[game_preservation] AMAZING collection of E3 '95 videos!

[Henry Lowood]

Not to mention the new Virtual World videos collection at the IA 
...  Just launched, still very rough:
http://www.archive.org/details/virtual_worlds

For the most part, I agree with Simon on the legal issues (though our 
combined opinions are not worth a cup of stale coffee in court); 
however, I would be careful about video captures from broadcast and 
cable shows.  In the U.S., it is generally not clear how fair use 
applies, and you only find out by being sued. Since we would be 
exposing Internet Archive, we should probably be careful there.  (BTW 
this note of caution is based on a conversation with Larry Lessig 
about the machinima collection.)  Like Simon, I do obtain permission 
from machinima makers.  In most cases, with game-based captures and 
videos, the legal situation is a bit muddy, so it's always better to 
secure permission.  Believe it or not, nobody has said no yet.

Henry

At 07:01 AM 3/31/2008, Simon Carless wrote:

>Hey folks,

>

>This is in no way an official legal opinion, but my own yardstick is 

>that free promotional videos for games are acceptable - things 

>originally given out to press or consumers promote the game. The 

>things which are trickier are things like recorded off TV shows for 

>which rights of the program creator have not been checked, etc.

>

>So far, me and Andrew have been handling Internet Archive rights by 

>asking the permission of the apparent owner/storer of the data 

>and/or the interviewer (Fileshack and Kikizo) - which is working 

>fairly well. But we have some 'B-roll' promo footage up there that 

>was simply encoded by us, and similarly for trailers.

>

>So I think the majority of your videos would be fine, Jim - contact 

>me and I'll get you admin rights for the Archive upload if you want.

>

>On this front, if there's anyone on the list who would like to help 

>contribute to the Game Videos section there:

>

><http://www.archive.org/details/gamevideos>http://www.archive.org/details/gamevideos

>

>...it really is the only independent, non-profit owned archive right 

>now and there are no file size limits, so you don't get 

>YouTube-style detail reduction issues in the original source 

>material. The Speed Demos Archive, Henry's machinima archive, and 

>some new Commodore 64 game captures are some of the highlights of 

>the collection thus far, and I'm talking to some folks off-list 

>about another exciting new collection.

>

>Thanks!

>Simon.

>

>On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 12:28 AM, Andrew Armstrong 

><<mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>andrew at aarmstrong.org> wrote:

>Great videos Devin, I'll add it to the list and put a post up. Let us

>know if he gets back to you. (In fact, I mean to email or contact tons

>of youtube people to see if they want a permanent download location at

>the archive, since they do walkthroughs or tons of in-game stuff and

>that would be good to have as well).

>

>And Jim; while Henry or Simon might be more inclined to know the legal

>side, if they are promotional material there is likely no real big

>problem with uploading the material - for instance, currently I have

>been uploading a huge amount of Fileshack videos (currently

>concentrating on any "interviews") which mainly means that Fileshack is

>the source for the marketing material (for many developers and

>publishers which have now shut down!), so causes no issues of borrowing

>a watermarked video (which Fileshack doesn't do anyway).

>

>We don't however put up the videos under any licence - it's assumed we

>don't have permission for putting it under the Creative Commons,

>therefore, it's for self-use/educational/research purposes mainly.

>

>I certainly presume if they are old videos, simply no one will really

>care (if the companies which produce them exist at all nowdays) - and as

>we know, the biggest barrier currently to fleshing out things like the

>archive's video collection is pure apathy and ignorance, right?

>

>Anyway, perhaps, Henry or Simon can chip in with an opinion :)

>

>Andrew

>

>Jim Leonard wrote:

> > Captain Commando wrote:

> >> I highly recommend adding this to the resource list. I have also sent

> >> him a message through YouTube asking if he would be interested in

> >> donating videos to the SIG.

> >

> > This reminds me, I have a lot of videos I've been collecting about the

> > making of certain games (digital interviews on early "ezines",

> > videotapes that came with products such as the WC3 filmcan and 7th

> > guest, early promotional videos from Sierra that feature the

> > programmers, etc.) and was wondering what the legal ramifications were

> > to contribute them somewhere.  The historical significance is a given;

> > it's the legal issues that have stopped me.  I thought of uploading

> > them to <http://archive.org>archive.org but I don't feel their 

> fair use rights (education,

> > reference, etc.) would be as protected there as, for example, the SIG.

> > Is this something the SIG could receive and host to the public?

> >

> > With my experience doing restoration work on the MindCandy DVDs, I've

> > gotten really good at making them presentable (even the 15fps

> > sub-Youtube ones) so it's a project without a destination...

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Henry Lowood, Ph.D.
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;
  Film & Media Collections
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood 
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