Would it be possible for people’s thoughts as to where a player stands if, during their time in game, and bear in mind they will be playing on an ‘official’ server, they become aware that they are being videoed that will then be uploaded to Youtube without their express permission.
Is this in any way an infringement of privacy and / or copyright? And if it is, then whose privacy/copyright is being infringed?
Somebody on the server I play on asked this question, and no one seemed to know an answer.
It may be in the EulA. Pretty sure if you are on an official, it is considered public and by that fact you give up your ingame characters privacy rights.
Copyright? Maybe, but it would depend on whether the owner of the server required everyone to sign a non-disclosure agreement (N.D.A.) ahead of time which specifically stipulated you were not allowed to record or publish while playing on their server. Game companies that do closed beta testing of a game often do this.
There is no such thing as ‘in-game privacy rights.’ A human being gets rights and those rights are based on where the person lives (country or region). When we play on someone else’s server, it is solely up to the owner of that server to make and enforce the rules. What we might be mistaking for ‘rights’ is actually just the generosity of that server owner.
Make no mistake, official servers are NOT public servers. They are privately owned servers which Funcom is renting and allowing us to use. For all intents and purposes, Funcom is the owner and therefore sets (and enforces) the rules.
If people that are playing on someone else’s server do no want to be recorded, then they have the ‘right’ to stop playing on that server. Period!
Should probably call up a lawyer and ask them not ask random people online cause different countries and states probably have different rules in place about this stuff.
Plus I’m pretty sure voice recording requires a two party consent and it’s illegal to record someone’s voice with out them knowing.
I have seen some videos on YouTube about in game griefing that don’t involve voice chat so that might be alright.
I’m 99% sure no permission is required so long as this is just ingame footage which can be recorded on the other end by the other player
Things become a bit different if you recorded your gameplay / stream and other people start taking snippets of it for their own - in that case depending on the circumstances and usage of your video, you might have some options.
Keep in mind though… these might not be universally true across the globe… some places have weird laws… and people have different rights depending on where this is being handled.
But in our modern “stream-y western” society you pretty much don’t have a leg to stand on if you’re trying to sue somebody for recording gameplay in a multiplayer game where you’re somehow also there and they’re also actively playing it.
(ofc take that with a grain of salt as I’m not a lawyer… I did stream a lot in the past thou )
At least in the EU, privacy laws require personally identifiable information (PII). An in-game toon is not that - although the player’s visible Steam account name may contain their actual name or email address, which do count as PII. But even in such cases, one might argue that the player has voluntarily decided to use their real name in the game, with all consequences. (That said, I think it wasn’t clearly stated that the game would show the player’s Steam account name in-game, which would make Funcom at least partially responsible for such violations of privacy.)
So, recording a toon who is not personally identifiable is not a violation of privacy, but if the player is identifiable, things get complicated, and would probably require a resolution by a data protection authority or a court of law.
Furthermore, if you record the voice of someone who can be identified, you’re giving tools for cybercriminals who can use those voice samples to impersonate the victim using AI-generated speech imitations. It’s already happening. So from that point of view - never publish anyone else’s voice without their express permission.
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