Blizzard is taking down my channel: request for advice on youtube procedures

[advanta]

Blizzard have issued multiple copyright takedown requests on my videos. My channel will be deleted in seven days.

If you have sent me a message on any media recently, I'm very sorry, I have to devote all my available time to this issue for the time being. I will try and get back to you when the matter is resolved.

Blizzard don't have a leg to stand on here legally, they are issuing this stuff retroactively. However, I doubt youtube will care.

Any advice from any one who has been in or knows of a similar situation would be appreciated. My priority is keeping my channel alive, I've already resigned myself to losing the videos.

EDIT: for the curious I filed a counter-infraction notice, which requires Blizzard to respond...which I'm still waiting on. My channel is still up in the mean time but 1/3 of the videos are not accessible and I cannot upload.

EDIT: 16/06/2018 Well this is fucked-up. Blizzard failed to respond to my counter-infraction notice so the channel was restored. But the videos in question have been listed as using copyrighted content so any money they generate is going straight to Blizzard. So they are now directly making money out of "exploits" in their own game.

EDIT: 18/06/2018 Monetization seems to have been returned to me, so it seems like this is over for now. I have one copyright strike remaining on a video from years ago which was just about spellstealing a lightning shield from a mob in black temple-god knows why they struck that. But one strike isn't of much importance as it expires after three months.

Looks like victory, for now anyway. Thanks very much for all your help guys, appreciated.

Made this video to explain the whole situation:

[Dante]

Oh man that's so sad. I shared this on the OwnedCore facebook page for exposure.

[WizardTrokair]

Total bullshit. You didn't break any copyright, they just want to take down the mighty Archvaldor.
Fight the good fight, my friend.

[Hazzbazzy]

Step 1) Challenge the strikes via Youtube.
Step 2) Worry about that later

[Dovah]

This sucks man



Seems like as long as theres gameplay in the video they can do what they want. A couple private server channels went through something similar awhile ago and they just stopped putting gameplay in their videos and blizzard was powerless. I'm not sure how that'd work out for exploits videos but its the only way I can think of.

You could also move to some other hosting site, but im sure you've already thought of that.

[advanta]

This sucks man



Seems like as long as theres gameplay in the video they can do what they want. A couple private server channels went through something similar awhile ago and they just stopped putting gameplay in their videos and blizzard was powerless. I'm not sure how that'd work out for exploits videos but its the only way I can think of.

You could also move to some other hosting site, but im sure you've already thought of that.

Thanks for your support guys, it is very much appreciated.

Dovah: yeah at this stage I'm resigned to the fact I won't be able to make videos using Blizzard content. But I was not violating content when I uploaded the videos: Blizzard never communicated any revocation of their licence to me.
There seems to be no justification for issuing strikes in that context and deleting my channel.

[doityourself]

This sucks man



Seems like as long as theres gameplay in the video they can do what they want. A couple private server channels went through something similar awhile ago and they just stopped putting gameplay in their videos and blizzard was powerless. I'm not sure how that'd work out for exploits videos but its the only way I can think of.

You could also move to some other hosting site, but im sure you've already thought of that.

Actually they can take them down outside of US whenever they want. In US it's more the fair use thing where they can't just take down gameplay vids, etc. But they can also takedown 'hack' videos there. Outside of US they have the right to take down every video without reasons.

[advanta]

Actually they can take them down outside of US whenever they want. In US it's more the fair use thing where they can't just take down gameplay vids, etc. But they can also takedown 'hack' videos there. Outside of US they have the right to take down every video without reasons.

They own the art assets so they can remove the copyright licence.
What seems to me to be unfair here: they've done so retroactively so I couldn't comply with any request. So there seems to be no justification for deleting my channel.

[doityourself]

They own the art assets so they can remove the copyright licence.
What seems to me to be unfair here: they've done so retroactively so I couldn't comply with any request. So there seems to be no justification for deleting my channel.

As I said in US they are not really allowed because of the 'fair use' stuff. outside of us they are...

[zycamzip]

Best bet, is save all the videos, and re-up to another location. I would suggest something like veoh. Of course, there is also PornHub. I know, sounds stupid, but they have been allowing people to put up videos which YouTube has withdrawn for various reasons. Decide, then pull all the videos, except for one, telling people where your channel is going to be hosted from now on. There is another option, which is to make a host and put up your own website. You can make a wordpress site and use a CDN to deliver the videos. Amazon or Jetpack are fair for this. Alternatively, depending on the money you want to spend, consider using a server. I am sure someone here can help you set one up, which will work for you.

[EDIT] I just noticed on the last video, you added a Patreon link, where you offer to give people access to game exploits before you publish them, some things that are also unpublished. It could be that this is why they took action against you.

[Jaladhjin]

I've already resigned myself to losing the videos.

Why would you lose all the videos ?

Don't have them saved elsewhere since you did edit & make them ? :-D

Why not download them ?

I think the hard part for you now will be since you're a target.. if you go to another platform right away they'll continue to pursue you to show "people don't get away with this sort of thing"

[advanta]

Why would you lose all the videos ?

Don't have them saved elsewhere since you did edit & make them ? :-D

Why not download them ?

I think the hard part for you now will be since you're a target.. if you go to another platform right away they'll continue to pursue you to show "people don't get away with this sort of thing"

I'm doing this legally. Blizzard have the legal right to stop people using their art assets. Uploading the videos to another platform would be a means of circumventing copyright law, I'm not going to do that.

What I would like to do is continue to upload content that does not use Blizzard art assets (such as gameplay). Blizzard should not be able to stop me writing or talking about their games. I would also like the possibility of being able to make videos about other games or non-warcraft content. That's a lot easier to do with 30k subs.

At this current moment in time my channel is going to be deleted. Which doesn't seem right given that they gave me no chance to comply with their copyright request. I'm unclear as to whether I can save my channel and what the mechanism for doing that would be.

Btw iI seems likely as Zycam suggests that Blizzard are doing this because they are sore about me publishing exploits on patreon. That however is not directly to do with the copyright strikes.

[zycamzip]

I can assure you, that they can circumvent laws, to get their way - or make changes to their EULA or even laws, to get their way. For example, you remember WoW Glider? They changed the law, so that copying the game to memory, on someone's computer, was made illegal, as it became a copy of the game. Even though it dissapeared once the game was shut down. That illegal copy is how they went after WoW Glider. They have also used nefarious methods to take out other bots and in the beginning, even went after people who wrote game guides. The guys who made the original WoW guides, Joana's and Brian's got hit with some legal action - though it was hashed out.

I cannot use hashtags on Facebook, due to Blizzard interfering. I was using it for advertising, and used #worldofwarcraft as a tag. So rather than banning me or letting me know I shouldn't do this, they removed my access to hashtags for quite a while. I think I have access again now, or maybe just not to WoW, haven't tested that.

[CAKEBOOST]

To much exploits for blizzard in one place, FeeslBadMan Archvaldor =(

[Patt_French]

I'm doing this legally. Blizzard have the legal right to stop people using their art assets. Uploading the videos to another platform would be a means of circumventing copyright law, I'm not going to do that.

What I would like to do is continue to upload content that does not use Blizzard art assets (such as gameplay). Blizzard should not be able to stop me writing or talking about their games. I would also like the possibility of being able to make videos about other games or non-warcraft content. That's a lot easier to do with 30k subs.

At this current moment in time my channel is going to be deleted. Which doesn't seem right given that they gave me no chance to comply with their copyright request. I'm unclear as to whether I can save my channel and what the mechanism for doing that would be.

Btw iI seems likely as Zycam suggests that Blizzard are doing this because they are sore about me publishing exploits on patreon. That however is not directly to do with the copyright strikes.

How the f* nobody gave you this link:
Blizzard Entertainment:Blizzard Video Policy