Bandai Namco Copyright Strikes YouTubers Showing Off Game Mods
from the mod-squad dept
I really cannot believe it’s 2024 and there are still video game publishers out there that want to go to war on their own modding communities. I expect this sort of thing from the Nintendos of the world, but those that publish to the PC gaming market really need to stop it with this crap. Half the pleasure of gaming on a computer is being able to utilize fan-made mods for games. It’s one thing if we’re talking about mods that are used for cheating in online games, but it’s entirely bewildering that companies would want to punish modding communities creating mods for offline, singe-player games.
Bandai Namco has done this sort of thing in the distant past, when it sent a legal threat letter to a modder for Dark Souls who’s crime was making the game’s graphics render better. Now a bunch of mod-makers are having YouTube videos receive copyright strikes, not claims, from a 3rd party rights enforcer for showing off mods for Tekken 8.
Multiple modders and creators are reporting they’ve been hit with copyright strikes on YouTube videos featuring Tekken 8 mods as well as some ways to download said mods removed too.
Users including modder UMIN and I AM OP plus potentially a few others shared posts online seemingly confirming their Tekken videos had been taken down in one of the most severe fashions. These are not Content ID or copyright claims. They appear to be getting hit with full on copyright strikes, which means if you get three of them in a short period of time, your YouTube account can be permanently banned.
Some channels reportedly have already reached that threshold, it seems. Most of the mods in question are for things like character costume changes and other purely cosmetic modifications. Why those have raised the ire of Bandai Namco, even as other such mods and videos have been left alone, is anyone’s guess. In fact, some of the takedowns aren’t even for videos showing mods, but purely gameplay videos.
Now, to be clear, these strikes were not issued by Namco directly, but by a 3rd party IP enforcement outfit called the Association of Copyright for Computer Software. That group has been responsible for copyright notices going out for Tekken content in the past, but nothing like the volume we’re seeing now. There is no concrete way to know for certain that Bandai Namco has contracted ACCS for this type of enforcement, but it’s hard to imagine how it could be otherwise.
Why is this happening now? We’re back to speculating, but the best theory I’ve seen is that the company is worried about mods that might compete with DLC the company has for some of these cosmetic changes.
As to why this is happening now, we also don’t really know that either, but some are postulating it could be a measure to try and reduce what Bamco may feel as competition to their official DLC costumes (or targeting people who may be making money from mods) — though again, nothing is confirmed.
Under Japanese copyright law, Bandai Namco can do this…but why? Is it really the case that these modders’ work is so good that it will prevent the buying public from buying the company’s DLC? If so, its DLC can’t be all that good or worth the money.
But the overall question is why going this route is better than fostering a modding community that makes the game more attractive for purchase in the first place?
Filed Under: copyright, fan mods, mods, video games
Companies: association of copyright for computer software, bandai namco
Comments on “Bandai Namco Copyright Strikes YouTubers Showing Off Game Mods”
Rule 2 of gaming. You never buy Namco Bandai Costume DLC’s. Except Maid Uniforms
Rule 1. EA/EA Sports is the worst. Stop buying the same game, year after year, for now 70 dollars. With 99.95% the same as last year.
Rule Zero. MICROTRANSACTIONS HAVE NO PLACE IN A SINGLE PLAYER GAME.
If nothing else, the backlash against modders by non-Nintendo companies may very well have been due to emboldenment from Nintendo going after fans in all their major franchises.
The most popular Pokemon gameplay videos I’ve seen on YouTube these days aren’t even vanilla gameplay anymore. They’re modded to explore funny shit like “but shinies appear in the Paldean overworld” or content done in the old school style like “Emerald Rogue” or “Blaze Black” which the parent company would never release.
The unfortunate truth is that attention span these days is short. People look back and realize hey, it’s really been five years since Sword and Shield was out, what else do I want to play for nostalgia but is also fresh at the same time? It would not surprise me if someone at the top of the corporate food chain has genuinely bought into the Tero Pulkinnen school of thought and believes that yes, modified game content steals eyeballs and money and player tracking metrics that would otherwise have gone to newer, costlier content.
Perhaps it’s time for video creators to consider a Nebula or Curiosity Stream alternative.
The correct word is ‘whose’. Seriously, this may be a petty thing to you, but it’s a major distraction to others.
Re:
It isn’t, but go on.
Re: Re:
Are you speaking for the rest of us or arguing that it should be “who is?”
Re: Re: Re:
I’m saying that most people won’t really consider one minor grammatical mistake that doesn’t effectively alter the meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or entire article for all but a small amount of people to be a “major distraction”. And I say that as someone who routinely proofreads his own comments (and laments when he spots a mistake in his comments because he didn’t proofread before clicking the “Post Comment” button). If you’re so unnerved by one small mistake that it ruins an entire article for you, the problem isn’t the mistake or the article—it’s you being so pedantic that you drive yourself crazy over a mistake about which a vast majority of people wouldn’t give a shit.
Re: Re: Re:2
Actually, “who’s” lengthens out to “who is”, completely changing the meaning of the sentence and thus proving AC’s point. But why try to argue punctuation and grammar to someone whose head is too stuffed full of algebra for them to have learned anything actually useful in high school?
Re: Re: Re:2
And you clearly didn’t spot the difference in punctuation, indicating two different ACs, which is why you replied to the second as though they were the first. Either that or you’re being hypocritical whenever you pick on others for faulty reading comprehension.
Re: Re: Re:2
If you don’t see a pretty glaring typo like that and/or it doesn’t distract you, that puts the lie to your claims of being on the autism spectrum. Any actually autistic person would not only see that, but be distracted by it, meaning the AC who pointed it out has shown a sign of being autistic whereas you have shown only the opposite.
Re: Re: Re:3
Two things.
Re: Re: Re:4
And where did AC assert either thing? It seems to me that you’re receiving a message that was never sent by reading between the lines, a characteristic of neurotypicality rather than autism. My sister’s autistic, and you are not the least little bit like her.
Re: Re: Re:4
A faulty self-analysis clearly driven by self interest, absolutely classic of narcissistic personality disorder, which is sometimes confused with autism even by diagnosticians. Help society as well as yourself by getting a diagnosis of your mental disorder (which autism is not).
Re: Re: Re:2
So you presume to speak for everyone when the evidence clearly indicates that you do not.
If you have nothing of value to add, don’t butt in and bray like a jackass, pretending to be speaking for everyone.
Re: Re: Re:3
I don’t, no. But given how there wasn’t an immediate dogpile of replies agreeing with the person who implied that the typo ruined the article as a whole, the chances that a even a slim majority of the regular Techdirt readership had their day ruined by immeasurable disappointment in a writer mixing up “who’s” and “whose” are slim-to-none.
Re: Re: Re:4
So no, while arguing otherwise.
Quit braying jackass
Re: Re: Re:5
No, I don’t think I will quit braying.
Follow the buzzards.
Re: Re: Re:6
No sense for you to be telling others to quit then now is there.
Re: Re: Re:6
” If you’re not going to add anything worth a damn to a conversation, don’t butt your head into one and bray like an ass.”
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/02/hillary-clinton-joins-the-chorus-of-ignorant-pundits-insisting-section-230-must-go/#comment-3611860
You’ve taken the hypocritical oath I assume.
Re: Re: Re:7
Just dismiss anything ms stone says going forward
Re: Re: Re:4
And where did AC even suggest either thing? It seems to me that you’re receiving a message that was never sent by reading between the lines, a characteristic of neurotypicality rather than autism. My sister’s autistic, and you are not the least little bit like her.
Re: Re: Re:2
So you are saying pronouns aren’t that important, nothing to blow a gasket over?
Re: Re: Re:3
Yes, going by the fact that he has repeatedly misgendered Nex Benedict, which is trans-based harassment, and not something an actually autistic person would do due to their heightened empathy.
Re: Re:
The kind of reply you clearly believe is acceptable.
Re: Re:
‘Others’ being absolutely everyone? Tell me, at which point in your life did you stop using your brain?
Re: Re: Re:
Would you have noticed or even cared about that one tiny mistake had it not been pointed out by someone so pedantic that said mistake compelled them to argue it was a “major distraction” in re: reading the entire article?
Re: Re: Re:2
Tell it to the 2SLGBTQIAA+^13 crowd. They have a different opinion about pronouns.
Re: Re: Re:2
Actually, you’re the only one asserting the typo distracted anyone from reading the entire article. AC didn’t so much as imply any such thing. The other ACs are right: your constantly not taking what was said exactly as it was said indicates you’re not autistic, but actually have some kind of personality disorder often confused with autism.
Fresh blood!
Or.. it might be something as `innocuous’ as ACCS has hiring a new intern.
Re: Interns are the bane
Or, it could be someone in accounting realizing they get paid per video assaulted.
Ooh, nice. I do like it when {corporation} kicks the legs right out from under my desire to purchase any of whatever they’re peddling. Makes budgeting a lot easier in these strained times.
Has the added benefit of saving me time, recursively, since I will no longer have to evaluate {corporation}’s offerings in future, if and whenever I buy another game. Thanks, {corporation}!
Uh… why not? June 1 will be the 25th anniversary of Napster, which began the era of publishing-companies being constantly “at war” with their customers. The customers continue to fund the war against themselves. Apart from some spurts of bad publicity (like SOPA/PIPA), no company has ever really suffered negative consequences because of it. So why stop?
If Bandai Namco wants to slaughter the gaming community’s good will towards Fromsoft they should keep up the stupidity.
Bandai Namco copyright strike
Instead of striking Bandai Namco should be giving these people jobs.
What these individuals are doing on PC I would like to see on console. What else can they do before slapping them with a copyright fine.
Orrrr
Its because 90% of the people downloading these ‘cosmetic only’ mods are gonna do everything in their power to take them online, and they directly effect how your character appears to the other player. Skins in general have no place in a ranked competitive game.
Ah yes weren’t we just here the other day talking abuses of basically false take downs on yt? People abusing the system. For things in this case that are clearly fair use under US law.