YouTubers and Nintendo at Odds again!
Despite the Nintendo Switch being a colossal success, the company doesn’t really like YouTube. For a while now the company has had a rather draconian view of how the product is shown on YouTube.
Just how draconian you ask? Well, put simply, if Nintendo doesn’t endorse it, they’ll likely want it either removed or at the very least demonetised. This has even extended to those on occasions who have even used music in a licensed Nintendo game.
This has, quite rightly, stirred up the YouTube community over the whole ‘fair usage’ argument. Strictly speaking, is a video uses footage sections for review or parody, they should fall within the remit of ‘fair usage’. Nintendo, however, doesn’t even allow this.
It has caused several high-profile YouTube personalities, such as Angry Joe, to even boycott Nintendo.
Following the successful release of Mario Odyssey (which, incidentally, is awesome) Nintendo finds itself at odds with YouTubers again as a whole host of take-down requests have been submitted reports Polygon.
Nintendo really must hate its fans
A harsh inditement, but given the evidence, it’s hard to argue with it. Only recently Nintendo called its fans ‘babies’ over the massive stock level problems the company clearly has.
There are many (and good) reasons to be protective of your intellectual property. For 20 years the musician Prince severely guarded all of his work. Even amongst his fans, he had a rather harsh reputation for removing content. Nintendo seems keen, at the very least, to match this level of guardedness.
With all the new Mario Odyssey videos cropping up on YouTube, the reports suggest that Nintendo has pretty much been giving out copyright infringement claims like Christmas cards.
While in fairness, Nintendo has agreed to ‘revenue sharing’ with some endorsed YouTube personalities, largely, it leaves the vast majority, who just want a simple ‘let’s play’ feeling very unloved by the company.
Even larger (no pun intended) YouTube stars such as Boogie2988 has called Nintendo out on it’s YouTube policy. I find it difficult because I love Nintendo. The Switch is awesome. I love Odyssey and I even love(d) the Wii-U. I just wish the company would love us all back.
What do you think? Is Nintendo right to be so guarded about it’s IP? It its stance too overly harsh? – Let us know in the comments!
