Shadowverse announced Guidelines for Submission of Digital Content

"Shadowverse", the trading card game provided by Cygames, Inc., has announced its "Guidelines for Submission of Digital Content".

Content of the Guidelines

The guidelines are posted on the official Shadowverse website. The following is a brief quotation of the content.

Effective October 1, 2019, we will no longer claim copyright infringement or make it a violation of the Shadowverse Terms of Service for the posting of digital content for profit related to "Shadowverse", as long as the content is posted on the following platforms

The "following platform" is "note ( https://note.mu/ )", a work distribution site operated by Piece of Cake ( https://www.pieceofcake.co.jp/ ).

What is "note"? What are the rights?

note

"note" may look like a blog service, but it is a content platform service that allows users to sell free or paid content such as texts and photos.
There are many content sales platforms, but I think note is unique in that it creates a community centered on content.

The standard flow is that the game community is activated, the game becomes more exciting, and the money is returned to the game publishers (rights holders). However, in order to revitalize the community, activities on the Internet are indispensable.

However, since game publishers, who own the copyrights, allocate a lot of costs and resources to game development, it would be a difficult problem if a third party were to use the game title and monetize it.

If only textual information is used, but strategy articles must necessarily use game screen captures, etc., there are many cases of infringement of rights.

Although limited to the "note" platform, the fact that users will not claim copyright infringement even if they sell strategy articles for a fee is quite good news for them, and a big step forward for the game industry.

Corporations are not eligible, only individuals. Other restrictions.

Only individuals are eligible this time, not corporations. Fangler Games is a corporate operation, so it is not eligible.

The ban on the sale of paid content using game publishers' IP (intellectual property rights) has been lifted, but the restrictions are still limited to "note" only, and there are calls on social networking sites for the restrictions to be eased.

Medium ( https://medium.com/ ), another content platform that was launched prior to Note, is not subject to this ban, so we hope that Medium, which has more users than Note, will also lift the ban.

Also, there are still many uncertainties as to whether strategy videos distributed with advertisements such as on YouTube, or free strategy articles published on blogs or media with advertisements, are subject to infringement claims.

However, as I mentioned earlier, I think the deregulation of Shadowverse is a big step forward for the industry, and I hope other publishers will follow suit.