Nintendo Hates You: More DMCA Takedowns Of YouTube Videos Of Game Music Despite No Legit Alternative
from the mine-mine-mine dept
I guess this is nearly an annual thing now. In 2019, we talked about how one YouTuber, GilvaSunner, had over one hundred YouTube videos blocked by Nintendo over copyright claims. GilvaSunner's channel is dedicated to video game music, mostly from Nintendo games. Those videos consist of nothing but that music, as in no footage of video game gameplay. Nintendo, which certainly can take this sort of action from an IP standpoint, also doesn't offer any legit alternative for fans to enjoy this music on any streaming service or the like. Then, in 2020, GilvaSunner had another whole swath of videos consisting of game music blocked by Nintendo over copyright claims. Still no legit alternative for those looking to enjoy music from Nintendo's celebrated catalogue of games.
Well, if Nintendo decided to take 2021 off from this annual project, it certainly has more than made up for it by sending copyright strikes to GilvaSunner's channel at a volume of over 1,300 in one day.
Yesterday morning, YouTuber GilvaSunner posted a tweet explaining that Nintendo had sent them and their channel over 1300 “copyright blocks.” The channel, which is extremely popular, uploads full video game soundtracks, letting fans easily listen to their favorite Kirby or Mario track via YouTube.
After all the copyright blocks went through and the dust settled, GilvaSunner shared a list of all the soundtracks that Nintendo had targeted and blocked from the site. It’s a long list.
A very long list, as you might expect. Now, a couple of items of note here. First, GilvaSunner has insisted that he is not shocked that Nintendo continues to take these actions, nor does he claim that it isn't within its rights to take them. But he's also not going to stop voluntarily.
“I’m also not angry or surprised that Nintendo is doing this, but I do think it’s a bit disappointing there is hardly an alternative,” explained GilvaSunner in a tweet thread from 2020. “If Nintendo thinks this is what needs to be done (to set an example), I will let them take down the channel. It is their content after all.”
Do as you please, in other words, Nintendo. That being said, let's also note that the channel doesn't monetize any of these videos. GilvaSunner doesn't make money off of Nintendo's music.
And neither does Nintendo because, frustratingly, the company still hasn't made this music available on any of the music streaming services we all know and love. Nor has the company announced any plans to. In other words, Nintendo isn't going to provide you with a way to enjoy this music and it is going to shut down anyone who does.
In that scenario, this isn't Nintendo protecting its monetary interests. It's simply the company deciding to take its musical ball and go home. Why? Because Nintendo hates you, that's why.
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Filed Under: copyright, dmca, music
Companies: nintendo, youtube
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"this isn't Nintendo protecting its monetary interests."
Unless it is.
Somewhere in a forgotten corner was an idea about selling soundtracks of the games... the problem being that much of the music predates the internet being a thing so the rights might be a bit of an issue for them.
Rather than let fans enjoy the music, they take it all down because someday, when they get around to it, they MIGHT make the music available.... maybe... if they can get the rights... for the right price... and the right DRM...
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Re:
Well, Nintendo did come down hard on ROM sites and emulation communities before they ever had copies of games available themselves. Then released a handful of games in locked-up versions that they wouldn't even let people transfer between their Nintendo consoles, IIRC.
So, this could be a similar thing - they might, someday, release some of the music in some version, but anything not officially sanctioned needs to burn for some reason.
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Over on their Twitter, GilvaSunner has said that the continual increase in copyright blocks from Nintendo has basically left them no choice but to delete the channel in its entirety on Friday.
I get that Nintendo has the right to do this. But given how the company offers absolutely no legal alternatives to the efforts of people like GilvaSunner, one can easily be led to wonder if this course of action is the right thing to do.
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Well, I love that Nintendo hates me. Makes me feel noticed. :)
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If a company hates you that much and wants you to stop promoting their products for free I say comply, stop letting them backhand you and let them move on to doing it to others who haven't caught on yet so you can move on to focusing on and promoting a company that doesn't hold such loathing for it's fans/customers.
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Re:
Two problems with that. One is that as I've mentioned before, most people buying new stuff from Nintendo don't know or care about these stories. Everyone affected could boycott them entirely and they wouldn't notice.
The other is that nostalgia is what it is, and it's in the past. People watching these videos are likely to be interested in old stuff, much of it being what they consumed in their childhoods. You can't suddenly be nostalgic for other things. Maybe things you hadn't seen before from the same era as the one you're nostalgic for, but that's not exactly generating new sales either.
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Re: Re:
It's one thing to still be a fan/supporter of an abusive company when it's going after someone else and you simply don't know how bad they are, quite another when they're going after you. Unless you're a masochist(emotional or otherwise) who enjoys being smacked around sticking around at that point is not a healthy thing to do even if the company 'wouldn't notice' if you left.
As for nostalgia same as above really, sure that can have quite the draw but if it means providing attention and money to an abusive company that's a relationship you're much better off ditching and looking elsewhere for a replacement.
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Re: Re: Re:
Again, if you feel personally attacked or slighted by this activity then it would be sensible to put your money where your mouth is and buy from competitors. But, just don't make the mistake of thinking that you're in a majority position. Even the guy who set up the channel needn't necessarily be a current Nintendo customer (I don't know enough about him to say one way or the other, but that wouldn't be a prerequisite for the channel from what I understand).
My nostalgia comment was simply to stress that the people who care about this may well not be giving Nintendo any money to begin with in the present and it's a mistake to assume that everyone listening to these videos is even in the market for new games, no matter who they come from. Although articles like the above love to stress things like Mario, quite often they're enjoyed by people accessing more obscure content, some of which might be orphaned works that can't be legally re-released or sequalised by Nintendo even if they were to discover a business reason to do so.
Same thing happened in the emulation scene - people emulating Mario and Zelda got the headlines, but the people who were trying to access the likes of StarTropics and Little Samson and other obscure oddities were also affected. While the Mario fan might be convinced to buy officially emulated titles and buy the new game in the series, the StarTropics fan need not necessarily buy any new games at all.
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Copyright law should be fix such that a takedown request cannot be valid unless it can point to a source where the entire individual piece of work being claimed* may be purchased/licensed at fair market value.
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The problem with this is that copyright absolutely allows the IP holder to remove work from the market and prohibit any distribution of it at all. IOW, it’s perfectly legal to make things you own scarce or entirely unavailable.
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Nintendo vs the IOC
Nintendo is seriously giving the International Olympic Committee a run for its money as the worst copyright maximalist.
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Uhh...
Are you sure these are direct re-uploads? Some videos I watched and looked it up on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SiIvaGunner">wikipedia</a> stated that these videos have clickbait titles and are actually a different song and a remix. I wonder if Nintendo got baited into thinking their songs were reuploaded than a remix, judging based on title, the game's title on the screen, and the first few seconds of the video.
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Re: Uhh...
whoops, used the wrong formatting, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SiIvaGunner
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Note the spelling of the two usernames: The user who posts all the bait-and-switch videos uses an uppercase I in place of a lowercase L. Nintendo went after the GilvaSunner who was posting actual Nintendo soundtracks; of this, I have no doubts.
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The road never taken
As long as kids and adults keep on buying and using Nintendo games and accessories, there is absolutely no reason for the company to bother worrying about its customer base. Time and time again they shit on their user base and those folks just keep right on giving the company money - which equals public approval. Until the users of Nintendo stuff decide to boycott the company and its products, Nintendo will keep right on shitting on its income source, with no worries at all that the users will ever do anything about it.
Massively boycott the buggers for a month and see what kind of difference that makes.
Of course, we all know, that will never happen. :(
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Re: The road never taken
Once again - there's different customer bases. Most of the mainstream customer base don't know about this story. If everyone who does know about it boycotts them immediately, they wouldn't notice.
This is bad philosophically and to anyone who cares about how copyright is actually handled, but most people don't know about it, let alone care enough to not buy their kids their preferred gift.
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