very rarely am i afraid to hit publish
on a video sure there are theories that
I know are gonna end up being
controversial but at the end of the day
they're all just meant for fun there are
a few out there that are about actual
real topics that matter the stuff about
how loot boxes and mobile games hijack
your brain but overall 95% of the time
my theories are never meant to be taken
seriously just to get you to think about
your favorite games and movies
critically or through some different
perspective at the end of the day does
it really matter if Mario's a sociopath
or if link is dead or that I nail who
purple guy's true identity is finally
after like 15 attempts my philosophy has
always been that it doesn't that it's
more about listening to the evidence and
hearing a good story enabling you to
play the original Super Mario Brothers
with the knowledge that canonically
speaking all those blocks that you're
rewarded for hitting were indeed members
of the Mushroom Kingdom
and maybe you shouldn't go around
breaking them all really know if you
truly are the hero of the game I know
some people get really mad about that
philosophy and so I'd like to remind you
that this is a show that once calculated
the length of Luigi's hoo-hah don't get
me wrong I take my work and my research
in all of these episodes really
seriously but at the end of the day it's
all meant for entertainment for fun with
the little dose of Education on the side
that's why I honestly started making
these sorts of couch videos these are
the ones that are just a little bit more
personal and a little bit more important
quite frankly and today I'm legitimately
nervous to publish this video because
today it's talking about stuff in the
real world real stuff that really
matters and that I take really seriously
now today you may have noticed that your
sub box were hit with the old one-two
punch of uploads one game theory and one
this matpat talk time I guess you can
call it and that's because before you
watch that episode of game theory you
really should watch this video that
episode is all about the Scott Cawthon
fan art scandal about he releases a
teaser for his new finale our game but
with one major issue two of the
characters featured in that teaser
weren't his original work they were
actually recolored modified
and models that were so close to the
original designs of the characters that
the team working on this new game
couldn't tell the difference it was
definitely a huge oopsie moment and
Scott did the right thing by pulling the
Kizer off the internet but where that
episode looks at all the weird legal
wrinkles around that whole situation I
wanted to upload something else that
looked at the human side of things
because if there's one complaint that I
always see in online threads about why
this channel makes them so mad and why
they hate me so much it's that I steal
fan art and I've never really publicly
addressed that so today is all about fan
art how we do things here when we're
working on theories the steps we go to
to try and avoid any unintentional
issues and how you as a fan artist can
actually be better empowered to protect
your own work because honestly there
aren't many resources out there and I
legitimately want to help first off let
me just say that I totally relate to
Scott situation as an example last
episode we had a three-second segment
where I mentioned snaps sixes Salvage
minigames and the editor delivered me a
first draft that looked a little
something like this basically the
entirety of five sixes Salvage minigames
did you notice it let me play it again
basically the entirety of five sixes
Salvage minigames two of the three
images that we just showed don't
actually appear in Finans 6 their fan
made from a modded version of the game
where you can play through different
animatronic scenarios now after looking
for the mod I can only trace it back to
here Bend the hybrids YouTube channel so
I have to assume that he's the one who
is actively making these mods and then
just featuring them on the channel for
views but even then that one image of
golden Freddy at the salvage table has
been reposted without credit on 6 or so
other websites anyway I left the notes
in the draft calling out the mistake in
the final scene went a little something
like this basically the entirety of in a
fix is salvaged mini-games three scenes
directly from the game much better know
that example was an easy one to spot
because it came from a very prominent
gameplay moment things start to get a
little bit trickier though when you're
taking individual character models
here's another one that came up in the
same
episode draft you have Freddy foxy and
Bonnie notice the problem here it's not
the official model of Bonnie the face
and nose are just a little bit too round
in seeing the draft I wasn't a hundred
percent sure of it myself but I called
it out in the notes and changed it just
to be safe and now that I've gone back
and done a bit more research I can
indeed say that this is a fan model
credit to kit who the man on reddit but
if your image searching for Nath one
Bonnie it is the first result that shows
up in Google Images something that again
has been reposted and re credited dozens
of times and remember some of these fan
models are so good that Scott Cawthon
himself isn't catching up just like I'm
working with the team of editors who
aren't as familiar with nafiz I am Scott
is working with the team who isn't as
familiar with the franchise that he
himself created but he still had to
approve that image before it wound up on
his website that one image meanwhile in
just the two examples from game theory
we covered four seconds of what ended up
being an 18 minute long video where we
used hundreds of video assets for just
that one episode now does it excuse any
mistakes that slip through the cracks no
no it doesn't I'm not pretending that it
does but hopefully this helps you to at
least get a better understanding that
I'm not sitting here as some mustache
twirling villain trying to intentionally
steal other people's creations for his
own benefit and unlike Scott - we're not
just doing it with one franchise that we
happen to create we're doing it with
every game that we cover each with their
own robust fan communities often times
with different artwork that gets
featured in different territories around
the world here's another one that came
up recently from the Kirby episode this
Kirby Star Allies box art on Twitter I
received this tweet quote this is just a
new low I mean not only did you neglect
to use the official art you used a fans
mock-up without even creating them I
can't believe it how does something like
this even happen
well first off a new low friend have you
seen the persona video or the four owner
one let me explain to you how it could
happen
you google image search Kirby star
allies box art and you find it right
there search result number three there's
no watermark
there's nothing indicating the original
author the thing even has an ESRB rating
and an amiibo tag in the corners all the
translated stuff in the screen grabs on
the back it's there it looks legit even
if you click into this link on reddit
the post itself doesn't say that this is
something that the poster had made but
rather titled it box art version two we
just assumed it was an alternate version
of the game's box art especially
considering that this is a series with
vastly different boxes internationally
sometimes I mean take this example
Kirby's air ride for the Gamecube they
always make Kirby seems so angry in the
u.s. anyway if an editor actually gave
me a draft of a video that featured the
box art on the right I would probably
call it out as fan art since the
coloring of Kirby feels a bit too neon
it feels just a bit off from his usual
brand or at least his usual brand here
in the states I would assume it was
probably fan art and we would cut it
just to be safe anyway the long and
short of this whole example is that this
fan art was box art that was maybe
created by reddit user cliche name who
as far as I can tell based on his
profile just happens to make really
convincing fake box art for Nintendo
switch games again this isn't me trying
to condone any mistakes it's just trying
to show how easy it is for some of this
stuff to unintentionally slip through
the cracks you know the culture around
fan art has changed a lot over the years
this channel is going on eight years old
and like the middle aged dad of YouTube
right now younger than granny marbles
and great-uncle Smosh but old enough to
remember the days when you rated videos
from one to five stars and they game out
awards for getting the most views in a
week yeah those were real things back in
the day now in those early days of game
theory if I used fan art I would
actually get messages from the artists
saying that it was so cool that I had
used their art in a video nothing else
just hey thanks glad you liked it
it was sort of like how people treat
meme templates nowadays if you're using
a meme you have no idea who the
originator of that template was but
there was an originator a first
user whether they came from the meme
economy subreddit or tumblr or the
darker recesses of the internet that
produced the truly dankest of dank memes
fan art kind of felt like that it's also
worth mentioning that back during the
first two to three years of game theory
years of game theory mind you I wasn't
monetizing any of my videos so I wasn't
making money off of anyone else's fan
art because I literally wasn't making
any money for myself the channel had
almost a million subscribers before I
turned monetization on funny enough
because I was afraid of getting
copyright strikes from gaming companies
and YouTube would delete my channel you
know come to think of it maybe that's
why it was less of a big deal back then
to use fan art the idea of building a
personal brand around your art or your
YouTube channel just wasn't a thing to a
lot of us back then you didn't think
about making money off of this stuff
especially when you were dealing with
someone else's game characters we were
all just the little guys scared of the
big guys and the big guys were the game
makers and then four years ago something
big happened something that
fundamentally changed the relationship
between youtuber and fan artists or at
least the way I perceived that
relationship and that big thing was
named Smike for those of you who are in
around to see it Smike was a channel
that skyrocketed to over a million
subscribers during the initial five
nights at Freddy's craze he had a
non-stop barrage of top 10 videos
dedicated to all things for Nath and
when I say all things fine ass I mean
all things snaf clean when you're doing
top 10 facts about the cupcake you know
that you've crossed into some unholy
ground cue thee it's time to stop meme
and now QT it's time to stop me and that
inspired my it's time to stop me great
so much so that the running joke of this
mic channel was that Smike was smil king
for Nath but that wasn't the issue
plenty of youtubers milk a franchise to
death
the issue was that he filled his videos
with fan art uncredited fan art and for
the first time a creator was actually
held accountable seen as building this
hugely successful channel using stuff
that he had stolen from dozens upon
dozens of other creators so much so that
he had to make a public apology and
pulled down all of those old videos but
you gotta say as a bummer cuz I really
wanted to revisit what cupcake number
three fact was I need my facts mic snap
is coming back into relevance I need to
refresh myself but it was that moment
that I realized that I needed to treat
fan aren't more seriously
based on that incident four years ago in
May of 2015 I actually changed the
entire policy about how images are used
in game theory and would eventually be
used on film theory I still have the
emails in fact it's just not something
I've ever talked about publicly so I
think a lot of people think that this
was an issue that I never addressed or
took seriously but that couldn't be
further from the truth
and this is really the place where I
want to set that record straight for
every game theory episode every single
person who's ever edited a video for
myself for anyone who ever touches one
of these things they have to follow
strict guidelines on what images we can
and can't use we only use images that
are marked in google image search
results as labeled for commercial reuse
or reuse with modification an image with
either of those two labels is one that
you're allowed to download print and
throw up in your house if you want to
but also allows you to use it in your
business hence the commercial part of
commercial reuse that way theoretically
speaking every image we use should be in
the clear in general if you're a YouTube
creator this is where I'd recommend you
get all your images when you're looking
for images for your videos now all that
said it's not a perfect system clearly
we still run into instances where we're
using other people's fan art
unintentionally but you know me I'm an
uber nerd who loves to keep track of all
the data about everything and so I've
been keeping track of the data around
this and most of the time when these
situations arise it's usually a
combination of these two reasons first
the image was mislabeled by Google
images which is usually the result of -
the image already being reposted by some
other
site who has the licensed for ryu
setting automatically turned on for
their accounts it even happens a lot on
the fan wiki's when situations like this
happen I feel horrible it's painful it's
embarrassing I beat myself up over it
the internet definitely beats me up over
it and quite frankly some people never
let me live down the few mistakes that
we've made across the literal sea of
tens of thousands of images that we've
used across the eight years of this
series when these things happen I do try
to get the proper credit into the
episode as soon as I can
you can ask Popo keno or it's me
Veronica or potato farm twenty-one all
on Reddit after speaking with these
people and learning about the
difficulties that they had in trying to
reach me about their crediting claims
i've even updated the descriptions on
the channels to encourage people to post
on the game theorist subreddit which
tends to be the easiest place for me to
find these sorts of complaints like I
said no solution is perfect but I've
tried to solve the problem from a lot of
different angles from the way we do
things here internally when we're
creating episodes to the way that people
externally can contact us to fix these
sorts of issues but there is a third
angle but it's one that requires a
little bit more work from you fan
artists protect yourself using these
three steps first check the policy of
the site's where you're uploading your
content or double-check your image use
policies to ensure that the settings
match how you want your art to be used
it'll help protect your artwork from
unfair sharing or at least it'll protect
it a little bit better to sign your work
and then three watermark that work so it
can't be mistaken as official artwork or
shared without your name being attached
to it and lastly this isn't so much a
step as it is a request
give us the benefit of the doubt I hope
I've convinced you today that these
sorts of mistakes aren't happening
maliciously I'm sorry that your work
unfortunately got wrapped up in us
continuing to try and learn how to best
handle these nuanced situations but
hopefully it'll help empower all of us
to deal with similar situations in the
future we'll finally have a better
understanding of how to handle fan art
it's interesting but the whole evolution
of fan art online reflects some of the
best and worst parts of online culture
all wrapped up in one fan art is at its
core a real
imagining of your favorite character or
game and it gives everyone a chance to
show the world that their favorite story
can be told through their own personal
lens it used to be that each piece of
content out there in the world was its
own little package that when the end
credits rolled the movie was over fan
art changes all of that
through fan art the movie goes on to be
infinitely reinterpreted the TV show can
go in whatever direction the artist
imagines and that youtuber that you love
so much can be placed into any art form
any meme any edit mashup sparkly
snapchat puppy filter you can dream up
the content is no longer just the
endpoint it's the beginning it takes on
a new life whether you're drawing your
favorite ship writing a fanfic or
crafting a theory yeah game theory as a
show is itself a form of fan art which
is why I do take this stuff really
seriously sometimes the original artist
might not be comfortable with your
interpretation like I can't say I
totally agree with all the online ships
that I see on Wattpad or the
unbelievable number of children that
I've apparently adopted over in those
stories but the thing about the Internet
is that it's all open to interpretation
whether or not JK Rowling really did
intend for so-and-so to be dating such
and such in their earlier days it
doesn't matter because once those
stories are published and those movies
are released the power passes from the
creator to the fan artist and frankly
the Internet theorists to interpret the
stories however they want when we advise
people on the consulting side who are
building a new YouTube channel or trying
to launch their brand online one of the
things that we tell them over and over
again is that their logo or their main
character should be easy to draw so that
fan artists can have an easier time
recreating it and riffing on it most of
the time they've never even thought of
that sort of thing like it's never
occurred to them but I think more and
more you're gonna start to see people
celebrities companies all looking to
people who have the power to take their
idea and run with it to reinterpret it
to make it much more powerful than the
original the people talking about it
writing about it drawing painting
animating and editing it here on the
Internet so okay all that is to say that
the power of fan art and the importance
of respecting fan artists has come a
long way on the Internet I've also come
a long way
but I'm on this learning curve just
along with everyone else I'm only human
sometimes I use something without
realizing it's fan art and so do other
people if you see this happen not just
to me but on the Internet at large
try not to assume that the person is a
thief or malicious or trying to take
advantage of the little guy the Internet
is just an enormous place and there are
billions upon billions of contributors
everywhere Save cancel culture for
something else something that really
matters and with that I think I'm done
here go get on out of here go watch that
finale episode I upload it alongside
this one I wanted to make sure I
uploaded them together because I didn't
want anyone to think that I was trying
to make excuses for using fan art on the
channel warm get away with something by
using the fanatic oppy right scandal as
some sort of a shield I did a ton of
research over in that episode on who
owns the fan art copyrights who owns the
characters themselves where they have
the rights to use them and on whether
Scott was required to actually take down
his trailer I really encourage you to
watch all the way through that one
because I talked about both sides of the
issue and for a topic that seems super
dry like who owns that copyright over
fan art it's actually really fascinating
and exposes a lot of weird issues about
France and about how your pictures of
the Eiffel Tower are probably illegal
pretty fascinating stuff over there so
anyway go check it out click the little
box and remember that's not a theory
it's a talk a couch talk thanks for
watching
that's just story time story story time
with Matt Pat I don't know if you have
an idea for how I should brand these
things let me know I'm doing a lot of
them nowadays I like them I don't know
what to call them let me know in the
comments if you're still listening to me
and if you're still listening to me why
haven't you watched that other episode
go watch that one now do it now it's
like a collab with myself