D&D (2024) D&D Player's Handbook Video Redactions & Takedowns

There's a lot of YouTube videos looking at the brand new Player's Handbook right now, and some of them include the YouTuber in question flipping through the new book on screen. A couple of those video creators have been asked by WotC to redact some of the content of their videos, with one finding that their video had been taken down entirely due to copyright claims from the company. It appears to be the folks who are flipping through the whole book on-screen who are running into this issue which, it seems, is based on piracy concerns.

Jorphdan posted on Twitter that "Despite fulfilling [WotC's] requests for the flip through video I was issues a copyright strike on my channel. Three strikes TERMINATES your channel. I don't think going over the 2024 PHB is worth losing my channel I've been working on since 2017. I'm pretty upset as none of this was said up front and when notified I did comply with their requirements. And I see other creators still have their videos up. Videos that are not unlike mine. Covering WotC is not worth losing my channel... Meanwhile please subscribe to my D&D free channel the Jocular Junction, where I'll most likely be making the majority of my TTRPG videos."

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Mike Shea, aka Sly Flourish, also posted a walkthrough of the Player's Handbook. While he didn't receive a copyright takedown action, after an email from WotC he has blurred out all the page images. "Note, I blurred out pictures of the book after Hasbro sent me an email saying they worried people would take screenshots of the book and build their own. Yes, it's complete b******t, but we must all do our part to ensure four billion dollar companies maximize shareholder value."

Popular YouTuber DnD Shorts had a video entitled 100% Walkthrough of the New Player's Handbook in D&D. That video is no longer available. However, his full spoilers review is still online.

 

[Parmandur]

Not sure why it is on WotC to explain every detail on how to make a preview video, though clearly they ought to in the future and vet and coach content creators more carefully.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Don't feel bad. @Parmandur blocked me a while back.

To be clear, I'm only concerned at all because I was in the process of correcting actual, demonstrable misinformation (hence the link - that's what you get if you try to copyright report a video - @Parmandur stated "anyone" could report video for copyright which is not correct beyond the sense that anyone can lie about owning content, in theory - the TOS stuff is also just wrong - people using this in the way he's suggesting are violating TOS, not the people they victimize), which was being repeatedly stated. So now presumably he can not only avoid seeing the corrections I've already and keep stating misinformation, but can also do so without fear of correction.

No blocking system is ideal, I guess that's just the cost of this one. /shrug

 

[Seramus]

They knew how to make preview material correctly without causing a mess. Some didn't.

I mentioned this in another thread, but I saw several content creators (including Treantmonk) take down their Patreon videos the other day, and put them back up a few hours later. One or two videos at a time, so it was a rolling thing. I do not know why that happened, but it is possible this was the result of them being asked to remove any offending pages and make the necessary edits.

 

[TheTortleDon]

@Parmandur Maybe don't spread misinformation and be open when others correct you. What's the point of responding if you're just going to block the users you're quoting?

 

[Micah Sweet]

To be clear, I'm only concerned at all because I was in the process of correcting actual, demonstrable misinformation (hence the link - that's what you get if you try to copyright report a video - @Parmandur stated "anyone" could report video for copyright which is not correct beyond the sense that anyone can lie about owning content, in theory - the TOS stuff is also just wrong - people using this in the way he's suggesting are violating TOS, not the people they victimize), which was being repeatedly stated. So now presumably he can not only avoid seeing the corrections I've already and keep stating misinformation, but can also do so without fear of correction.

No blocking system is ideal, I guess that's just the cost of this one. /shrug

Not a fan of blocking outside of moderation in any case personally, but I understand some people like it.

 

[Parmandur]

I mentioned this in another thread, but I saw several content creators (including Treantmonk) take down their Patreon videos the other day, and put them back up a few hours later. One or two videos at a time, so it was a rolling thing. I do not know why that happened, but it is possible this was the result of them being asked to remove any offending pages and make the necessary edits.

Could be. There is enough of a furor about this now that WotC may come out and publicly comment on it.

 

[TiQuinn]

So now presumably he can not only avoid seeing the corrections I've already and keep stating misinformation, but can also do so without fear of correction.

You could always just log out and see what he’s saying if that’s your concern and feel the need to comment to others on his statements.

 

[Seramus]

You could always just log out and see what he’s saying if that’s your concern and feel the need to comment to others on his statements.

That is an option to satisfy curiosity, but actually posting about the content of a blockers post will draw the wrath of the mods.

There's probably a safe middle where you both are just talking in parallel, but actually addressing the points of a blocking poster is a no-no.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I don't think we can assume "no" in this case. I'll be interested to see if more info comes out.

And your second point seems obviously wrong when some fairly major creators, who've created content for many years, got into trouble on this. You seem to be pretending this is some common problem - it isn't. And you've been providing incorrect information about YouTube's TOS and copyright strikes and I wish you'd stop that.

EDIT - I need to point out that @Parmandur has blocked me whilst he is repeatedly providing incorrect information. Politely I would suggest to all readers that you should not believe what @Parmandur is saying re: copyright strikes or YouTube's TOS. I can't counter future misinformation on this front unfortunately, but so far there has been misinformation from @Parmandur.

Is this why I'm seeing a bunch of replies to an empty message? I was wondering what was going on.

 

[Older Beholder]

It's not just extraordinary of ENPublishing - it's smart business. Only short-sighted egoists (read: corporate suits) think otherwise.

Neither Enworld nor Pazio are putting out their products online for free a month before they go on sale though, surely?