Game Content Usage Rules Revisited
Aug
I just got off a lengthy conference call with a whole bunch of people involved in the Game Content Usage Rules from Microsoft, which for newcomers to the blog are MS’s new rules essentially making a lot of Machinima less legally problematic.
It was a very, very positive call. Fred von Lohmann from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and myself were both on there to make the case for the Machinima community, and the MS guys were more than willing to hear from us - indeed, they’ve been reading and thinking about what everyone in the Machinima world has been saying already.
I’m going to put up a lengthy column tomorrow going through the Rules as they stand and clarifying them and what they mean with respect both to the law and this conversation.
(Wow, I’ve been talking to lawyers. Sorry. Shorter sentences.)
However, here are the edited highlights that I think most people will be interested in:
- Expect an edited and improved version of these rules soon with a lot of the rough edges smoothed out.
- The Rules ARE NOT meant to prohibit entering film festivals including the Machinima Film Festival and Machinima Europe, and MS won’t come after you for entering festivals.
- These Rules don’t trump or replace any existing copyright law. Even if you don’t fall under the purview of the Rules, you still have all your existing Fair Use protections in place if you live somewhere that has those - in other words, they take nothing away from you.
- The commercial licenses that they’re talking about sound very interesting, and you may well not need thousands of dollars to take advantage of them.
- The sound effects situation is complicated, and I’ll write more about it tomorrow, but they are looking into it.
- The fan-fiction provisions are MUCH narrower than they may appear. This is a bit complicated and I’ll cover it more tomorrow, but the short version is that they’re dismayed at how many people were scared by them, and that wasn’t their intention. Red vs Blue isn’t the kind of fanfic those rules are meant to prohibit, for example.
There’s loads more - I’ll cover that tomorrow. But, in short, these guys seem really interested in helping the Machinima community, and they deserve a big hand, from what I’ve seen, for what they’ve done.
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Sounds good, Hugh! Thanks for taking on the Big M on behalf of the community.
The fan fic issue is definitely a big one, since so many of the Halo stories people want to tell seem to be some kind of “expansion of the universe” so to speak. I know this is a big issue for the underground Star Wars and Star Trek fan-fic communities as well. Having someone break ground here would be a big positive for Microsoft and the fans.
My big question, as you know, relates to something screenings. Sure, the MFF and MFE might be okay, but what about events the Roadshow goes to? Right now I’m afraid to include any Halo movies like The Codex.
Looking forward to the next post! CR
The point that I think both Fred and I really want to stress is that this agreement doesn’t take ANYTHING away from you - the situation is exactly the same as it was before.
Is your Roadshow directly driving traffic to a site that’s in competition with Microsoft? If not, I’d say you’re probably OK.
If you like, I can try and get a definite answer on that one.
Got to stop multitasking. I wasn’t very clear there, AND I burned my fried rice whilst replying.
What I meant to say - worst case, you’re in the same position you were before. But most likely, you’re also covered by these rules.
I would not stress over including The Codex or anything like it in the Roadshow.
Finally some clarification, thanks a bunch Hugh.
Thanks for the clarifications. I tried to find some answers about a week ago, with some success, but nothing like this. I’ll wait until you post the full story to see if you cover this, but could you try if you can to touch on the topic of 3d models and such in Machinima use? Thanks.
Siliconmaster - can you expand more on what you mean by “3d models and such in Machinima use”? I’ll get into it.
RvB isn’t fanfic anyway.
I’m interested in these revisions, at least.
Some people pull models and textures from the games to use in animation and movies. The person I talked to (was in support, so would be good to get a “real” response)said that the “reverse-engineering” rule didn’t apply to those and that that sort of thing was legal in terms of movie making. It would definitely be nice to get some sort of official word on that subject. I know Laird has done that sort of thing with Halo Unyielding, and I’m working on a project of the same sort, hence my interest.
Thanks Hugh for all of your efforts here! They’re very much appreciated. I hurried over to HBO (Halo.bungie.org) as soon as I found out and Louis Wu already had a mention on the front page about this. Once again, thank you for going to bat for us!
Evan-
Thank you so much, Hugh, for taking the time (which I bet was a substantial amount) to look into this on behalf of the Halo machinima community.
Hugh FTW!
:-)
Tnx so much Hugh for clearing that important issues with MS. Has there been any discussion on ‘The Movies’? Will it be covered by the new rules?
Thanks, everyone! I should also extend a big thanks to Fred von Lohmann, without whom the meeting wouldn’t have been possible.
Mach - Currently the Rules “only cover games published by Microsoft Game Studios”, so The Movies isn’t on the table for the time being.
Siliconmaster - that’s an interesting question. I’ll ask Fred what he thinks.
Hi Hugh. Thanks so much to you and Fred for taking this on. We really appreciate it. I do think this is a very positive step for MS to take. I know from my own lengthy conversations with their legal team that this is something they have been wanting to spell out for quite some time so as to sharpen the grey areas (all the areas were pretty damn grey) and cut down on all the communication with nervous machinimators. :-) We are really very grateful. Good work!