YouTube pest PewDiePie has once again shown his true colours by dropping the n-word during a live broadcast. The millionaire YouTube ‘personality’ was streaming Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds and generally being rubbish at it when he said “”What a f***ing n*****! Geez! Oh my god! What the f***? Sorry, but what the f***?”
He then wen’t on to say “I don’t mean that in a bad [way].”
He has previously thought it would be funny to pay people to hold up signs that read ‘Death to all Jews’ and alleges that all his anger has been fuelled by how the mainstream media treat him. Maybe if he grew up a bit and got an editor he would get better treatment, but for the moment the mainstream media will continue to have to point out what a massive, racist, stupid, cockwomble he is.
However, as he has all the monies and millions of followers he will probably carry on being a casual racist. Thankfully for him he doesn’t even need to write up a new press release, he can use the same one from last time, “I’m sorry for the words I used as I know they offended people.” That will save him a bit of time so he can make more hilarious videos.
The good news for us in the UK is that Brexit is happening in a year and a half so we might be able to find a reason to send the humongous twatbugle back to Sweden. PewDiePie’s supporters have pointed out that he did say he didn’t mean the word in “a bad way”, and he does a lot of charitable work.
So did Jimmy Saville.
There is one group of people who can directly affect PewDiePie and that’s publishers and developers, if they blocked him from using their work he would have nothing to make videos about. The developers of Firewatch have had enough of PewDiePie’s antics.
“I am sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make,” tweeted Campo Santos Sean Vanaman. “He’s worse than a closeted racist: he’s a propagator of despicable garbage that does real damage to the culture around this industry. Freedom of speech is freedom of prosecution. His stream is not commentary, it is ad growth for his brand. Our game on his channel = endorsement.”
PewDiePie’s video of Firewatch has since been removed. The question is, will any other publishers follow suit? Will EA see racism and antisemitism as a small price to pay for millions of views for Star Wars Battlefield II? How much money will Ubisoft throw at him to promote Assassin’s Creed? It will be interesting to see if anyone else takes a stand.
You can read more about normalisation of casual racism in gaming here.
Source: Eurogamer
TheShepanator
Pretty sure Campo Santo’s DMCA takedown of Pewdiepie’s firewatch videos is in violation of fair use laws. Not to defend the horrible thing Pewdiepie said, but I don’t like the idea of developers being able to take down any content featuring their game whenever it takes their fancy.
borsdy
I read somewhere that let’s plays aren’t protected by fair use laws, however reviews are apparently
Tuffcub
http://codes.findlaw.com/us/title-17-copyrights/17-usc-sect-107.html
Fair use means a streamer can broadcast their gameplay “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . scholarship, or research . . . .”
PewDiePie (and others) don’t offer constructive criticism (ie a review) of a game, in fact he’s stated before he does not do reviews, it’s purely for entertainment of watching him play, as are other Let’s Plays.
Therefore Fair Use isn’t applicable, it’s only through the grace of the publishers that they are allowed as, for the most part, they benefit both parties.
However, if there is a negative implication (like now) then they are well within there rights to remove the videos.
TheShepanator
Even “reaction videos” of a game are protected under fair use, because the content creator is giving something to the audience outside of the game, and it’s usually heavily cut and the whole game isn’t shown.
https://iplsrutgers.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/do-lets-play-videos-constitute-fair-use/
Also on their website Campo Santo literally give explicit permission for people to stream/upload lets plays of their game and even monetise it:
“Can I stream this game? Can I make money off of those streams?
Yes. We love that people stream and share their experiences in the game. You are free to monetize your videos as well.”
(From the FAQ page on the firewatch website)
MrYd
I’m not convinced the “they gave permission” argument works. Yes, they gave permission, but I suspect they’re legally entitled to withdraw that permission at any time for whatever reason they want, either for an individual or more generally.
Their permission is probably the legal equivalent of a vague “yeah, sure, you can do it unless we decide at some point you can’t”.
TheShepanator
Regardless of that, the “spirit of the law” (i.e. what the law is actually trying to achieve) is to stop people from pirating content while still allowing reviews, mashups, parodies, entertainment pieces, etc. So lets plays clearly fall into fair use. There’s no legal precedent right now, because lets plays are relatively new and usually content creators are too small to fight against a huge company bullying them (See the Nintendo creators program), but if it actually went to court then the law is clear.
Tuffcub
Mashups are not legal as my lawyers will happily tell you :)
As you point out, Campo explicitly gave permission. And they can retract that.
Let’s plays are not reviews, simple as that, so are not fair use. That’s the current law.
MrYd
I’m not convinced the law really is clear. That article you linked to lists 4 things to consider according to the law, and half of them probably don’t help the argument for fair use.
It’s making money pretty much entirely from the copyrighted work of someone else, which is clearly not fair use. But it’s probably not harming the copyright holders and quite possibly benefits them. Unless it’s saying bad things about the game and putting people off buying it, it’s free advertising.
If it ever did get tested in court, there’s probably an equal chance of it going either way.
TheShepanator
whatever, point is lets plays come under fair use.
TheShepanator
Copyright exists to stop piracy.
Videogames are an interactive medium, you can’t experience a videogame by watching it on youtube. Added to that, when somebody is commentating over it and adding their own entertainment value that further pushes it into fair use. The alternative is that lets plays don’t come under fair use, and suddenly watching a video of somebody playing a game is equivalent to torrenting the game and playing it yourself, which is obviously ridiculous. Do you think game developers are losing money because people watch lets plays and think ‘well I’ve seen it on youtube I don’t need to bother playing it now!’?
Also, did you miss the last paragraph of that article?
“A majority of the fair use factors weigh in favor of allowing Let’s Play videos and thus, they should be protected. YouTube should change its policies regarding these videos, or it might have a difficult lawsuit to deal with.”
Tuffcub
Mm, no it doesnt. Let’s plays are entertainment, not reviews. Publishers have had to SAY that Let’s plays are allowed and can stop them when they want.
Googlebox on Channel 4. It’s essential “Let’s Play British TV”, you are watching someone watching TV. Channel 4 have to get permission to use all the clips, if someone says no, they cant use it due to the law.
Same rules for Lets Plays. At present permission has been granted, that can be removed.
Tuffcub
“Also, did you miss the last paragraph of that article?
“A majority of the fair use factors weigh in favor of allowing Let’s Play videos and thus, they should be protected. YouTube should change its policies regarding these videos, or it might have a difficult lawsuit to deal with.”
Yes, that still doesn’t mean it’s accepted law. There needs to be a test case.
TheShepanator
comparing gogglebox to lets plays is a massive false equivalence argument. You can’t get the full experience of a game by watching somebody else play it, games are interactive. Also entertainment IS protected under fair use.
There doesn’t need to be a test case to make a law valid, that’s a rather silly argument.
Andrewww
The pros and cons are discussed here:
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1162411
kjkg
He is disgusting but what worries me more is the people that are defending him. A lot of his followers are young kids and they are defending it, saying it was a mistake or that everyone says it sometimes. No. No they don’t. And it terrifies me that these people genuinely believe that.
It might “only” be a word but it’s a word that should just never be used. This isn’t the “snowflakes” getting upset or “SJW’s” on a crusade. This is history 101 and being a decent human being!
duff_em_up_dave
I just turned my TV on and saw this on BBCNews!
Let me clarify, I saw him on BBCNews, not this article.
The people there were saying the same thing.
MrYd
But the BBC are biased SJW propaganda snowflakes, apparently. So of course it’ll be on there.
No, I’m not convinced either.
MrYd
Go on Mr Cub, tell us what you really think of him. I’m not sure it came across clearly ;)
But you get 4 bonus points for using the word “cockwomble”.
And another big pile of bonus points for the word “twatbugle”. I’m going to have to remember that one. Never come across it before (unlike “cockwomble”, which I use frequently along with “shitgibbon”)
He really is all of those things though, isn’t he?
The gamergate muppets seem to be enjoying it though. Oooh, free speech. He apologised afterwards as if it’s something normal people just say and then apologise for. They’ve even got a list of all the websites reporting on it (I guess TSA will be on there soon – I don’t think they’re big fans anyway)
JustTaylorNow
I don’t know, the word has become a tricky word in entertainment world.
I love hip hop, that’s pretty much all I ever listen too, I got a few white friends that also love hip hop & they dance around the word when their fav song comes on. Do I take it personal when a white person says it, depends on the context of it, if I see as at a concert & Jay Z is playing n****s in Paris, do I look at the white person next to me to see if they say the word?
I think it’s in the context of how it is said, like is someone said my n***a that’s a whole different context like someone say what’s up bruh but if someone said right out n*gger then that’s a whole diffeberwbt context.
Not defending the guy but if he wasn’t high profile no one would make noise
Tuffcub
Context is everything, but as stated he does use the word as an insult. “What a f***ing n*****”
That’s pretty clear cut to me.
As for use elsewhere is a tricky subject, some groups of society have effectively reclaimed the word, much in the same ways the gays managed to reclaim the word “Queer”. However, common sense is if you are white and broadcasting to millions, you probably shouldn’t say it, especially as an insult.
MrYd
I know a lot of people who really don’t like the word “queer”. Myself included. And quite a few who are happy to use it. Often with some vague meaning that isn’t quite the same as “gay” but I’ve never quite worked out.
And some people who would just explode at the use of “the gays” for some reason.
It doesn’t bother me that much though.
What did annoy me at the weekend was playing Star Trek Bridge Crew (which I’m kind of addicted to right now). Mostly you end up playing with unusually friendly random people who are all chatty and don’t take it too seriously.
Except for the one idiot who thought that “let’s kill the faggot” was an acceptable way to express a desire to destroy the Klingon ship that just appeared.
I may have got a bit annoyed by that. I may have “accidentally” lowered the shields at a crucial point afterwards. We may have sort of exploded shortly afterwards. He vanished quickly after that for some reason. NEVER piss me off when I’m the only thing standing between life and death for a strangely small bunch of people.
Tanster
Tuffcub after all your intellectual argument and reasoning to put down this idiot with his racist and downright disgusting choice of words and actions did you really just refer to the LGBTQ community as “the gays”? A reference that went out in the 80’s!!!
Stefan L
Two points of context here are that Tuff is gay and prone to the odd typo. I don’t know if he meant to type it or not, but if he did, then to a large degree he’s inside the tent and weeing out.
MrYd
Having been camping many times, frequently with the gays as it happens, I’d like to point out that being inside a tent and pissing out of it is really not a good idea. You end up with horrible soggy patches you forget are there.
You need to find a toilet, or a handy discreet hedge. Usually the hedge, because the toilets are inevitably much too far away.
Also “Tuff is gay and prone to the odd typo” makes it sound like the two things are connected in some way. Will I have to make more typos in future to satisfy your ideas of the gays? ;)
Tuffcub
As on of the gays I can assure you that “The gays” is widely used by the gays.
colmshan1990
Very well put, best gaming article I’ve read in a while.
Now this is what I would call a proper public service piece.
Lieutenant Fatman
Well said. I wonder when youtube will realise it would be in their best interest to ban this racist idiot.
The Lone Steven
To be fair, it is easy for stuff like this to slip. To be fair, again, most people don’t use racial slurs/terms in this manner. At least he apologised but seriously? The N Word because of gaming reasons? I’ve dropped the F bomb several times over the years during various games but never the N word. Same with most folks. Youtube won’t do much. They are currently focusing on making it hard for youtubers to use the service and funding their professions. Youtube has proven time and time again it doesn’t care.
Though having tripled checked the article, what the flying feck? That is flat out racist. Perhaps, he meant numpty or something and got his words mixed. Perhaps not but he’ll come out of it unharmed. He is one of the few massive personalities on Youtube that can afford the odd incident. That and well, it’s extremely tame compared to the bulk of comments on the site.
Twitch, however, is likely to kick him off. I think they are a lot stricter with this type of stuff.
parryman
That wasn’t casual racism, it was racism.
Casual racism is more along the lines of calling Scottish people tight with money, or Irish people unintelligent, or the French anything.
JR.
I’m not defending him because he very well may be ‘a racist’ but I’m wondering if a person can use a racist word and not in fact be racist. Or does using a racist word automatically make one a racist even if the intended use of the racist word isn’t motivated by racial hatred but rather out of ignorance. In which case, he would be an ignorant man who used a racist word. Not a racist per se.
MrYd
No, that just makes him an ignorant racist. Somewhere in the middle of the scale that goes from “normal people who wouldn’t just randomly call someone that” all the way up to “Trumps friends who have been in the news recently for horribly racist crap”.
JR.
Yes but to be fair, if Trump ordered his coffee ‘white’, the news would report, ‘BREAKING NEWS!!! #notmyPresident was racist at Starbucks’. Or some such nonsense. Followed by Barack and Michelle Obama tweeting pictures of themselves holding eapresso’s at Cosa because ‘#blackcoffeesmatter’. Speaking of racists… these self righteous clowns are two of the worst, setting race relations back decades.
The Lone Steven
To be fair, Trump would somehow manage to make it racist and Fox would attack the Obamas for having a white coffee and turn it into something racial. I mean, they attacked Obama for daring to wear a tan suit and eat dijon mustard.
ron_mcphatty
I personally think that racism is on the spectrum of stereotyping and generalisation, I know a couple of old people who use un-PC terms without hatred so I think you’re right to suggest ignorance.
This cockwomble PewDiePie is an attention seeking turdbugle though, I don’t think he’s ignorant, just a mouldy wankrag :)
JR.
I guess I just dislike this current trend to vilify and attempt to destroy the livelihoods of those we disagree with. Not entirely because of their views but because we dislike the individual in question on a personal level. Calling someone ‘ignorant’ isn’t quite as damaging as being labelled a ‘racist’. And it’s this maximum damage approach that I find most unsettling of all. We’ve gone from shaming people for being different to shaming people for thinking different. Even shaming people for speaking out of turn, whether it is intentional or not. How is that better? Surely we should lead by example and show them, not shame them. Otherwise, we are no better than what came before.
People see Trump as the cause of the problem but he wasn’t the cause of this divide. Obama was. Trump was allowed to rise to power because of the poor and neglectful leadership of his predecessor. A good leader understands their country and ALL of the people in it. They understand that progress take’s time and the potential consequences of forcing change prematurely. Sadly, the Obama’s, hoping to take the credit for ‘leading the change’, pushed too far, too soon and as a result of their self-serving, self-righteous arrogance, did more harm and caused a greater divide than we have seen for many years. But it’s all Trump’s fault. He’s an easy and obvious target, for sure.
History shouldn’t look back favourably on the Obama’s. Although I suppose that is entirely dependent on who is writing the history books.
MrYd
Ah, so it’s because I don’t like PDP that I think he’s a horrible racist and deserves whatever (legal) trouble he gets from this?
As it happens, I don’t like or dislike him. I’m obviously far too old to be part of his target audience, but he’s obviously popular with a lot of people. He’s also rich, young and reasonably attractive. Well done him.
So it’s nothing personal, just the racism. And no, racism isn’t just a case of “thinking different”. It’s just wrong to anyone other than another racist. Some things just clearly are, which is something you would think those on the right would agree with.
As for Trump being Obama’s fault? I think it’s more just a case of the world sometimes goes a little bit mad and you get weird results like Trump and Brexit, helped by a few nutters taking advantage of the situation. And the media help too, of course. Makes for much more interesting news if something unlikely is going to happen, and reporting on that possibly helps that happen too. (Would the Brexit vote have gone the way it did if UKIP didn’t get much more coverage than they deserved?)
Eventually it’ll sort itself out. We’ll just have to hope there’s not too much damage done before then.
But no, Trump is all the fault of Obama because you obviously don’t like him.
JR.
Yes but then we’re back to what defines a racist. Did he use that word because he hates all black people and feels superior to them or did he simply (and rather foolishly) use that word in the heat of the moment, without any racist intent? If it’s the later, I think a (genuine) apology, a quick google search on why that word is completely inappropriate (if he doesn’t already know) and some restraint in the future would be suffice. It’s not like he recorded the live broadcast with a pillowcase on his head for crying out loud. Although you’d be forgiven for assuming he did given the degree of hysteria.
If history has shown us anything, it’s that things won’t just sort themselves out in the end. Not for long anyway. People and conflict go hand in hand I’m afraid. Nothing a war won’t solve, I suppose. Perhaps conflict is nature’s best defence against overpopulation? It certainly has proved effective in the past.
I’d have more respect the ‘anti’ (Trump/Brexit) brigades if they didn’t behave like spoilt children and respected the democratic process, whether they agree with the outcome or not. Often, in life, things don’t turn out the way one hopes. And sometimes you have to take a step back and think of the bigger picture. Sadly, many ‘anti’ supporters can’t see past their own noses. It must be hard for a generation who seldom, if ever, here the word ‘no’.
As it stands, it’s difficult to pick a side when you have no respect for either. It’s much easier to sit back, enjoy the ensuing chaos and deal with whatever remains.
MrYd
Back to what defines a racist? I’d imagine saying “What a f***ing n*****!” when millions of people will hear it probably counts. What normal person would say that? Especially when it’s not the first time he’s acted like a massive cockwomble and done something he shouldn’t.
Also, don’t start on that “respect the democratic process” nonsense. That would be the democratic process that allows people to object and protest against something they don’t like, yes? Especially important to be able to do that when a government most people didn’t vote for are doing something most people didn’t vote for. And we’re supposed to shut up and accept it? No. Fucking. Way.
The Lone Steven
Just not gonna to address the politics because it’s not really suitable for commenting here. But it may be the perfect excuse to post in the forums. ;)
But i think, what PDP may have done is use it in a way to someone would retort “What a ******* ass!” instead of really racist purposes. However, the fact that this was the first thing to come to his mind says a lot about him. His first language is Swedish thus kinda is a bit dammning that he used the N word. Doing so in front of millions will be interpreted differently and well, he’s a prat. If it wasn’t for intetionally racist reasons, he’s a moron. If it was for racist reaesons, he’s a racist moron.
JR.
I think we all agree he’s an idiot at the very least.
The Lone Steven
I disagree that he is an idiot. He is a moron, which is a rank above idiot. :P