Speedruns for sale?

DavizZz

2009-05-01 03:44:01 pm

youtube.com/DavizZz2106

Quote from Scepheo:

Quote from vgmrsepitome:

Is selling footage of a game without the permission of the game company legal?

No. That's the main copyright issue you would be dealing with.

Quote from nate:

sure it's legal - if you have enough money to defeat who sues you.

i wonder whether ign and shit get permission for every video they post. i doubt it.

it's interesting. We all know, copying movies (convert movies to .avi and upload it for others) is not legal. So how is it with games? there were and are many old games (most on PS1) where you weren't able to skip the cutscenes, so people who don't know & own the game have watched the game completely..
we have no rights to show trailers, music vids etc. so what's up with games? may be it's a stupid question... finally SDA is still avail. Wink

but is it legal for 100%?

Vugmer

2009-05-01 05:36:33 pm

Cigar Man

Quote from vgmrsepitome:

Is selling footage of a game without the permission of the game company legal?

I'm sorry I asked. Come to think of it, I have no idea why I even asked in the first place because I really don't give a shit either way.

kareshi

2009-05-01 08:22:21 pm

I want to make a DVD of my speedruns with multiple audio tracks to allow for commentary, and some bonus videos. I wouldn't sell it, though, just mail them or give them away. Just a DVD-R in a cheap sleeve with a cheap insert shouldn't cost me +1.50.

Practice

2009-05-01 08:41:00 pm

I've only sent one run here so I can't really speak for everybody, but:

I sent it here because I like the place. It would be perfectly ok if SDA was making money off it, as long as I was credited. It's not like I was going to make money off it anyway, and I'd be suprised somebody was actually paying money to see my run.

Instead, you could have a 5 second advertising clip at the beginning of each run if you needed money. I bet some video game company would go for that.

Enhasa

2009-05-10 12:44:18 am

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

IGN etc are just shilling the trailers, reviews, etc that the industry wants people to see. By showing substantial game content, industry folks would tend not to like what we're doing, but:

1) Games aren't movies. A copy of a movie is a dvdrip video. A copy of a game is a rom/iso, not a video.
2) It helps a lot that we aren't showing "full walkthroughs with all cutscenes!" like some sites and youtube people.
3) It helps out even more that by the time we get a run for most games, the game is already only sold as used copies.
4) It's arguable that runs help sales instead of hurt it, but I'm not going to weigh in on that because you probably won't like what I'll say, and this point is mostly moot anyway because of #3.
5) We're not big enough to be threatening, like Youtube. We're cute. This goes double for EVO.

Sucks for dialup users, but no point in selling DVDs if the point is not to make profit. How well can you expect to make a profit off something that you yourself also give away for free? Profit margins would have to be really low, and the way it is currently, very much not worth the time investment. If we want to make money, lots of better alternatives.

IGN etc are just shilling the trailers, reviews, etc that the industry wants people to see. By showing substantial game content, industry folks would tend not to like what we're doing, but:

1) Games aren't movies. A copy of a movie is a dvdrip video. A copy of a game is a rom/iso, not a video.
2) It helps a lot that we aren't showing "full walkthroughs with all cutscenes!" like some sites and youtube people.
3) It helps out even more that by the time we get a run for most games, the game is already only sold as used copies.
4) It's arguable that runs help sales instead of hurt it, but I'm not going to weigh in on that because you probably won't like what I'll say, and this point is mostly moot anyway because of #3.
5) We're not big enough to be threatening, like Youtube. We're cute. This goes double for EVO.

Sucks for dialup users, but no point in selling DVDs if the point is not to make profit. How well can you expect to make a profit off something that you yourself also give away for free? Profit margins would have to be really low, and the way it is currently, very much not worth the time investment. If we want to make money, lots of better alternatives.

Carcinogen

2009-05-12 12:54:20 pm

There's like thousands of other places to get high-speed internet from, anyway. Schools, coffee shops, neighbors, etc.

Ekudeht

2009-05-12 03:03:47 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

There's not much use in debating the legality and other problems of selling items that no one wants to buy.

Bottom line is that nate tried this early on and no one bought anything...time to move on to the next idea. Tongue

Carcinogen

2009-05-12 03:48:08 pm

What Duke said. This thread sucks.