Zelda Fan Takes a Hit from Nintendo’s YouTube Policies

Nintendo has been under fire lately for their policies regarding YouTube videos, and that all came to a head when they rolled out their “Nintendo Creators Program” last year. While some saw it as a great way to legitimately make money off of their YouTube videos involving Nintendo games, the backlash from YouTubers was much louder than the voices of those who supported the move. Add to that some odd choices in the Creators Program, such as the list of usable games missing major properties like Super Smash Bros. and Hyrule Warriors, and it was never going to please everyone.

YouTuber MasaeAnela has been a Zelda fan ever since she was a child. Homeschooled since the fourth grade, and by her own admission “pretty introverted and not up for talking to anyone,” Zelda games were an outlet for her. A friend convinced her to start doing Let’s Plays in 2009, and now she has a following of over fifty thousand subscribers on her YouTube channel. It wasn’t until three years into making videos that Anela was hit with her first content ID claim by Nintendo, making all the ad revenue from that video go to Nintendo instead of her.

For the five years Anela has been making Let’s Plays, only a few of her hundreds of videos have been claimed by Nintendo. Even just a few videos claimed still raises the question: does the money really belong to Nintendo? “Fair use” is a term that gets used a lot in these situations, and while it can be interpreted in such a way that everything from video game reviews to Let’s Plays could legally be considered the property of the YouTuber, it’s unlikely the controversy will ever actually go to court. Attorney Rich Stim from Berkeley, CA says:

“Many game developers may not want to have a precedent on the issue, because a precedent could go against them and they would not have this ambiguity in which they currently operate.”

As it currently stands, whether your video gets claimed or not is very much up in the air. An entire Let’s Play series of a game could have only one video flagged, and the rest untouched. “Ambiguity” certainly seems the right word to describe how game developers currently go about flagging videos. Whatever side you take on the YouTube copyright claim front, it will be interesting to see how this issue develops in the future.

On the flip side of things, if you’re a fan of Let’s Plays, Anela’s channel is worth checking out. If you go back to her earliest Let’s Play series of Ocarina of Time, you can hear her introverted nature and uncertainty in herself. Fast forward five years to the videos she does today, and it’s a transformation. She’s enthusiastic and full of life, bursting with energy as she plays the games she loves. Money and copyright law aside, it’s a delight to see the kind of positive effect playing video games can have on a person.

You can find MasaeAnela’s YouTube channel here.

Source: Wired