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Square Enix JP attempting to block US Videos of Dragon Quest 10

KiTA

KiTA

Member
So a Dragon Quest fan by the name of Saigan has posted a 101 part Lets Play of Dragon Quest X. He covers a lot of the game in the oh, 50+ hours of Lets play in there, including portions of the storyline, boss fight mechanics, et cetera.

Well, a month ago, they sent a copyright claim to Youtube, targeting his lets play. It was not an automated takedown -- they specifically targeted his first video with 100,000 views but none of the other 101 videos he has. Some have speculated it's the number of views that got Square Enix's attention.

Saigan fought the claim and then reached out to Square Enix US, who forwarded the contact over to Square Enix JP, who ignored him for over 3 weeks Then, at the last possible second, exactly one month to the day, SE Japan re-blocked the video, claiming copyright over the lets play.

What makes this worse is this makes it an official "strike" against his channel for copyright -- and Youtube allows only 3 strikes before they delete his entire channel, including years of comments, hours of video, what have you. And literally all SE would have to do is decide they wanted to claim ownership of any of his other videos at any time, his recourse is apparently to object to it, to which SE Japan only has to say "nuh uh" to get Youtube to smack it down again.

Now, a lets play is clearly fair use, so SE's copyright claim shouldn't have any merit whatsoever, but here's the bigger question -- with them having targeted a similar video a month ago (while ignoring hundreds of thousands of FFXIII-3 and FFXIV videos), is Square Enix intentionally targeting any coverage of Dragon Quest X in the West? If so... why?
 
E

Eusis

Member
A Let's Play actually seems murky for fair use... I think the bigger problem is that SE seriously cares that damn much. Seems like a waste and just antagonistic regardless of the laws.
 
S

Shun

Member
Were advertisements playing? I mean if he's generating revenue from that then there is a problem.

It's nothing new for Square Enix or any other company to do these sort of things anyway.
 
M

Mr-Joker

Banned
Now either Square-Enix;

1. Is localizing this and want to remove spoilers from Youtube so that people will buy the game,

2. They are getting sick and tired people asking for it to be localized so are removing any traces of Dragon Quest X so that we Western will forget about it.

3. They are being backward and stupid.


Pick your option.
 
T

tmarg

Member
KiTA said:
Now, a lets play is clearly fair use
Click to expand...

A Let's Play is not clearly fair use. Use of captured video for reviews or other journalistic content is fair use, but Let's Play's are a far murkier subject, and most likely would not fall under fair use, although no definitive legal rulings have been handed down thus far.
 
J

Jonnax

Member
Perhaps there needs to be a more defined rule about what constitutes fair use. I don't know if 50 hours of footage could be defined as fair use though.
 
S

ShinRPGamer

Member
Mr-Joker said:
Now either Square-Enix;

1. Is localizing this and want to remove spoilers from Youtube so that people will buy the game,

2. They are getting sick and tired people asking for it to be localized so are removing any traces of Dragon Quest X so that we Western will forget about it.

3. They are being backward and stupid.


Pick your option.
Click to expand...

I Pick option 3 with elements of option 2
 
P

pikablu

Member
We live in a future where people will go to jail or be threatened with legal action for trading videos of a game that will never come to the US. Awesome.
 
tensuke

tensuke

Member
SE just doesn't want the west to get their eyes on this game so it will all be fresh for the eventual localized
iOS
release.
 
Z

ZombiePlatypus

Member
This trend of attacking Let's Play videos seriously needs to be end.

As for DQX, don't international players have to play through VPN? It's crazy how they basically wanna make sure the gander doesn't exist as far as the west is concerned.
 
G

Gloam

Member
ZombiePlatypus said:
This trend of attacking Let's Play videos seriously needs to be end.

As for DQX, don't international players have to play through VPN? It's crazy how they basically wanna make sure the gander doesn't exist as far as the west is concerned.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you have to use a VPN to spoof a Japanese IP. I imagine that's more for a seamless experience though as DQX doesn't have the same multi-language features as FFXI.

As for these Let's Plays, I don't know if it's any grand conspiracy. Probably just some auto copyright business.
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
Suppose PS4 Twitch streaming and archiving gets used for Let's Plays. Suppose a few years down the road Twitch gains the traction that Youtube currently has.

Suppose people start streaming FFXV. What happens then?
 
KiTA

KiTA

Member
Gloam said:
Yeah, you have to use a VPN to spoof a Japanese IP. I imagine that's more for a seamless experience though as DQX doesn't have the same multi-language features as FFXI.

As for these Let's Plays, I don't know if it's any grand conspiracy. Probably just some auto copyright business.
Click to expand...

To be fair though, I was able to import the original FFXI Japanese edition without any problems. They didn't care as long as my credit card worked.

If it was auto-copyright, surely some other of his 101 lets plays would have triggered the catch. Surely some of the people reposting Lightning Returns scenes or trailers would have been caught? Why is SE JP singling out DQ videos for copyright gestapo tactics?
 
M

Mesoian

Member
Much like everything else over there, Square Enix is late to the PR fiasco that is going after let's plays for no reason.
 
G

Gloam

Member
KiTA said:
To be fair though, I was able to import the original FFXI Japanese edition without any problems. They didn't care as long as my credit card worked.

If it was auto-copyright, surely some other of his 101 lets plays would have triggered the catch. Surely some of the people reposting Lightning Returns scenes or trailers would have been caught? Why is SE JP singling out DQ videos for copyright gestapo tactics?
Click to expand...

Perhaps the system works on the basis of how many views a video has.

I'm not saying it's not stupid, I just don't think it's pre-meditated.
 
sublimit

sublimit

Banned
I'm following Saigan for quite some time now and if it wasn't for his DQX Let's Play i would have written off the game completely even though DQVIII was one of my favourite games ever.
SE could have never manage to sell me on this game just with their own shitty marketing.

So congrats SE for keeping shooting your own foot and keep making your image look bad as a company who doesn't give a shit about their fans.Even to those who are basically promoting their own fucking games.

BTW this is Saigan's latest video about this situation:
Does SquareEnix Deserve its Fans?
 
S

Silky

Banned
Weren't there other Rocket Slime games that didnt get localized

I'd rather have those than a Dragon Quest MMO. The sheer thought of a Dragon Quest MMO makes me sick
 
S

Sorian

Banned
Never coming to the west BUT HERE IS A FFXIV EVENT THAT YOU CAN DO TO TIE THE GAMES TOGETHER :D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
A

AtomskEater

Member
Mr-Joker said:
Now either Square-Enix;

1. Is localizing this and want to remove spoilers from Youtube so that people will buy the game,

2. They are getting sick and tired people asking for it to be localized so are removing any traces of Dragon Quest X so that we Western will forget about it.

3. They are being backward and stupid.


Pick your option.
Click to expand...

Option 3. They only contested his first video out of the entire LP. None of this makes sense.
 
R

ronito

Member
Mr-Joker said:
Now either Square-Enix;

1. Is localizing this and want to remove spoilers from Youtube so that people will buy the game,

2. They are getting sick and tired people asking for it to be localized so are removing any traces of Dragon Quest X so that we Western will forget about it.

3. They are being backward and stupid.


Pick your option.
Click to expand...

3. It's always 3.
 
S

Soulflarz

Banned
You know you can ignore their contesting?
Its basically a "fuck you, sue me"
Ive done it, ik hundreds whove done it.
No one will dare sue over the money for one video...or make that big of a fool of themselves
 
C

Cipherr

Member
Now, a lets play is clearly fair use
Click to expand...

Umm... err actually..

tmarg said:
A Let's Play is not clearly fair use. Use of captured video for reviews or other journalistic content is fair use, but Let's Play's are a far murkier subject, and most likely would not fall under fair use, although no definitive legal rulings have been handed down thus far.
Click to expand...

This here. Its sad, but this is whats at the root of all of this. There is (AFAIK) no definitive law that says something like a Lets Play is fair use. We need something to really address this specifically in law. If we can legally get Lets Plays listed as fair use definitively then alot of this nonsense could be ended so quickly.
 
E

enanogrande

Member
Cipherr said:
Umm... err actually..



This here. Its sad, but this is whats at the root of all of this. There is (AFAIK) no definitive law that says something like a Lets Play is fair use. We need something to really address this specifically in law. If we can legally get Lets Plays listed as fair use definitively then alot of this nonsense could be ended so quickly.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't hold my breath much on this one.
 
LowParry

LowParry

Member
Honestly, why would they bring it to the US at this point when they have a successful FFXIV. I mean unless you're one of them crazy go doers that plays multiple MMOs but seriously. lol
 
A

Asd202

Member
Well Angry Joe to has problem with Square Enix Japan flagging his videos while other game companies (Japanese too) have removed their claims. It's kinda silly because his Tomb Raider videos got there claim removed. It seems the problems are for SE Japanese developed games. Here you can see a video with Joe talking about it from 8.00.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkFEDQaVxrE
While he is not talking about DQ 10 specifically there's clearly something with SE Japan and youtube while Eidos games disputes are being done by the overseas SE or something like that.
 
Z

Zetta

Member
Doesn't surprise me anymore when SE does something stupid. Its become a company that has lost touch with its customers, well at least on this side of the world.
 
S

Sorian

Banned
CcrooK said:
Honestly, why would they bring it to the US at this point when they have a successful FFXIV. I mean unless you're one of them crazy go doers that plays multiple MMOs but seriously. lol
Click to expand...

Once you start getting up near the gear level cap, its pretty easy to juggle multiple MMOs and you end up taking care of the itch more often because when one is low on content the otehr is probably getting a big patch and vice-versa.
 
Danny Dudekisser

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Eusis said:
A Let's Play actually seems murky for fair use... I think the bigger problem is that SE seriously cares that damn much. Seems like a waste and just antagonistic regardless of the laws.
Click to expand...

I'd disagree about the murkiness. The most important factor in the US courts' fair use test is the effect something has on commercial viability of the original work. A Let's Play of an MMO isn't going to be perceived as a substitute for the game. That's ridiculous.
 
R

RomanticHeroX

Member
Mr-Joker said:
Now either Square-Enix;

1. Is localizing this and want to remove spoilers from Youtube so that people will buy the game,

2. They are getting sick and tired people asking for it to be localized so are removing any traces of Dragon Quest X so that we Western will forget about it.

3. They are being backward and stupid.


Pick your option.
Click to expand...

They're working on a cover-based third person shooter exclusively for the US market that they'll call Dragon Warrior X. They don't want any possible confusion with this other thing.
 
davepoobond

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
There's fair use and then there's YouTube's allowance of fair use. They are not legally obligated to allow any video stay on their service.

YouTube is less beholden to a lets player who isn't going to sue them than a company who has money to sue them.

If you don't want to play by their rules, host on your own site.
 
E

enanogrande

Member
wrowa said:
I don't think fair use laws exist in Japan in the first place.
Click to expand...

It does, under the name "neighbors rights" or something like that. If I remember correctly it's actually a bit more permissive with things like this, as there's a specific section with regards to "performers rights" (if we were to say a lets play is a performance...)

But I don't know Japanese Law so don't quote me on that!
 
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