Criminalizing the Planet, II

Well, the plutocrats have struck again. Myriads of videogame play-throughs are being taken down from Youtube due to a recent copyright crackdown. Many of these play-throughs are monetized, meaning the commentator gets a small payment in return for attracting a large audience. This is a reasonably fair exchange, since creating quality videogame commentaries which will attract and maintain a large audience is hard work. (Don't believe me? Just try it sometime.) The videogame company isn't hurt by this, because play-throughs are free advertising and help to sell more games.

But now a flood of copyright claims have basically shut down all the major commentators. Commentator GhostRobo explains the details here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaJF0-BkXRg
Reviewer Angry Joe has also weighed in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQfHdasuWtI
Also, see Darksyde Phil's daily coverage of the entire fiasco (the link is to day 3): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctoniQ7Y-C4

As you might expect, the fan and player communities are absolutely furious about all this. What makes the corporate greed-grab especially despicable is the fact that such tiny amounts of money are involved. Even the most prolific Youtube posters don't make more than a couple thousand dollars per month. It'll pay your rent, but not much more than that.

To their credit, many videogame companies have publicly stated they will never prosecute players for uploading play-throughs (the honor roll includes super-heavyweights Mojang, Ubisoft, Capcom, Naughty Dog, Deep Silver, and Blizzard). But it seems others, who shall remain nameless for the time being, have chosen to be greedheads.

Two years ago, none of this would have mattered. One year ago, only a few game geeks would have cared. But today, there are literally hundreds of millions of videogame fans who are beginning to discover that neoliberalism is a jail cell -- and that the time has come to break down the walls.

Updated December 13: Folks have assembled a helpful list showing which developers are fan-friendly and which are not. Please patronize the developers listed as YES on the list, and help shame the remaining holdouts (including one very large publisher who should really know better) into doing the right thing:

http://letsplaylist.wikia.com/wiki/%22Let%27s_Play%22-friendly_developers_Wiki