Nintendo has had a love-hate relationship with YouTube content creators and it looks like that relationship is extending beyond those who do let’s plays of Nintendo’s more recent titles and into those who create content of old ROM hacks and speedrunners as well.
Nintendo’s abuse of the ContentID system has been well noted in the past, with several major YouTube stars vowing not to create content of Nintendo games as it’s not worth the trouble to deal with Nintendo’s aggressive policy. One speedrunner is now finding that out the hard way.
PangeaPanga created several speedrun videos that were tool-assisted, which meant he needed ROMS and an emulator in order to play them. After his video “Hardest Super Mario World Level Ever” got more than a million views, Nintendo quickly issued a copyright complaint against his channel, which has destroyed the channel with multiple video takedowns.
Nintendo even sent him an email, telling him that his channel is in violation of their intellectual property and that if he would like to continue uploading Nintendo content, he should do so as a partner in Nintendo’s Creator Program. Of course that program won’t approve any channel that uses ROMS or emulators in any shape or form.
We wish to inform you that the videos in question infringe Nintendo’s copyrights. As the owner of the copyright in the games: Mario Kart 8, Super Mario World, and Pokémon, Nintendo has the exclusive right to perform the games publicly or to make derivative works based on the games. By making a derivative work using Nintendo’s IP, and then displaying Nintendo’s IP on your YouTube channel, you have violated Nintendo’s exclusive rights.
According to PangeaPanga, after the initial video removal, more than 80% of his videos on his channel were subjected to copyright claim, gutting his YouTube channel. Nintendo’s draconian policies for YouTube content creators continues to hurt them more than it helps. What do you think? Should Nintendo allow speedrunners and ROM hackers to post videos of their runs on YouTube?
