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Subject: New microsoft game usage agreement.
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http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/developer/rules.htm\


From what my friends and i have found out is that....Microsoft is hell bent on pissing all of the Machinima makers out there.

Basically in this new agreement it cuts off all of us from doing anything.

We can't use the sound from any of the microsoft game studio's games - IE- Halo-Shadowrun- ect.
We can't add on to the story! "Lost chapters" what not

Montages will be almost gone.

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO RED VS BLUE?

If i have read this wrong and am not suppose to be pissed off, then somebody plz explain what im suppose to be feeling!

-Zack

  • 08.15.2007 5:15 PM PDT

RVB most likely has a license with Microsoft, because they're using the machinimatic antics commercially.

There was a big shake about this over at HBO yesterday - mostly, the point is that if you want to use the material for noncommercial stuff, but you want to post it on a public website (i.e. YouTube), you have to plug in "[The title of your Item] was created under Microsoft’s “Game Content Usage Rules” using assets from GAMENAME, © Microsoft Corporation." You can put it anywhere, as long as it's noticable.

At least, that's the impression I was under.

  • 08.15.2007 5:22 PM PDT
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The Marty Army

Ah, look at the lonely people...

Microsoft has to realize that those terms are simply going to be ignored. Machinima and montages will be as prevalent as they always have been.

  • 08.15.2007 5:28 PM PDT
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Yes, i also have to agree that if 200,000 + ignore those rules, then they won't contact every single one.

  • 08.15.2007 5:34 PM PDT
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zOMG MICRO$ITH!

  • 08.15.2007 5:41 PM PDT

Sandswept Studios Design Director

Visit us and check out our games at Sandswept.net!

~~Pardon Our Dust.~~

Read a bit more carefully.
Microsoft grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use and display Game Content and to create derivative works based upon Game Content, strictly for noncommercial and personal use.
You can make Machinima. You can't make any money from your machinima, though. Sounds reasonable.

You can’t use the soundtracks or audio effects from the original game. We often license those from third parties and don’t have the rights to pass them on to you.
You can't extract/record their sounds and use them. I'm positive if you make a machinima video in the game, and fire a weapon, that's not stealing, because you're not putting it on anything else. If I'm wrong, then you can just replace the sounds with other sounds.

Apparently you also can't put Halo music to a montage. Bummer. :P

You can’t add to the game universe or expand on the story told in the game with “lost chapters” or back story or anything like that.
Meh. Most add-ons and backstories from fans suck anyway. ;) I'd rather get the real deal.

[Edited on 08.15.2007 7:58 PM PDT]

  • 08.15.2007 7:54 PM PDT

July 15, 2008... The day the timer stood still.

Hmm, there are a LOT of people out there who are breaking most of these rules. I, for one, have got a lot of copying + pasting to do. So far, Bungie has been pretty cool about machinima. They added the save-film feature, didn't they? Yes, it's going to help people out on their games a lot, playing wise, but it's also there to help the machinima community (LB, RB, both sticks, down on the D-pad, A-button, 3 seconds anyone?) In the podcast, they said, "We can't wait to see what some of the fans out there can come up with."

I feel that most machinima, video, etc. are promoting the game more than anything else. I've made videos in Dead Rising, Blazing Angels, etc. and have gotten a few messages of people saying, "I want this game now!" And again, I don't think some of these game companies really care all that much.

  • 08.15.2007 8:21 PM PDT

Posted by: WolfmanMaverick
You people have just sent my sides into orbit. A bunch of MLG try hards sucking the dick of some supposed pro half the thread hasn't even heard of. Classic.

Posted by: BlueBaron123
I've made videos in Dead Rising, Blazing Angels, etc. and have gotten a few messages of people saying, "I want this game now!" And again, I don't think some of these game companies really care all that much.

I think that it mostly is there to stop people from trying to make money from it. Joe Q Montage who is doing it for fun should be fine.

Oh and Raining Dogs was better Baron.

  • 08.15.2007 8:28 PM PDT

Blarg....

Most of this stuff makes sense but c'mon Microsoft! You're pretty much shooting yourself in the foot! Machinima more than anything promotes the games you've been relying so heavily on. Rooster Teeth is pretty much the only thing that is pardoned from this rule because Microsoft made a deal with them and gave them exclusive rights to use Halo in there machinima. What's gonna happen to all the budding machinamakers out there, or those who had were planning on sequels? What happened to the little guys Micro$oft?

Of course this is not the developers fault at all, but how will they respond to this. Like Bungie, they have such a strong and probably THE largest machinima community out there. I wonder how the whole save film feature is gonna work if others can't even share the films without being bludgeoned by Legal Rights and Microsoft BS.

> : [

[Edited on 08.15.2007 8:59 PM PDT]

  • 08.15.2007 8:59 PM PDT
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Right how is the saved filom feature going to work in this and y would microsoft do this y its crazy

  • 08.15.2007 10:06 PM PDT

It's perfectly reasonable that credit should be given where credit is due. It may not be completely obvious to anyone watching where you garnered your assets, so Microsoft is just saying that you need to do that.

As for music, that's always been a bit of a tricky issue. I mean, look at all the AMv's out there. Those give some credit (title, artist), most of the time, but they usually omit information like the record label, which, legally, is important.

Hopefully, this will make things more professional looking. I think that it's nice to see a little legal disclaimer at the end of a montage.

  • 08.16.2007 1:27 AM PDT
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It's basically the same arrangement as before (as far as I can tell in two minutes), now they've just put it in writing.

Don't make money off of machinimas. That simple.
-TGP-

  • 08.16.2007 4:18 PM PDT

Posted by: Great_Pretender
It's basically the same arrangement as before (as far as I can tell in two minutes), now they've just put it in writing.

Don't make money off of machinimas. That simple.
-TGP-


What about Rooster Teeth?

  • 08.16.2007 4:46 PM PDT
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Posted by: Wakeboy1337
Posted by: Great_Pretender
It's basically the same arrangement as before (as far as I can tell in two minutes), now they've just put it in writing.

Don't make money off of machinimas. That simple.
-TGP-


What about Rooster Teeth?


Have you read more than 1 post in this topic? Two people just said that RT Probably have some sort of Agreemant with M$.

  • 08.16.2007 5:09 PM PDT

Yeah im sure that the rest of the Halo community which is 2 million or more that will probably post Machinima and Montages will get persued by lawyers, thats a lot of people to Track IP's, get to their house, and sue them. They better have lots of lawyers...

  • 08.16.2007 6:15 PM PDT
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I dont want to but Im probably going to do everything stated here completey opposite....except make money off of it.

  • 08.16.2007 6:22 PM PDT
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I really don't understand why everyone's overreacting on other threads. Just give credit to MS and Bungie, and you're fine. I think it's because this new generation (which I'm part of) is so lazy when it comes to citing resources, etc. I really can't see the inconvenience.

  • 08.16.2007 6:24 PM PDT
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Game Content Usage Rules

We know that people like you love our games and sometimes want to use things like gameplay footage, screenshots, music, and other elements of our games (“Game Content”) to make things like machinima, videos, and and other cool things (your “Item” or “Items”). We’d like to make that easier for you. So long as you can respect these rules, you can use our Game Content to make your Items.

What can I do?
Here’s the magic words from our lawyers: so long as you respect these rules, Microsoft grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use and display Game Content and to create derivative works based upon Game Content, strictly for noncommercial and personal use. We can revoke this limited use license at any time and for any reason.

If you share your Items with your friends or post them on your web site, then you also must include the following notice about the Game Content. You can put it in a README file, or on the web page from where it’s downloaded, or anywhere else that makes sense so long as anyone who sees your Item will also find this notice.

[The title of your Item] was created under Microsoft’s “Game Content Usage Rules” using assets from GAMENAME, © Microsoft Corporation.

You can also put a link to this page so people know what the Game Content Creation Rules are.

So what does that mean?
We're giving you some very broad rights to create and redistribute content. You don’t have to post the content on your own site – you can link to a third-party site containing your Items if you’d prefer to store them there.

And by the way, these Rules only cover games published by Microsoft Game Studios and where Microsoft owns the copyright. We can’t give you permission to use games from other publishers or games where Microsoft doesn’t own the IP. Sorry, but you’ll have to contact them for that. Where you see a link to this text on a game’s community website, then you’re good to go. As you can see, this will give you access to some of the most popular titles on the PC and Xbox 360, including:

* Age of Empires (all versions)
* Flight Simulator (all versions)*
* Forza Motorsport (all versions)*
* Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3 (when released)
* Kameo
* Perfect Dark Zero
* Project Gotham Racing (all versions)*
* Rise of Nations (all versions)
* Shadowrun
* Viva Piñata

* Use of individual vehicles may require permission from their manufacturer.

What can't I do?
It’s tough to predict everything people will do, but there are some things that you can be sure will get our attention.

* You can’t reverse engineer our games to access the assets or otherwise do things that the games don’t normally permit in order to create your Items.

* You can’t use Game Content to create pornographic or obscene Items, or anything that contains vulgar, racist, hateful, or otherwise objectionable content.

* You can’t sell or otherwise earn anything from your Items. We will let you have advertising on the page with the Item on it, but that’s it. That means you can’t sell it, post it on a site that requires subscription or other fees, solicit donations of any kind (even by PayPal), use it to enter a contest or sweepstakes, or post it on a page you use to sell other items (even if those other items have nothing to do with Game Content or Microsoft).

* You can’t use the soundtracks or audio effects from the original game. We often license those from third parties and don’t have the rights to pass them on to you.

* You can’t infringe anyone’s IP rights in your Item, even if the IP rights being infringed don’t belong to Microsoft. Among other things that means you can’t use any of Microsoft’s trademarked logos or names except in the ways described in the pages linked from www.microsoft.com/trademarks.

* You can’t add to the game universe or expand on the story told in the game with “lost chapters” or back story or anything like that.

* You can’t grant anyone the right to build on your creations. We don’t mind if other people help you out, but you have to be clear with them that it’s not you giving permission, it’s us. (That’s how we make sure everyone plays by the same rules.)

If you do any of these things, you can expect to hear from Microsoft’s lawyers who will tell you that you have to stop distributing your Items right away.

There’s still a way to do some of these things we’ve excluded, but you have to contact us for a commercial license. Thanks, and have fun!


[Directed at the underlined portion] Does that mean I would have to state that in my saved films before I share them over Xbox Live?

[Directed at Microsoft and their evil legion of lawyers] So you are basically saying that they following are outlawed:
Fun.
"Bad" words that might offend the 12 years olds who shouldn't be playing a "M" rated title such as Halo 3.
Modding, in any way, shape, or form. (lulz)
Making good machinima or machinima that takes on a fan fiction style plot (see "The Codex" and other such machinimas).

GG Microsoft.

[Edited on 08.17.2007 7:26 AM PDT]

  • 08.17.2007 7:19 AM PDT

U forgot violence and sounds... Sounds is the thing that annoyed me the most.. why cant we listen to Halo music while our assault rifle pierces the nearest Spartan with a Splazer shot wizzing by your head? Thats really stupid...

  • 08.17.2007 8:49 AM PDT

If you don't got it, you want it. If you got it, you want more of it. Of course if you don't know what it is, it's hard to get any in the first place.

Fools, all of you.

Without the use of the in-game Audio Sound Effects, Halo Machinima is going to be much more difficult to produce, if not near impossible.

That means making your own sound effects. I mean who really uses Halo's Soundtrack for Machinima?

Not using Halo as a story base? That's not a big problem, especially for how clever most machinima makers are. They can use their own original ideas and scripts.

Would the Codex be that different if they didn't call them the Covenant, or reference Spartans or UNSC?

Not being able to use Audio however is a HUGE problem. Just look at a few of the Halo Machinimas (not RvB) that replaced alot of sound. It's very difficult to swap sounds and make it sound believable.

[Edited on 08.17.2007 12:30 PM PDT]

  • 08.17.2007 12:24 PM PDT
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Destinypedia - The Wiki for Bungie's Destiny
Posted by: DEATHPIMP72
Anyone but Foman. He smells like cheese.

I'm sorry, but these rules are infuriating to me. For a couple of days, I have attempted to use all of the contract interpretation doctrines I learned in law school and since in order to read these new game usage rules in a way that is reasonable and not overly oppressive to the machinima and game video makers out there.

After reading through the Game Usage Rules for the umpteenth time, I must come to the conclusion that they are patently unfair, impractical, poorly drafted, and likely not the final product of an attorney, but rather a document created by some idiotic marketing person after they decided that gamers "couldn't read" the lawyers' version.

My non-advisory opinion is that this "Contract" is filled with so many contradictions that it is basically unenforceable. As a result, that means that we users have NO licensing rights -- not the "very broad rights" that the Game Usage Rules purport to provide us.

If you ask me, this puts Microsoft in a pretty huge dilemma. These Rules are meant to allow machinima under certain restrictions, but instead have been messed with and altered to the point where they are too confusing and contradictory to allow for any kind of suitable guidelines for machinima makers to follow. The default, of course is that you have no rights to redistribute game content, even if modified or altered. But Microsoft is certainly not going to begin enforcing that -- fanmade machinima is free advertising and good public relations.

The end conclusion of all of this is that I agree with mostly everybody else who has stated that as long as you're not making money, you're most likely going to be fine. But I just wanted to point out that these Game Usage Rules do not say that -- under their terms, the restrictions on machinima and fanfics are horrifyingly strict, if strangely and impossibly confusing. Not that I'm advising you to go out and feel free to make any machinima you want without fear of reprisal as long as it's distributed in a non-profitable manner (I am not), but my prediction is that you won't be receiving any letters or emails from Microsoft lawyers unless you attempt to make money from these things.

  • 08.17.2007 1:00 PM PDT

The slater that has started will cost countless lives.
The slater that has started will create untold story's.
The slater that has started will not end with a bang.
The slater that has started will end with a unheard whimper
in the night.
RaspyYeti

Lucus films Let the best of the star wars fan content go uninposed if it is really good

  • 08.17.2007 1:04 PM PDT

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