Hey bros,

I was wondering how youtube's monetisation works with lets plays, looking around it looks like whether or not lets play's count as fair use is in dispute (probably on the side of not). Can they be (legally) monetised without contacting the game's right holders? Even if they can technically be monetised has anyone tried doing so, I heard stories online of copyright strikes, video deletion etc. ?

Thanks

Thanks, for the reply. Anyone can now monetise their videos in youtube (section under account settings).

I don't understand why I would be banned from adsense though if I had rights-holder permission. (although I have heard a few stories of accounts being banned for no reason)

Banned for what reason? Or was one not given?

I completely agree, I assume they must get permission from game rights holders, but I can't see how this is always possible for small channels. I guess joining with a partner like machinima etc would help massively in this, but I've heard some really bad stories of these too (giving people far less than they deserve etc.)

I never wondered about it tbh, I don't have nearly enough viewers on my channel and I don't think we ever will. Even if I did as said their track record is hardly great, they're all basically money grabbing scumbags from all accounts I've heard involving them.

youtube.com/user/WhaDaFuqWasThat Literally just started, all we have now is the first two episodes in a slender lets play series. Neither are great, but we didn't expect them to be, this is our first attempt at anything lets play. As said, I currently think a partnership deal is something we aren't interested in, for the reasons mentioned before. Which is why we were looking into monetising our videos directly through youtube.

I don't have a social blade currently.

I agree with the monetising right away risk, that wasn't what we were looking to do, we were just looking into the possibility of it in the future. Youtube's support and help articles for it are incredibly useless.