Freaking seriously?

[Radik]

TotalBiscuit tweeted that there's been no progress on the matter: https://twitter.com/Totalbiscuit/sta...82002769014785.

With no way to talk to Sega regarding the matter, and the fact that most people simply don't care as long as it's not their videos that are taken down, I have no idea how the situation is going to evolve. The fact that Sega of Japan chooses to block comments and ratings on their new Shining Ark videos rather than resolve the matter by simply dropping the copyright claims is dumbfounding.

Question to any Sega employees reading this: given the lack of response regarding the matter, I'm going to assume that means you're not allowed to talk about it. In that case, say we give you a message from the Sega fans to Sega of Japan where we try to explain them that their actions aren't doing their company nor its fans any good. Can you relay that message to the people at Sega of Japan that are capable of resolving this issue? I'd even be willing to look into getting it translated professionally, as I get the feeling Sega of Japan is misinterpreting the situation completely.

[ViridianScourge]

Seems like typical Sega fare. They never were the best at making the most logical business decisions. Alienating the audience, especially in endeavors as trivial as this, is probably why Sega is no longer in the console market.

[RubyEclipse]

Hey everyone,

Thank you to all of our fans for waiting while we worked hard to get this issue solved. While SEGA may need to remove videos in rare cases, we’re happy to confirm that there are no further plans to remove Shining Force videos uploaded to Youtube by users living in North American and European territories. Additionally, if you live in these territories and your video was removed, please get in touch with us at communityteam@sega.com so that we can look into it for you.

SEGA believes strongly in our fans and we apologize for any inconvenience. You all are what keep us going – thank you!

[QuadTails]

Awesome, Ruby! Thanks for giving us a heads up. This is great to hear.

[suketodara]

And only three months later. Sorry to see how many veteran fans have finally lost it. Hope in Sega.

Correction, four months.

[DamnedBones]

Well, better late than never, I guess.

[Radik]

Better late than never indeed. But there's still a lot of questions that are left unanswered.

- Why did you this in the first place?
- What "rare cases" require removal? If this has learned us anything it's that there's a need for a clear policy here.
- If you read between the lines, this means Sega still intends to continue this practice outside of Europe and America. How does that make sense? Youtube is based in the US. Sega is using the DMCA, a US copyright law, to take down those videos. And they're doing this without even knowing whether or not those videos consist of fair use or not, there's simply no legal precedent to suggest that Let's Play's actually infringe Sega's copyrights. This practice is simply wrong, it should be stopped entirely, not just in the parts of the world where people actually have the means to protest against this. To give just one example, Tatsumakisen144 from Japan also had videos taken down. What about those?
- I dislike what your post implies, RubyEclipse, even though I know this isn't your fault. But what your post actually states is that Sega took down the videos but they do not actually admit any fault in doing so. That's a key point here. You're only saying they do not plan to take down more videos, and only in certain territories, but even that leaves room for that plan to change. Worse, you're not even saying that you'll restore the videos that were removed, but that you'll "look into it".

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because I'm guessing the people at Sega of America did as much as they could, but it remains difficult to accept that Sega of Japan doesn't see the problem with this practice and apparently intends to continue using it. It would have been much better had the person responsible for this, who will most likely be part of, or have close ties to, the team behind the new Shining games, communicated with the fans regarding this matter.

[MrHaru]

Hey everyone,

Thank you to all of our fans for waiting while we worked hard to get this issue solved. While SEGA may need to remove videos in rare cases, we’re happy to confirm that there are no further plans to remove Shining Force videos uploaded to Youtube by users living in North American and European territories. Additionally, if you live in these territories and your video was removed, please get in touch with us at communityteam@sega.com so that we can look into it for you.

SEGA believes strongly in our fans and we apologize for any inconvenience. You all are what keep us going – thank you!

Nice way to write a sugary paragraph and one sentence without so much as a hint of being aware of how much bad press this single event has nailed the entire company, or thinking that a simple apology will help in any way.

[sbloom85]

Hey everyone,

Thank you to all of our fans for waiting while we worked hard to get this issue solved. While SEGA may need to remove videos in rare cases, we’re happy to confirm that there are no further plans to remove Shining Force videos uploaded to Youtube by users living in North American and European territories. Additionally, if you live in these territories and your video was removed, please get in touch with us at communityteam@sega.com so that we can look into it for you.

SEGA believes strongly in our fans and we apologize for any inconvenience. You all are what keep us going – thank you!

What about those of us who had their entire account shut down because of SEGA of Japan's behavior? Is SEGA of America going to condone their actions or they going to tell SoJ that it was unnecessary and reinstate the accounts?

[voltz]

I think someone should put up a fake account just to bait SOJ into sending them a DMCA takedown. If they do so, I'd like to see how much the law will protect them once the person of said account contacts a lawyer.

Anyone care to take the challenge?

Edit: I'm finding out Nintendo is jumping on the bandwagon too. Maybe we should include them while we're at it.

Who knows, there might even be a little reward money in it!