Youtube Copyright Question

The only problem I had with the YouTube's Content ID/Copyright system was during my attempts to Let's Plays of Super Mario 64 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Even though I am a huge fan of a certain Nintendo character, the company's policies on Let's Plays, in-game music, and such made me discontinue those Let's Plays. And I do Let's Plays with and without commentary since I prefer that my viewers have that option of talking or no talking. EA doesn't really care as long as the game has been publicly released. Now there may be some issues of Simlish remixes of real life songs, but I've never played Sims 3 and I don't really play much of Sims 4. If I do use in-game music, I will use Sims 1 music since I haven't faced any issues with Jerry Martin's soundtrack.

YouTube: SariaFan93

Hi, I know the last comment on this thread was in 2016 but maybe someone will get a notification and answer me. I'm aspiring to make machinimas and maybe hopefully, if people like my videos, I'll be able to monetize on youtube. I'm in the process of filming. I don't plan on using in-game music and I'm trying to work within the boundaries of the free audio youtube is providing even though its not very good. But if the sims can be heard talking (some scenes require simlish) and the miscellaneous background sound effects can be heard (tv, phone, computer typing, microwave etc), is that an issue with copyright?

"GGSimmerGG;c-17235477" wrote:
Hi, I know the last comment on this thread was in 2016 but maybe someone will get a notification and answer me. I'm aspiring to make machinimas and maybe hopefully, if people like my videos, I'll be able to monetize on youtube. I'm in the process of filming. I don't plan on using in-game music and I'm trying to work within the boundaries of the free audio youtube is providing even though its not very good. But if the sims can be heard talking (some scenes require simlish) and the miscellaneous background sound effects can be heard (tv, phone, computer typing, microwave etc), is that an issue with copyright?

I'm no lawyer, so don't take the following as legal advice. :smile:

Out of necessity, the sound tracks included for the Sims music stations are copyrighted because EA makes deals with record labels to include Simlish versions of real songs. It is very likely that a Sims music station track will trigger a copyright claim on YouTube.

Technically speaking, all streaming of video games without the express permission of the developers violates copyright law. However, developers rarely make copyright claims because game streamers help make them money by selling more games. If your video doesn't include in-game music that can trigger a YouTube Copyright detection, then I wouldn't worry about it too much.

There's an interesting video about the issues surrounding game streaming copyright below. It touches on the Fair Use aspect of streaming with commentary because the commentary makes it a new work. One might argue that the same is true with machinima, even without commentary, because the player is creating something new--an original story.

https://youtu.be/9P3Ha3pl-iU

"GGSimmerGG;c-17235477" wrote:
Hi, I know the last comment on this thread was in 2016 but maybe someone will get a notification and answer me. I'm aspiring to make machinimas and maybe hopefully, if people like my videos, I'll be able to monetize on youtube. I'm in the process of filming. I don't plan on using in-game music and I'm trying to work within the boundaries of the free audio youtube is providing even though its not very good. But if the sims can be heard talking (some scenes require simlish) and the miscellaneous background sound effects can be heard (tv, phone, computer typing, microwave etc), is that an issue with copyright?

EA has a help article about this, which states, "EA does not object to fair uses of video footage or screenshots on video sharing sites, including YouTube channels that are commercialized, as long as the footage is a version of the game that we have released to the public.

We do reserve the right to address any inappropriate use of EA content. Additionally, because many EA games include content that is licensed from a third-party company or may otherwise have usage restrictions, paired with the large number of video-related questions we get from the community, we aren’t able to grant specific approvals or respond to all follow-up inquiries."

Here's the link to the full help article:
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/how-to-request-permission-for-ea-games-content/

@gamelia Thanks for answering. I really appreciate the insight. I did read the help article before asking, but the article didn't specify anything about copyright of the simlish voices or the sound effects from the objects (some people are really picky about that stuff too). The video link you provided was very informative as well. Recently when I search videos on youtube I get a lot of content that has nothing to do with what I'm looking for or I get a lot of content from India that states in the title what I'm looking for, but the entire video is not in English and there are no English captions or subtitles.

This entire thread was really helpful. I just started a youtube channel and it never even occurred to me that the background music and the music from the sims radio might be a problem. I'll have to mute it now.

Does anyone know if the songs your sim sings while using the singing skill might be 3rd party licensed songs?

There's plenty of cool music - all genres, too choose from Youtube's royalty free library. I use them, a lot in my As Sims Go By series, for example.

When I record, I always set music in game off, not really so much because it would be the wrong music, but I edit a lot and I need to add music after I'm done editing.

I have a YT channel called SplashyMoth8202 and both my Sims 3 videos I uploaded got copyright claimed for some unknown reason. But anyways I'm deleting all my vids and refreshing my channel cos I dont have an introduction video.

Actually never mind. I just rewatched it and I had the Last Time by the Script playing in the background.