Japanese YouTuber convicted of copyright violation after uploading Let’s Play videos::A 53-year-old Japanese man has been convicted of copyright infringement after uploading gameplay videos of visual novel Steins;Gate: My Darling’s Embrace and videos summarizing Spy × Family and Steins;Gate anime episodes.
What is the purpose of jail time? Wouldn’t a fine be enough to stop him doing it again?
kadu@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Maven@lemmy.sdf.org 1 year ago
It’s even more complicated because he posted it to YouTube two days before the game even came out, potentially devastating their early sales
It’s impossible to prove the harm piracy does or does not do, and in general I agree that it shouldn’t be illegal in the first place or at least shouldn’t carry more than a slap on the wrist fine, this is the world we live in and the dude uploaded a game to YouTube in its entirety before the game released, which is the kind of thing you don’t do in a world where copyright claims send you to jail
Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yikes, this is the part where I side with the developers.
Let’s play as a consumer helps me determine if I should buy the game or not. Because watching someone play a game isn’t the same as playing it. But, showcasing the whole game before release? That feels wrong.
Saeveo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s apparently a port of a game that came out in 2011, though?
PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah, avoiding copyright infringement usually requires that your work is transformative in some way. And in most games’ cases, simply playing the game and adding some commentary is enough to qualify. Basically, the argument is that you’re transforming the game from being something played to something watched. That the game was originally meant to be played, so the streamer is transforming it into something new by playing it in their own unique way and adding their own commentary about the game.
But for a visual novel, this all goes out the window. At best, the games are a Choose Your Own Adventure book. You make some small decisions to direct the game’s story, but the game is largely just something that you watch. You make those decisions, then you watch it play out until it’s time for another decision. So the added commentary by itself isn’t enough to transform the game into something new.