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.

 

[Minigiant]

Again it's not about stopping a single instance of piracy. It's about establishing a trend or president.

WOTC could not just do nothing. However the department that's going to react might not be the department that has a deep understanding of the product and the community. Even worse in outsourced to a outside company.

When Legal and Accounts go harassing my customer for money they don't call me to understand the situation. I get a random call of my customer cussing me out.

WOTC should have been clearer to avoid involving those departments that cause bad PR.

And we as a community need to cultivate an environment where people don't actively antagonize those groups as well.

 

[mamba]

Sure, but just because piracy cannot be stopped totally doesn't mean it should just be allowed in all cases.

Let's say they let it slide this time. That will only encourage people to take greater liberties. Eventually they're going to have to say, "That's too much." Better to do it now, when it's already at a pretty egregious level.

it’s not like this is stopping anything

 

[mamba]

My point about acting early was not about "stopping piracy." It's about not allowing their copyright to be frivolously infringed.

what is the difference?

 

[PCD]

I gotta admit that while I kinda get it, the proposition that somebody is going to screenshot nearly 400 pages from a YouTube video and then painstakingly print them all out and cobble together their own terrible-looking version of the Player's Handbook is actually pretty funny. If somebody were to actually go to all that effort, I'd be more impressed than anything else.

But of course, nobody is going to do that because it's waaaaaay too much effort. And even if one really industrious person did, does that even matter? It's hardly likely that people are going to do it in droves.

Actually, I suppose an intrepid person might cobble together a PDF of the screenshots and sell it online as a complete Player's Handbook.... but then if somebody really wanted to do that, I imagine they'd get hold of a copy of the book and scan the pages. But that will always be the case with books--screenshotting YouTube videos seems like a really bad way to do that!

Counterfeiters benefit from your attitude!

 

[Corinnguard]

Sure, but just because piracy cannot be stopped totally doesn't mean it should just be allowed in all cases.

Let's say they let it slide this time. That will only encourage people to take greater liberties. Eventually they're going to have to say, "That's too much." Better to do it now, when it's already at a pretty egregious level.

True, piracy of any sort is bad for business. However, if you want to prevent it or minimize its' effects, it would have been better to do them beforehand. A vetting of the content creators should have been done. All of the content creators should have been given the Rules As Written version of what they could and could not do regardless of whether or not they got the PDF or the book. From what Sly Flourish said in his most recent video about what happened, it sounds like they got the Rules As Interpreted version instead. So, some of them felt free to show a lot more of the PDF or the book than WoTC was comfortable with.

People are going to take liberties if they see and/or know there is an opportunity to do so for good or ill.

 

[Minigiant]

it’s not like this is stopping anything

Its not about stopping it this time.

They have 2 other core books to publish.

 

[SlyFlourish]

As I understand it (and SlyFlourish, please correct me if I'm wrong), generally there are no restrictions on review copies, by anyone. WotC initially sending the copies without restrictions is not particularly unusual. Because usually, reviewers do reviews, with a judicious amount of the product shown, not show the whole product page by page. DnD Shorts, apparently, either doesn't understand how to do reviews, or was acting in bad faith.

These review copies are distinct from the preview PDFs that were sent to select YouTubers in advance of the PHB being publicly available. These watermarked PDFs were provided under NDAs that specified what information the YouTuber could talk about. DnD Shorts was not sent one of these. There were no issues with the previews at all.

Other than the embargo date, there were no restrictions and it was heavily implied that posting information from inside the book was fine.

Here’s the email I received:

Hello Adventurer,

We are pleased to inform you that your copy of the 2024 Player’s Handbook has shipped and is on its way to you! This initial package will contain one standard cover copy of the PHB; our team will be shipping your alt cover copy as soon as we can and will notify you once it is headed your way.

As a final reminder before you dive into this new book, we would like to remind everyone that we ask you to refrain from posting content from INSIDE the book until our embargo lifts after August 1st, 2024 @ 6:00 AM PST.

Thank you so much for your patience during this process, we hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Best,

The D&D Creator Relations Team

 

[SlyFlourish]

SlyFlourish absolutely showed more than 30 pages. I lost count at 50. And he definitely showed the whole page. His camera was set up to show a full two page spread. He may have stopped and talked about 30 pages, but he was showing a lot more.

Having seen the video, I can understand why they contacted him and asked him to blur the pages. If this wasn’t a violation of fair use it certainly came close enough to raise concerns. And if WotC made the decision to get the videos taken down that showed more, then they would certainly have to address his video in some way.

I’m also confused, because on this forum he said he’d done flip-throughs like this for other products, but in his latest video on the takedowns, he says he’d set his camera up like this for the first time.

Everyone other than WOTC has products in legal PDFs. Those are the "flip throughs" I do.

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

As a final reminder before you dive into this new book, we would like to remind everyone that we ask you to refrain from posting content from INSIDE the book until our embargo lifts after August 1st, 2024 @ 6:00 AM PST.

Well, it's certainly not a good thing that their Creator Relations Team is seemingly unaware that we're in DST at the moment (they should have specified the embargo lift time as PDT).

 

[Parmandur]

Because he was one of the channels who got a preview copy with very clear instructions as to what they could show. People who got review copies without any such instructions had no way of knowing they'd be held to similar restrictions, or even what those restrictions were.

True, and thst was a mistake.