Lets Plays/ Copyright Info?
Hello all!
I seem to be at a bit of a quandary. I've been looking around for the past week or so for any concrete information that TellTale games gives permission to feature the Walking Dead series as a LetsPlay, or a gameplay walkthrough w. commentary. I've found lots of useful info that argue both ways on the subject.
I've tried contacting them as I normally do with each game I feature on my channel. Unfortunately these efforts have been to no avail. I can only assume the volume of messages received over the holiday season, paired with the launch of the second season of the game, drowned my attempts out.
I have seen other threads that have mentioned (through hearsay) that they allow Lets Plays of their games, but I can't seem to find anything solid. I'm reaching my witts end looking for the answer, both to satiate my subscribers requests and to enjoy the game for myself. Any advice/ insight would be greatly appreciated.
TL;DR I need to know if TellTale games has already given permission to post gameplay commentaries of their games, and if so, where I can find the written permissions. Thank you very much for your time everybody.
Threads mentioning the permissions:
Law & Order Legacies, permission from a forum moderator
General Community Heresay for the Walking Dead series
Excerpt that worries me from TellTale Games ToU:
[Section 8: Copyright Policy/DMCA Notice]
You may not post, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights or otherwise have a valid basis under the law, including "fair use.”
Comments
Lets be honest here, does it really matter? Many, countless YouTubers are playing the game, some multiple times in many multiple videos. I myself have heard nothing of any problems coming from TellTale about the videos. If you feel you need permission then by all means, try to get it, but you don't need it.
Just because they all do it doesn't mean they have the permission to, and in case anything were to happen, I would need the permission to fall back on.
I can think of two cases off the top of my head that show it's a bit of a necessity.
1) I've already gotten a few videos tagged by cutthroat companies that had no affiliation with the games I was playing (Outlast and Anna), to get traffic to their own videos/ products. Without the permissions, whether or not they have affiliation with the actual content in any way is null and void if I cannot dispute the CR tag. I need beyond-a-doubt proof (i.e. written consent) showing that I am expressly allowed to use the material in the way I post it in order to resolve it in my favor, else I get a CR Black mark and there goes my channel.
2) When a company doesn't like the way you may or may not talk about the game (being two faced). Not saying that TellTale games are that way in even the slightest, I know they're really good about this kind of stuff. But it never hurts to have the written proof. An example is with TotalBiscuit and his run in with one such company.
Also, I just like to be on the same page with devs about playing their games.
https://www.telltalegames.com/community/discussion/32026/youtube-permission/p2
http://www.gamezone.com/news/2013/12/16/telltale-is-excited-for-your-youtube-playthroughs-of-the-walking-dead-season-2
THANK YOU so much man. I just finished recording a vlog update, I didn't expect any progress so soon lol!
This is beautiful. Thank you again mate