It turns out WotC is up to typical corporate shenanigans with regard to the release of the PHB 24. Specifically, they are issuing unwarranted copyright strikes to independent creators reviewing the new version of the PHB (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLkGwDljZ80). Clearly they still do not realize that the health of a role playing community depends on it being a community. While they are taking this sort of scorched earth approach to ensure we only get curated opinions on their products, my response will remain simple. I will not buy their products. To be clear, any chance of my buying the PHB 2024 or other subsequent products is entirely dependent on their withdrawing those unwarranted copyright strikes. There are plenty of equally good, or better, role playing systems out there that we do not need to put up with this sort of corporate bullshit.
They've been undoing them. The theory floating around (I'm unsure how substantiated it is), is that they screwed up the detection inputs so they're giving strikes when it's not warranted.
It does very much feel like there are a lot of screw ups happening (in general) though.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
To paraphrase an old quote, a blunder gets halfway around the world before the fix can get on its boots.
Copyright strikes are a pretty easy mistake to make - especially since many of those systems are now automated by third-parties (like YouTube). A simple failure to communicate, be between marketing and legal, Wizards and the Third Party, the Third Party not making something a priority and having it sit, etc. and, whoops, inadvertent copyright strikes.
Wizards began addressing this problem within hours of it being raised. That should be the story - Wizards realizing and fixing a mistake rapidly, instead of their usual blundering about. But, of course, this is the D&D community - why would we look at what has been done recently to fix the problem, when we can repost an outdated and no longer really relevant attack against Wizards?
At this point, the only real fault is Wizards’ characteristic failure to tell their side of the story, letting outdated versions run rampant. There probably should be a D&D Beyond article saying they are sorry and outlining the steps they have done to undo any issues.
It turns out WotC is up to typical corporate shenanigans with regard to the release of the PHB 24. Specifically, they are issuing unwarranted copyright strikes to independent creators reviewing the new version of the PHB (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLkGwDljZ80). Clearly they still do not realize that the health of a role playing community depends on it being a community. While they are taking this sort of scorched earth approach to ensure we only get curated opinions on their products, my response will remain simple. I will not buy their products. To be clear, any chance of my buying the PHB 2024 or other subsequent products is entirely dependent on their withdrawing those unwarranted copyright strikes. There are plenty of equally good, or better, role playing systems out there that we do not need to put up with this sort of corporate bullshit.
They issued strikes to people who earned it and some got caught in the crossfire.
People legitimately made rips of the new phb based off DNDShorts YouTube videos of the new phb. Cats out of the bag because they literally went page by blurry page.
People making content and not showing entire pages are fine. People trying to toe the line are getting blasted and that's what happens when you play with fire.
Imagine if YouTubers showed a similar percentage of the latest Stephen King book or latest Marvel movie in their “review.” How quick would those videos be nuked? If, a month before the product was released, reviewers had free access to the product and could show whatever they wanted.
The Canadian Copyright Act limits reviews to showing 10% of a product. For the PHB that would be 34 or so pages. 17 two-page spreads. Just showing the classes first pages would be the majority of that.
WotC has been giving creators extraordinary latitude in showing images of the books in steams for “review” purposes. Some people took advantage of WotC’s latitude and then everyone got burned as a result.
In the U.S., the Copyright website says "limited portions" can be used in commentary and reviews. The percent of the book creators should try to stay below to be considered fair use is 10-20%.
Nobody would be, or should be, okay with creators doing an on-camera page-through of an entire copyrighted book. They might as well be uploading PDFs themselves. The copyright strike was well deserved.
Spidercloned, JesterDavid and VladimirBeowulf all suggest that the copyright strikes were deserved on the basis that they youtube content creator showed the entire PHB. That is true only of D&D Shorts (and he blurred the pages). Nerd Immersion showed only the contents page, but got a copyright strike. Showing the contents page clearly comes under 'fair use'. Jorphdan did a flip through review but fulfilled WotC's 'requests for the flip through video', so again, had an undeserved copyright strike. Depending on the level of blurring, D&D Shorts deserved the copyright strike but the other two did not.
Caerwyn_Glyndwr suggests that some of the strikes were made in error due the use of third parties, and poor communication. They also suggest that WoTC responded quickly to take down the copyright strikes (a point also made by Linklite). On the first point, three copyright strikes gets a youtube channel removed. Put another way, three copyright strikes destroys some third parties business model and their living. If a corporation does not understand that and use all due care to prevent unwarranted copyright strikes, then they should be judged as though the mistakes were deliberate. The police won't give you a pass on a homicide because it was unintentional. I think a similar principle applies here.
Finally, several people point out that WoTC have since withdrawn the copyright strikes, which I welcome.
Spidercloned, JesterDavid and VladimirBeowulf all suggest that the copyright strikes were deserved on the basis that they youtube content creator showed the entire PHB. That is true only of D&D Shorts (and he blurred the pages). Nerd Immersion showed only the contents page, but got a copyright strike. Showing the contents page clearly comes under 'fair use'. Jorphdan did a flip through review but fulfilled WotC's 'requests for the flip through video', so again, had an undeserved copyright strike. Depending on the level of blurring, D&D Shorts deserved the copyright strike but the other two did not.
Caerwyn_Glyndwr suggests that some of the strikes were made in error due the use of third parties, and poor communication. They also suggest that WoTC responded quickly to take down the copyright strikes (a point also made by Linklite). On the first point, three copyright strikes gets a youtube channel removed. Put another way, three copyright strikes destroys some third parties business model and their living. If a corporation does not understand that and use all due care to prevent unwarranted copyright strikes, then they should be judged as though the mistakes were deliberate. The police won't give you a pass on a homicide because it was unintentional. I think a similar principle applies here.
Finally, several people point out that WoTC have since withdrawn the copyright strikes, which I welcome.
There are literal rips of the 2024 PHB based off DNDShorts video. Yes, they are "Blurry" but they are legible. They're lucky they didn't get sued. Honestly, they might still get sued and it'd be valid. There is a tangible loss of money based on how many people completed downloads of that thing, and those numbers are in the tens of thousands.
I'm sorry mate but I don't really have any empathy for a lot of these people who got a free copy of the content and then proceeded to bite the hand that fed them and tried to get as many clicks as possible. Equating homicide to this situation is laughable too. Wizards isn't a great company here but what we got in the lead-up to 2024 was Wizards working hand in hand with DOZENS of content creators in an effort to promote the book and we're seeing those same content creators ignore what Wizards wants.
It turns out WotC is up to typical corporate shenanigans with regard to the release of the PHB 24. Specifically, they are issuing unwarranted copyright strikes to independent creators reviewing the new version of the PHB (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLkGwDljZ80). Clearly they still do not realize that the health of a role playing community depends on it being a community. While they are taking this sort of scorched earth approach to ensure we only get curated opinions on their products, my response will remain simple. I will not buy their products. To be clear, any chance of my buying the PHB 2024 or other subsequent products is entirely dependent on their withdrawing those unwarranted copyright strikes. There are plenty of equally good, or better, role playing systems out there that we do not need to put up with this sort of corporate bullshit.
While WotC is being it's pinkerton calling self again, technically they are legally allowed to do this, and they do have a legitimate reason to do it. It is also a failure on WotC to make it clear what can be shown and not shown before the official launch date.
So this is more a Grey area than Hasbro being it's normal lawful evil greedy self.
If three strikes would destroy “your business model” then you should try extra, extra hard not to get ANY strikes. If your livelihood relies on someone else’s IP you want to keep a good relationship with them. And, really, how many people are making their full living off of running a D&D channel?
What likely happened here was someone noticed several channels flagrantly violating copyright. So they told the legal team (or likely told someone who told someone who informed the legal team) who started sending out C&Ds and copyright strikes. And they’re not going to sit around watch two-dozen 30-minute videos from completion. They’re going to quickly skim videos and home their random selection of scenes was representative. Then send notices.
It turns out WotC is up to typical corporate shenanigans with regard to the release of the PHB 24. Specifically, they are issuing unwarranted copyright strikes to independent creators reviewing the new version of the PHB (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLkGwDljZ80). Clearly they still do not realize that the health of a role playing community depends on it being a community. While they are taking this sort of scorched earth approach to ensure we only get curated opinions on their products, my response will remain simple. I will not buy their products. To be clear, any chance of my buying the PHB 2024 or other subsequent products is entirely dependent on their withdrawing those unwarranted copyright strikes. There are plenty of equally good, or better, role playing systems out there that we do not need to put up with this sort of corporate bullshit.
They've been undoing them. The theory floating around (I'm unsure how substantiated it is), is that they screwed up the detection inputs so they're giving strikes when it's not warranted.
It does very much feel like there are a lot of screw ups happening (in general) though.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
To paraphrase an old quote, a blunder gets halfway around the world before the fix can get on its boots.
Copyright strikes are a pretty easy mistake to make - especially since many of those systems are now automated by third-parties (like YouTube). A simple failure to communicate, be between marketing and legal, Wizards and the Third Party, the Third Party not making something a priority and having it sit, etc. and, whoops, inadvertent copyright strikes.
Wizards began addressing this problem within hours of it being raised. That should be the story - Wizards realizing and fixing a mistake rapidly, instead of their usual blundering about. But, of course, this is the D&D community - why would we look at what has been done recently to fix the problem, when we can repost an outdated and no longer really relevant attack against Wizards?
At this point, the only real fault is Wizards’ characteristic failure to tell their side of the story, letting outdated versions run rampant. There probably should be a D&D Beyond article saying they are sorry and outlining the steps they have done to undo any issues.
They issued strikes to people who earned it and some got caught in the crossfire.
People legitimately made rips of the new phb based off DNDShorts YouTube videos of the new phb. Cats out of the bag because they literally went page by blurry page.
People making content and not showing entire pages are fine. People trying to toe the line are getting blasted and that's what happens when you play with fire.
Imagine if YouTubers showed a similar percentage of the latest Stephen King book or latest Marvel movie in their “review.” How quick would those videos be nuked? If, a month before the product was released, reviewers had free access to the product and could show whatever they wanted.
The Canadian Copyright Act limits reviews to showing 10% of a product. For the PHB that would be 34 or so pages. 17 two-page spreads. Just showing the classes first pages would be the majority of that.
WotC has been giving creators extraordinary latitude in showing images of the books in steams for “review” purposes. Some people took advantage of WotC’s latitude and then everyone got burned as a result.
In the U.S., the Copyright website says "limited portions" can be used in commentary and reviews. The percent of the book creators should try to stay below to be considered fair use is 10-20%.
Nobody would be, or should be, okay with creators doing an on-camera page-through of an entire copyrighted book. They might as well be uploading PDFs themselves. The copyright strike was well deserved.
Spidercloned, JesterDavid and VladimirBeowulf all suggest that the copyright strikes were deserved on the basis that they youtube content creator showed the entire PHB. That is true only of D&D Shorts (and he blurred the pages). Nerd Immersion showed only the contents page, but got a copyright strike. Showing the contents page clearly comes under 'fair use'. Jorphdan did a flip through review but fulfilled WotC's 'requests for the flip through video', so again, had an undeserved copyright strike. Depending on the level of blurring, D&D Shorts deserved the copyright strike but the other two did not.
Caerwyn_Glyndwr suggests that some of the strikes were made in error due the use of third parties, and poor communication. They also suggest that WoTC responded quickly to take down the copyright strikes (a point also made by Linklite). On the first point, three copyright strikes gets a youtube channel removed. Put another way, three copyright strikes destroys some third parties business model and their living. If a corporation does not understand that and use all due care to prevent unwarranted copyright strikes, then they should be judged as though the mistakes were deliberate. The police won't give you a pass on a homicide because it was unintentional. I think a similar principle applies here.
Finally, several people point out that WoTC have since withdrawn the copyright strikes, which I welcome.
There are literal rips of the 2024 PHB based off DNDShorts video. Yes, they are "Blurry" but they are legible. They're lucky they didn't get sued. Honestly, they might still get sued and it'd be valid. There is a tangible loss of money based on how many people completed downloads of that thing, and those numbers are in the tens of thousands.
I'm sorry mate but I don't really have any empathy for a lot of these people who got a free copy of the content and then proceeded to bite the hand that fed them and tried to get as many clicks as possible. Equating homicide to this situation is laughable too. Wizards isn't a great company here but what we got in the lead-up to 2024 was Wizards working hand in hand with DOZENS of content creators in an effort to promote the book and we're seeing those same content creators ignore what Wizards wants.
Looks like nerd immersion has a pretty extended discussion of what was going on. I haven't watched it in full.
While WotC is being it's pinkerton calling self again, technically they are legally allowed to do this, and they do have a legitimate reason to do it. It is also a failure on WotC to make it clear what can be shown and not shown before the official launch date.
So this is more a Grey area than Hasbro being it's normal lawful evil greedy self.
The guys at Roll for Combat have a good video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsRtfmotP1E
If three strikes would destroy “your business model” then you should try extra, extra hard not to get ANY strikes. If your livelihood relies on someone else’s IP you want to keep a good relationship with them.
And, really, how many people are making their full living off of running a D&D channel?
What likely happened here was someone noticed several channels flagrantly violating copyright. So they told the legal team (or likely told someone who told someone who informed the legal team) who started sending out C&Ds and copyright strikes. And they’re not going to sit around watch two-dozen 30-minute videos from completion. They’re going to quickly skim videos and home their random selection of scenes was representative. Then send notices.
Ted has clarified the following things:
What WotC wants creators to keep in mind when creating content: "Is your content"