Zee
patreon
WHY ARE A BUNCH OF VIDEOS PRIVATE!? an update.
🕑 Added 2019-11-24 12:06:40 +0000 UTC
To creators reading this As should be obvious: I'm not a lawyer and none of this constitutes legal advice it's just an explanation from me to an outsider why I'm doing what I'm doing.
To anyone getting ready to give creators advice: Please don't give legal advice or insanely intense doom and gloom predictions to creators unless you have a full, up to date, understanding of the matter at hand.
Also for those scared out about the initial statements by the ftc on animation: check out the update from yesterday, it's way less.... shall we say "vague and terrifying."
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Ok so, this is an incredibly uncertain time for Youtube creators, more specifically animators.
Youtube is making some huge changes... Again.
Unfortunately as always happens with these changes: Animation a high labor, misunderstood, multimedia punching; bag gets hit just as hard.
Youtube basically used creators to attract 2-12 year olds and instead of making policies to avoid collecting their data.... YT used them to turn a massive profit on unauthorized data collection. So, they got fined. Massively massively fined.
YT pointed at the creators and essentially blamed them for making content to lure young children onto the platform. Then they gave all creators a switch to mark content as aimed at kids or not made for kids
There is a misconception that marking content as aimed for kids just cuts into ad rev, no it will de-list the videos, make them unsearchable and make them unable to be added to playlists. It looks better than setting it to private but it will basically do just that.
What youtube main is clearly trying to do is eject young kids to, well.. YT Kids.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong but we've all seen videos on youtube that probably belong on YT Kids. Trains talking to monkeys in jibberish language etc...
I can very comfortably say, that isn't my channel.
Anyway, that brings me to the videos being set to private. My content has, from the beginning, been aimed at, honestly, well... me.
An idiot in his 30's who fucked up my wizard spell list one day and went "Where the fuck are the videos for this stuff?"
So I made a dumb video, (with a fuckload of errors in it) and then two and then a whole series (again with a metric shit ton of erros in it) and it turns out there are a lot of us out there.
I treated the videos as a conversation between me and a co-worker who I have conned into playing their first game of D&D with me this Friday. A conversation like that doesn't have ultraviolence and titties packed into every other word.
A conversation like that sometimes involves making a goofy little sketch in the margins.
But looking at those videos now, I decided to set private those videos where it's not obvious in the first few seconds that it's clearly made with an adult mind as the audience.
I know the FTC are after the Elsa Channels, the choo choo train wow vids, the underwater monkey vids.
(which itself is still ridiculous, I don't think sane parents care that much about targeted advertising that they feel even those bad actors should be punished with 42 thousand dollar fines per video. Those are worse than the fines you might face for getting blind drunk and crashing your car into the side of a firetruck.)
As time goes on, and we see how this whole thing shakes out, maybe this was a huge overreaction, but I'm not somebody who takes risks on this kind of stuff.
If I were a more optimistic less anxious man, probably it would have been four or five vids set taken down but I'm a basketcase. So it's many more than that.
Those videos will all find new homes on the internet. Shorter ones on twitter and/or instagram, longer ones possibly on Twitch.
The entire Animated Spellbook Library will also (in addition to being on free platforms somewhere) be organized into easily navigated private libraries here for patrons.
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Thanks for watching the videos, I will keep releasing many more to youtube (though there will obviously be even more swearing, violence, etc...)
You can subscribe to the patreon for free if you're interested in more news updates and things like the c-team animations (which I would never pay-gate)
And if you are frustrated by these changes, take it up with the FTC. Honestly things could get a lot worse before they get better. We should clearly signal that treating every youtube video as a private website and fining creators more than they make in a year is unreasonable.
If you want to know more about the situation or sign a petition to slow down some of these changes go here, there are lots of videos and links in the description:
https://www.change.org/p/the-federal-trade-commission-youtubers-and-viewers-unite-9045ee7f-f6f0-460e-b088-3429209dd7c6?recruiter=1015502725
I also HIGHLY recommend, after getting educated about the issue, commenting on the FTC's website.
Please be civil.
https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=FTC-2019-0054-0001
Comments
Zedrin
Here from Twitter (which, I was trying to find your twitter actually, but it's not linked on your Youtube.) I was trying to find an answer on what happened to your vids but I didn't see anything over on Yotuube (though I assumed it was COPPA fears). Speaking as a fellow animator, you probably would be safe with public-ing the vids again. The thing with COPPA, there was a lot of hysteria and fear about it. It's not good, and it probably will negatively impact creators like us, but we probably have a better chance at winning the lottery than actually being subject to a lawsuit from it. The FTC has acknowledged that animation is a medium, not by default targeted at kids. The big issue more comes from Youtube's end with how they handled the "Marked As for Kids" option, which to my knowledge actually keeps it off Youtube Kids if you set it appropriately. This potentially could result in a revenue dip for some creators, but that's about the worst of it. Even a worst case scenario where they DO go after a creator, their MO is "We need to see what kind of data you were collecting," to which the answer for most every youtuber is gonna be "none." So there'd be a difficult time getting it to apply to creators. But even before then, the protocol they have is to first send a letter to the creator asking them to clarify the intentions behind their content. Hypothetically if it came to a lawsuit, the fine would be based on the value of the video, not immediately the $40k. But, this is assuming that they've gone through all the other hurdles and were able to prove that you were collecting the private information from kids (which, again, Youtubers literally cannot). And to double up on that, that'd be a LOT of frivolous lawsuits they'd have to pursue that'd cost them a ton of time and money. Instead, all of the examples that they use as a touchstone were the very controversial cases very clearly targeting small children, similar to the Elsa-Spiderman case, some of which had 'sweepstakes' that encouraged kids to enter. Teen-and-up-targeted animation hasn't shown up at all in the cases they've brought up, to my knowledge, and isn't even on their radar. Unless you were deliberately advertising to kids (e.g. via sponsors and reviews for kids' stuff / collecting data via a third party method), there's not really anything that'd stick even in the worst case scenario. tl;dr: I think it'd be safe now to bring your stuff back. If you're still worried, unlisting it is also another option actually, as the means for categorizing vids under COPPA just aren't there if the vid isn't public. (also I'm not a lawyer, just a fellow animator/youtuber who's tried to keep up with the legal stuff as best I can.)
Heya Zee, just wondering the planned platform as mentioned? "The entire Animated Spellbook Library will also (in addition to being on free platforms somewhere) be organized into easily navigated private libraries here for patrons."
SGA
YouTube is essentially a monopoly and they always do their level best to skirt all consequences. I hope you find a good alternative and/or someone makes YouTube take responsibility. Also COPPA and the typical vague language with no regards to people's rights. You're great and I wish this didn't hit you so hard.
Considering the apparent instability of YouTube as a hosting medium, it may be prudent to look into alternatives. I don't know if you're open to suggestions, but another content creator that I really enjoy started their own hosting platform called floatplane, maybe it would be a good solution for you.
Core Flux
It's pretty gutting how these things keep getting worse for indie content creators. I hope you manage to get through it okay!
Ariamaki
We should absolutely dismantle the current FCC (Ajit Pai is in inhuman monster, etc, etc), but at the same time I hope you get the confidence back to re-list your past videos on YT. Losing the ability to easily share stuff like the C Team Animated series to the early Spellbooks with friends is pretty sad.
Raz Zach Stoddard
You are one of a handful of creators whose content has never failed to be either useful, silly, or some humorous combination of both. I think I can speak for a few of us in saying that well do what we can to back you up and support whatever you choose to do. You have this unique fucked-up charm that translates well into not only teaching D&D to obstinate 30-somethings like myself, but bringing perspective and experience that make learning the ins and outs of the game a lot more fun. So thanks for what you do, and let your fans know what you need to keep making those sweet sweet vids :)
Kane
2016 YouTube: you all have to be family friendly or you get no money 2019 YouTube: lol why you guys selling kids data. Get fined!
I understand, and it bites. I wish you the best with your content and from all this thank you for explaining.
Sorry to hear you're being affected by this Zee, I think given the circumstances, you're making the right decisions.
