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.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Honestly the only real issue is that they just didn’t ask them not to do a flip through.

Would have saved everyone grief if they did.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

But it would make more sense to sell actual PDFs

This bit right here. Companies of a certain size can keep succeeding solely on the inertia of name recognition, despite their best attempts at self-sabotage.

 

[Morrus]

DND Shorts' video was taken down. He did a full flip through with the PDF he was given. Every page. It took a few hours for people to screenshot every spread and post that as a PDF.

Do you have a link to any info about that? I can see his full spoilers review is still up. Was there another?

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Do you have a link to any info about that? I can see his full spoilers review is still up. Was there another?

There was the video where he slowly flipped through the whole book, showing every page of it. I used it to check a few things when he put it up.

It's gone to private now, obviously.

 

[TiQuinn]

Just stupid naughty word on WotC’s part and likely the left hand (legal) doesn’t know what the right hand (marketing) was doing. But going forward, if you’re Jorphdan or SlyFlourish or anyone else, are you willing to take the chance on an early release opportunity? Doubtful. Because even with permission, that doesn’t stop YouTube from issuing the strike, and they certainly don’t care if you’ve been given permission one way or the other. Bureaucratic nonsense head to toe.

 

[Minigiant]

I hate being that guy but I kind of get it.

I personally know of at least three people if there was a video that posted all of the information in the players handbook they would create their characters straight off of that video and never buy the players handbook.

Wizard should have been very clear about what early book receivers could post online

However anybody who thought they can flip through and photograph the entire book and post it online without any repercussions was not thinking things through.

Or maybe it's just me.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is part of the the problem with the influencer economy. Trained journalists would know that, even if a PR/marketing person said a full flip-through was OK, it's iffy at best from a legal perspective and it takes just one nervous lawyer in the corporate office for the cease-and-desists to start flying.

(This is also why you don't get rid of a bunch of your experienced marketing professionals months before your biggest product launch in a decade, WotC.)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Is that for or against my assertion? I'm confused.

I was for it - the comment was meant as more of a "Yeah! AND..."

Personally I think it's silly.

That is shockingly low. I guess the demand just isn't there. That obviously doesn't mean the 2024 PHB won't sell well on full release, but it clearly doesn't have the psycho levels of hype some stuff has had. I would have expected $500 at a dead minimum (assuming they're just generic PHBs, nothing GenCon-specific etc. - I'd expect higher if the latter).

Really? You know that the days of crazy ebay prices are soooooo "2021-2022".

This seems high to me for something you can buy yourself for $50 in a month's time. Then again, people are weird.

That might be good because it also probably means people won't get psycho upset about it if they don't love everything about it or it takes them a while to get around to getting the 2024 edition, but it is interesting.

Sure. Interesting is why I mentioned it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Seems that WotC did not consider that many YouTubers wouldn't understand fair use, but several of the ore useful reviews (such as Treantmonk or the Dungeon Dudes) knew how to avoid this ahead of time.

This. I'm seeing a lot of moaning here because WotC is shutting down videos by people who explicity did what WotC told them not to do when they received their early review copies. They were given something for free on conditions and then defied those conditions. Why are people siding with them, other than knee-jerk "WotC bad"?

 

[bedir than]

I'm wondering if this is an overzealous response to several of the generative AI models mining YouTube.
None are mining DnD Beyond, yet.