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.

 

[mamba]

Yet that is what most reviewers already had done.

not / barely show the actual book? You must be watching different videos than me...

 

[mamba]

I know I would've bought that for sure

I am starting to lean more into this, I might move off D&D because they do not offer PDFs, there are alternatives that do, it does not need to come from WotC....

 

[mamba]

Giving streamers a freebie to PREVIEW a product is different than streamers posting the entire product online for pirates.

yas, and that in turn is different than what WotC is contacting YTers about now. They basically want next to nothing of the book shown, they just want you to talk about it

 

[Retreater]

I am starting to lean more into this, I might move off D&D because they do not offer PDFs, there are alternatives that do, it does not need to come from WotC....

I've been there since the OGL debacle.
I'd just prefer not having the needs of shareholders put above fans and the community at nearly every turn. I'd rather not support a company that just posted a job opening for a "monetization expert" (no joke).
I'm not begrudging anyone who likes D&D (the official brand), but it won't be appearing at my table again.

 

[mamba]

I can't believe people seriously think youtubers slowly posting the contents of a unpublished book online for their thousands of followers is okay and that WOTC should do nothing about it.

we aren't

Quickly flipping through pages and commenting is fine.

not according to WotC

 

[Parmandur]

not / barely show the actual book? You must be watching different videos than me...

Treantmonk gave a very detailed breakdown of the rules content without crossing any lines, yes.

 

[mamba]

And he blurred the images of WotC's book.

after WotC insisted on that

He didn't scramble his own voice or take down the video, or change his opinion.

Which sounds like a perfect compromise to me.

he took it down by now. To me the perfect compromise would have been to just leave it up as it initially was, no blur needed. So what if there are parts of 30 or so pages from the PHB shown in it. That was free marketing for WotC, but they insisted on turning it into another shitshow

 

[mamba]

I've tracked the videos taken down by WOTC and 100% of them were showing the bulk of the PHB pages. If you disagree, tell me which one you're talking about.

given that they were taken down, how do you know how much they showed?

 

[mamba]

Stephen Glicker had a good video on this subject. Basically he suspects it was a miss communication between everyone. He kinda faults all sides. It's unfortunate really.

I fault WotC for giving DnDShorts the time of day

 

[mamba]

But LET ME BE SUPER CLEAR: POSTING THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF A BOOK DIGITALLY TO THE PUBLIC WELL BEFORE IT'S EVEN RELEASED TO THE MASS PUBLIC, EVEN NOT IN ORDER, IS NOT OK FOR COPYRIGHT, IS NOT OK FOR YOUTUBE'S TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT, AND IS NOT OK FOR WOTC'S REVIEWER STANDARDS.

and it also is not what happened in most of these cases, that there are the two you mentioned does not mean the others are anything like it