Under constant pressure and foot-stamping from copyright holders, Google has implemented a new system within YouTube that automatically flags videos that may contain copyrighted material. The trouble, as Computer and Video Games reports, is that the new system is flagging a lot of gamers’ “Let’s Play” videos where they give multipart walkthroughs of popular video games overlapped with their own commentary. While such videos may technically violate gaming companies’ intellectual property rights, game publishers have long tolerated and even encouraged them since they’re great ways to promote games online.
The good news for gamers who have had their videos flagged is that the gaming industry has their back. Computer and Video Games notes that big-name developers Ubisoft, Capcom, Blizzard and Deep Silver have all pledged to help their fans resolve their issues with YouTube’s auto-flag algorithms and are encouraging them to contest all claims made against their videos so the companies can approve them. All the same, gamers can’t be happy that their videos are constantly getting flagged for takedown and gaming companies can’t be looking forward to going through thousands of videos each week to get them approved for YouTube viewing.
YouTube defended the changes it’s made to its copyright system in a statement sent to GameInformer.