in dire need of following news of \u00a0slumping console sales<\/a>. Nintendo\u2019s Pokemon games<\/a> remain a bright spot.\u00a0 Perhaps anything that keeps them in the spotlight should be encouraged?\u00a0 Regardless of motivation, if Nintendo\u2019s stance is softening, a trend some have pointed out<\/a>, \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d may have just outlasted their chief opposition.\u00a0 Only time will tell the effect on Nintendo\u2019s IP, but things are looking up for Let\u2019s Play-like content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are about one year removed from Nintendo\u2019s scorched earth campaign against \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d videos on Youtube.\u00a0 In Spring 2013, the Electronic Gaming giant contacted YouTube, \u00a0seeking t the totality of ad-revenue generated from videos featuring Nintendo IP, like those of the popular \u201cLet\u2019s Play\u201d genre: a category of videos where users record and narrate …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7494,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2606\/revisions\/7494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}