I Even Make Myself Cringe

I've been thinking about getting in on the Youtube video blog fad. First off i need a camera, and i didn't feel like asking to borrow the camcorder 'so i can upload videos of myself to the internet'. I have three or four quid scattered around my desks in here and that's gotta last me until i get a new job, which may take a while. I could spend it on spice or pop, or i could buy batteries for my digital camera. I didn't know if my cameras was shite or not so i went looking round my PC for any movies i'd recorded with it and i found one: A movie which was intended to go on the internet from conception.

The movie is not exactly good, but that's irrelevent. It's fully legal, so i can actually upload it without noobs bitching me.

While watching it i realised a few things. I can't sing, and Bo was right; we have really nerdy ideas of what might be fun. While most kids my age are taking drugs and breaking laws, we went on a cross country bike ride.


So, without further ado. Me and Sneakers riding down the mud track near the cricket fields....

I have an overwhelming urge to post this video on my blog.

I have no idea at all why

So uhhhh. When youtube sells out....

This is a post about the free-video-hosting-in-a-snazzy-Flash-player-
on-a-site-owned-by-really-nice-people, sites that keep popping up all over.

---I'm just testing ways to not piss people offright now >_<
(click to view)

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So I don't even have any proper videos to upload. that's not the point.

I did make a video on Battlefield 2s Battlefield Recorder. I highlight that because as far as I understand EA/DICE support the machinima scene, Battlefield Recorder being a symptom of this?



As you can see, it's been on Youtube for 5 months and there hasn't been a complaint in 2000 odd views. I presume it was rejected by Revver because it was made using the battlefield 2 engine and stuff, but surely fair use laws allow that regardless of DICEs point of view. Either that or it was categorised under "suck" by the people who run Revver.

A shame really because i was looking forward to being able to upload lots of videos nobody will ever watch. I even like the way it's funded. For all i care they can keep all the profits. Free hosting with the ability to embed clips in websites and the only adverts actually come after the feature, is super awesome enough for me. This method also gives me a little faith that after the honeymoon period there won't be any change to the service. The owners won't need to realise they owe investors for keeping the site alive for a year. They'll never have to try and gather much more than the running costs to stay afloat.


Finally there's google...



I don't know what's going on there. I think it's something to do with the island on Lost and a wormhole into a stoned hippies daydream.



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Revver Battlefield 2 update #1

I got an email from revver saying my battlefield 2 movie did breach copyright laws. I've written an email to EA asking what their stance is and if i'm allowed to put videos of the game on the internet. Now it's just a waiting game to see if and what reply i get from EA.


Revver Battlefield 2 update #2

Umm, still no reply. When I try to log into my EA games account i get forwarded to a site called pogo.com or something. Is this their way of avoiding me reminding them they said 24 hours? I really wouldn't have minded if they didn't know where the line is between fair use and copyright infringement when it comes to computer game footage.

I checked Gamespot too. A site ran for a profit which allows paying members to upload their own video game movies. Unfortunately i can't find any legal advice there, because everytime i look at the monitor i get a page telling me i have to pay to do anything.


Revver Battlefield 2 update #3 & #4

About 12 hours ago i wrote to Revver asking if indeed it was the game footage that infringed copyright. (I have a sneaking suspiscion that rather than actually screening, they presume any machinima contains the song 'let the bodies hit the floor' by Drowning Pool, and block it from the public.) I told them that I've been hard at work researching the legalities, and I can't find anything other than Gamespot.com (Alexa rating 180) promotes uploading machinima onto their own servers, and it's no secret they're even making a profit from doing so. Still waiting on a reply.

One thing that made me hella happy today was a private message from another machinima producer. Paul from machinima.org said he came accross my story and wanted to mention it in his blog. So, uhhh yeah, cool. I figure the more talking about this we do; the more likely publishers will put something in thier EULA instead of hinting by using inhouse teams making machinima to promote games and putting in features to record and edit gameplay.


Revver Battlefield 2 last update

I got an email back from Revver. It explains that licensing agreements basically say I'm not allowed to make a profit. Kinda makes sense because working out how the money should be shared isn't really worth the hassle.

I'll still continue to make machinima, but i'll have to host it on google instead. Well, until people sort out license agreements for 2006 anyway.