After several years of making mods and Breath of the Wild videos, Waikuteru has dealt with some 500 automated copyright claims from Nintendo, but no strikes—an important distinction, as strikes can threaten a channel with complete demonetization or even deletion.
"The first claim wave happened in January 2022, and then I disputed and appealed them and got my videos back. However, Nintendo broke the YouTube guidelines and claimed videos that have already been resolved and claimed before, again. So I repeated the process, got them back, they claimed, etc. it was usually a 2-months gap between these occurrences," Waikuteru says.
Dealing with copyright claims was a frustrating process, especially before July 2022, as videos that had been claimed disappeared for 48 hours and stayed demonetized for 30 days, even if the claim was resolved. , making videos reappear instantly during the appeal process and re-monetized after just a week. Last year Waikuteru asked mod fans to band together to petition Nintendo to change its stance on mod videos.
Based on the events of the past week, that hasn't happened. Still, thousands of videos of emulated Breath of the Wild remain on YouTube, alongside countless more of Nintendo's other games modified or enhanced via emulation—the company clearly picks its battles. And the mods themselves remain online and uncontested on sites like , free of YouTube's corporate-friendly copyright claim system. It seems that there's little risk in modding Nintendo games, but advertising those mods in video form, especially if you rely on YouTube ads for income, is far more fraught.
"Honestly, when the first claim wave appeared, I was like 'Oh well, 2 years [of modding] for nothing?!'" Waikuteru says. "I didn't know at this point yet that getting back the videos is rather easy. It's a complicated situation for sure. On the one hand, Nintendo is the original copyright owner, on the other hand we make new creations out of it and then we are the copyright owners of that new creation, Fair use here and there...
"If Nintendo reads that, I would like to tell them the following: Because of our mods and videos, we are basically creating free promotion for the games, extending the life of the games, and also it results in more fans ultimately buying the games. Please take an example of other game developers that are even offering modding tools to their communities."
PointCrow and the team behind the BotW multiplayer mod have not said whether the mod will be reuploaded, or if development will continue.
links: https://www.pcgamer.com/aggressive-nintendo-copyright-claims-on-youtube-push-breath-of-the-wild-multiplayer-modders-into-taking-down-mod/
