Hi!

I've been searching for a Obsidians policy about Let's Plays, but I couldn't find it. I'm really interested in making videos of Pillars of Eternity, but now when I'm picking games for my channel I pick them only when I can get a permissions from the creator or there is a policy about that posted on the games or developers site.

If you guys are fine with Let's Plays, I'd like to also ask if you are fine with monetizing them (getting revenue from ads)?

It would be really helpful if you could post your permission (or not) on the games site, that would help me and other youtubers.

Cheers,

Zupapl

P.S - If I'm just blind and there is policy about YouTube posted somewhere, please link it to me and I'm sorry for the chaos ;p

I would very much like to know the answer to this myself. I've been scouring Obsidian's material to no success as well, though I admit I haven't gone through everything just yet. I've seen posts to the effect of 'I heard that it's ok' but that's not something official I can link to in case of Youtube Issues. Mad respect regardless of whether Let's Plays are allowed or not, or monetization is allowed or not, but it would be incredibly useful to have something linkable and readily accessible that says one way or another.

 

And yeah, I realize release day is probably not the optimal time to ask such a question and expect a timely answer. So much Busy.

 

In the meantime, I'll keep pouring over past posts to see if it's been answered or if my old man eyes are failing me yet again.

There's already Let's Plays out there. Pretty sure Obsidian are fine with it. I'll be making a series myself.

I know that there are already let's plays, but  I'd like to be safe and ask about it.

It's not exactly the best reference there could be, but this is the best I could find, which is probably not legally binding.

But until we don't have anything more official I guess this will have to do:

https://youtu.be/BsX3RLUAU6Y?t=2458

 

However we could also assume that's in the hand of paradox. And in this case it is allowed by their policy:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Paradoxplaza/about

 

We permit third-party use & monetization of things like "Let's Play" Videos on YouTube under the restriction that it is clear that Paradox Interactive is the copyright holder of any material shown and that the following copyright notice is added to any such material: "Copyright © 2013 Paradox Interactive AB. www.paradoxplaza.com". More info: http://bit.ly/N9RVWX

 

But I don't think that paradox is actually the License holder, so...

Edited March 27, 201510 yr by Kordanor

There's already Let's Plays out there. Pretty sure Obsidian are fine with it. I'll be making a series myself.

 

That doesn't cut it in the world of music and game copyright though - You need a written agreement to ensure that your let's plays aren't false flagged and that you can actually prove to websites like Youtube that you're allowed to do so.

 

So a confirmation that they're using Paradox's policy or putting one of their own up would be great.

Yeah, my nightmare situation is a false flag or copyright check that I can't prove away. I'm glad I'm not the only one having trouble finding any official confirmations one way or another.

 

 

It's not exactly the best reference there could be, but this is the best I could find, which is probably not legally binding.

But until we don't have anything more official I guess this will have to do:

https://youtu.be/BsX3RLUAU6Y?t=2458

 

However we could also assume that's in the hand of paradox. And in this case it is allowed by their policy:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Paradoxplaza/about

 

We permit third-party use & monetization of things like "Let's Play" Videos on YouTube under the restriction that it is clear that Paradox Interactive is the copyright holder of any material shown and that the following copyright notice is added to any such material: "Copyright © 2013 Paradox Interactive AB. www.paradoxplaza.com". More info: http://bit.ly/N9RVWX

 

But I don't think that paradox is actually the License holder, so...

 

I don't think the Paradox one applies, though it might be enough to get out of a youtube query if they don't look hard at the details. The video link... i'm not sure about. I've seen website entries, blogs, and forum posts used, but then tweets on twitter unable to be used. Not sure where a video clip would stand. Still, this might be enough for me to be comfortable to start one until an official statement one way or another comes out. I'm hyper paranoid about this, since my channel's still new, and I'm trying to grow it without any hits. Maybe too paranoid.

Thanks for the links. I've actually used the Paradox one with other game. It would be great if the devs could also respond in here, and clarify theirs policy.

 

There's already Let's Plays out there. Pretty sure Obsidian are fine with it. I'll be making a series myself.

 

That doesn't cut it in the world of music and game copyright though - You need a written agreement to ensure that your let's plays aren't false flagged and that you can actually prove to websites like Youtube that you're allowed to do so.

 

So a confirmation that they're using Paradox's policy or putting one of their own up would be great.

Ha! Good look "proving" anything to Youtube. If you don't want issues just disable the music. It doesn't seem that prominent in PoE anyway.

Edited March 27, 201510 yr by Zeckul

Obsidian have explicitly stated that they want to watch your playthroughs.

It's extremely, extremely unlikely that Obsidian would ever enforce any interpretation of the rules to make you shut down your LPs. It's just not how they've ever done things.

Not too mention this entire project was funded on good will of the common folk. Paradox, subject to the above noted copy paste into the description of your video doesn't seem to care. They are far more likely to hire you than do anything else. I mean, they hired DDRJake, and he still makes videos showing exploits even though he's part of the QA team lol

http://eternity.obsidian.net/eternity/legal/ip-use

 

Don't know that this counts for all of Obsidian's material, but here ya go!