Guild Wars 2

Hello guys, I figured I’d share this here as I noticed there has been quite a bit of drama going about for a while now and I, as a YouTube partner, thought I’d try and clarify it a little. The semi-lengthy post I wrote about it is here on reddit: http://tinyurl.com/935qto5

EDIT: Reddit is being a little funny. So I’ll copy the entirety of it here.
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I have been following this drama for a bit now and figured I’d try and clarify a few basic concepts. Lets get a few things out of the way.
This is not a new thing. Not for Guild Wars 2 itself or for gaming videos in general.
I am a YouTube partner, part of a network. In other words, this sounds like something that affects me. Does it do so? No. Do you see any flagged videos? I certainly do not.

As I mentioned, this is not new. This has been around for ages and most games have a policy similar to this. Guild Wars 2 has had this in their policies for a long, long time now stating that “The content must be used in a non-commercial context for private, personal use only”. ArenaNet, or more accurately NCsoft, are not actively chasing after video creators. This flagging system is caused by YouTube itself.

For this reason networks exist, there are a number of ways for content creators to earn money through YouTube. The drama that occurred here likely arose over a creator that uploaded a video, got a message (an automated one!) that his video was capable of being monetized. Awesome! But that’s not how things work.
Monetization through this automated system does not make you a partner. YouTube explicitly states the following on game video monetization: “Whether you can use video game content for monetization depends on the commercial use rights granted to you by licenses of video game publishers. Some video game publishers may allow you to use all video game content for commercial use and state that in their license agreements. Videos simply showing game play for extended periods of time may not be accepted for monetization.”
Yes, it is possible to monetize gaming videos through a number of exceptions. Minecraft is a prime example where monetization is fully allowed – by Mojang – without strings attached, a lot of indie titles have this, but in general game videos can not simply be monetized by just about anyone on YouTube and your video will be flagged and possibly pulled. Keep in mind that you can still make videos as much as you want to if you do not activate monetization and therefor just use this for non-commercial uses. (There are other exceptions that I won’t go into detail in, and admittedly am not too familiar with)

Now then, networks. There are more than you could imagine, TGS, Machinima, TGN.. Etc etc. These are a different case altogether and most –if not all – of the content creators you’ll be watching Guild Wars 2 videos from are part of a network such as these. Through these networks you are a partner and the network you are part of takes care of the legalization ends, allowing you to create game content.

I’ll state it again, this is not a new thing for Guild Wars 2. Games such as World of Warcraft, Call of Duty or Halo work in similar ways. It is tempting to simply monetize just about anything when you get these messages, but be weary. If you want to actively be making money from gaming content on YouTube – and you think you have the time required to do so – Join a network.

Does this hurt people? Doubtfully. Again, this has been around for ages and do new partners arise? Definitely. Do people still monetize their videos? I do believe so. This won’t suddenly create a rift in all that we love and care about on YouTube or Guild Wars 2 and this is certainly not something “straight out of SOPA”. If it impairs the growth of smaller channels it has done so for years now and yet channels – Heck I’m a smaller channel – are still capable of growing just fine (Mostly without earning [significant] money off of it) until they are in a position to be partnered.

You can dislike ArenaNet all you want, but this is not a reason for it.

TL:DR In essence, people are misinformed and there’s little to no reason to shout at ArenaNet over this.

That that would be the case was my first thought but then people started mentioning vids being flagged so i held of judgement of it.

Does anyone have actual proof of GW2 vids being flagged for this?

Unfortunately you posted this in the “Irrational Anger from Impudent Children Forum,” where posts grounded in fact that are contrary to the opinions of the unwashed masses , whose sole purpose is to hate everything around them by spewing uneducated opinions everywhere, disappear into the miasma after a day or two.

But kudos for trying.

Oh, um. I’m not sure how anyone here is going to take umbrage to flagged youtube videos which are allegedly or actually trying to be monetized illegally. Most folks here just like showing their sweet moves off to other players.

Most importantly, I think that once a lawyer contacts one or two parties about monetizing a third party’s intellectual property, it’s really unimportant which company’s lawyers they are. Legal costs are legal costs, if even only to the extent of mediation. So it’s hard to think of this as “drama”.

And you know what? That isn’t quite the whole picture, so I’m going to clarify a bit. (Yes, I’m necro-posting, but y’all will forgive, right? )
Technically, it’s against the current Guild Wars 2 Content Terms of Use for people to make money through such things as monetizing a Guild Wars 2 video. However, we support people sharing their experiences with our game. (Heck, we <3 people doing that!) So while we want to do the right thing and accurately relay what the CToU says — because that’s often the question — we do not take action when fan sites support themselves via ads, and we don’t take action when the creators of fan videos place ads. In other words, we do not flag such videos.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Policy-for-posting-videos-on-Youtube-others/first#post182021

Basically: You can do whatever with the videos, we don’t care.

YouTube videos are flagged automatically, it’s not as if someone at ArenaNet is scouring the internet for videos. When you try to monetize a video, it’s reviewed, if it’s in violation of fair use it gets terminated. Not hard.

Illushia.3721:

And you know what? That isn’t quite the whole picture, so I’m going to clarify a bit. (Yes, I’m necro-posting, but y’all will forgive, right? )
Technically, it’s against the current Guild Wars 2 Content Terms of Use for people to make money through such things as monetizing a Guild Wars 2 video. However, we support people sharing their experiences with our game. (Heck, we <3 people doing that!) So while we want to do the right thing and accurately relay what the CToU says — because that’s often the question — we do not take action when fan sites support themselves via ads, and we don’t take action when the creators of fan videos place ads. In other words, we do not flag such videos.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Policy-for-posting-videos-on-Youtube-others/first#post182021

Basically: You can do whatever with the videos, we don’t care.

To a certain extend, certainly. Monetizing it without proper certifications is not adviced though and there’s little ANet has got to do with that. Something I wish more people would realize.

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

Thank you for your reasoned insight, Haasth.

Happy to (hopefully) help!

I think the whole problem with this is that they are offering preferential treatment to the networks over the individual YouTube user.

It’s just unfair, that’s all. YouTube monetization should be for everyone or nobody, but, instead, ArenaNet and/or NCSoft are biased.

To toss in my experience as well, I had written approval from a company to monetize videos related to them. Upon doing it, one of the videos ended up flagged. I contacted the company and they had absolutely nothing to do with it, yet Youtube, even with my written consent, stated that they still would not allow it.

It’s not always the companies that are doing the flagging. Sometimes they have nothing to do with it and it’s the viewers or some automated system causing them to be flagged.