It's transformative, a let's play is not a substitute for the experience provided by the game especially with commentary
3 years ago | 5
The changes of the video in let's play's are significant enough to suffice it being fair use. Pretty simple to understand; If you make a change that's significant enough to change the message and/or point of the original media, it's fair use. If, for example, a movie is stolen and posted again except the main character has a cowboy hat edited on it, it would not be fair use since the message, in this case story, of this media would have not enough change to call it a different creation than the original movie.
3 years ago (edited) | 2
The company owning the game can claim the videos or take them down at any point. Tom Scott’s video on the matter makes it very clear how copyright law isn’t well suited for this kind of situation. So long as you benefit the company involved then you’re likely alright, for a scenario where that wasn’t the case check out Jim Sterling vs Digital Homicide. (I’m not saying I agree with this btw, but this is how the system works.)
3 years ago | 7
As long as you provide commentary I belive it should be, but depending on how story focused the game is I could see a court take the stance that it isn't transformative enough. Fortunately/unfortunately big studios who would attempt a lawsuit like this usually produce games with a heavy gameplay focus and the 2 hour interactive art piece kinda games are firmly in the territory of indie artists.
3 years ago | 6
It depends on the game. For a heavily story-driven experience, you could argue the experience isn't sufficienty transformative and the LP could serve as a market substitute. For a standard game where the focus is the gameplay, it'd be very difficult IMO to claim it's not fair use. However, AFAIK there is no legal precedent for LPs as fair use so it's all just speculation until then, even though I'd be surprised and disagree with a ruling that said it wasn't.
3 years ago | 1
The only thing that matters is the content of the let's play. It has to be taken on a case by case basis. Let's plays do not by default fall under fair use. Some are, some are not
3 years ago | 0
I guess they could be if you add criticism on top of them. But then again it's illegal to sell a copy of a movie with your own commentary. It would also depend on the game. Tell Tale games are almost entirely reliant on the twists and the story (especially later games where you have less exploration) so would it be against their copyright to show off the whole story? But then there's stuff like Minecraft that despite being a creative work has no narrative element, so you can't really spoil it and prevent a sale because someone "already saw the ending". I think it's probably a grey area that'll end up in court one day.
3 years ago | 0
If you critique the game while playing yes. No comment playthroughs ...I don't think so
3 years ago | 0
Fair use legally is more of a defense than a hard rule. US copyright law in general is heavily outdated and flawed, as well as designed to support more monopolistic ventures rather than protect against actual theft: which lets plays are not. Theyre commentary akin to sportscasters. Imo, they fall under fair use due to being commentary.
3 years ago | 0
ingeniousclown Gaming
So I'm curious about y'alls understanding... are Let's Plays fair use?
3 years ago | [YT] | 20