[UPDATE: More news on YouTube's Content ID policy.]

The change in policy in YouTube has taken effect, and it seems like one of the more hard-hit ones are the gaming celebrities who have enjoying fame, and perhaps a bit of money on the side, doing what they love most: playing games and showing them off to fellow fans.

The sudden surge in flagging of videos that are reported to have copyright content was the start of the whole issue, as the Content ID policy now allows copyright owners to just hit the search button and find matches of videos that may be using their content. After which, these same copyright owners can flag the video for removal or acquire revenue from ads made off the video, reports Lazy Gamer.

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Sadly, given that a lot of the privately owned gaming Web sites from these gaming celebrities make use of footage of games, they can easily become false positive results in the searches with the new Content ID policy.

In a nutshell, the Content ID policy has been created for the original copyright owners to match and flag videos that make use of their content to earn money from it. However, in Google's Support regarding this new Content ID, it was specified that only "certain content owners will qualify for access to Content ID."

Moreover, someone who is the owner who has exclusive rights to the body of content that is uploaded on YouTube should probably not go the Content ID route. But apparently, many sources, including Tube Filter, have reported that the recent flaggers are not even the game companies themselves, but rather third party users that are not even affiliated with the developers.

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Blizzard and Other Publishers Take Action

In response to YouTube's new policy, some game developers have started to reassure their fans that they are on their side.

One of these is Blizzard, who has already issued a message to fans urging them to find matches and contest them. Spotted by Incgamers, Blizzard stated in a tweet, "If you're a YouTuber and are receiving content matches with the new changes, please be sure to contest them so we can quickly approve them."

What's good about this is that, aside from allowing fans to contest the matches made with Blizzard's games, the developer is also aiming to find a more long-term solution, if ever the policy is here to stay.

Capcom is also appealing to fans in the same manner and allowing them to contest the matches. According to some fans, Namco Bandai and Ubisoft are also on the same vein of action as the previous two.

Another bit of good news here is that just recently, GameSpot reports that it has contacted YouTube regarding the situation and gave the statement regarding the matches and contests.

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"We recently enabled Content ID scanning on channels identified as affiliates of [Multi Channel Networks]. This has resulted in new copyright claims for some users, based on policies set by the relevant content owners. As ever, channel owners can easily dispute Content ID claims if they believe those claims are invalid," according to the statement provided by a YouTube rep to GameSpot.

If this is the case, the actions that are being done by some developers to help their fans may not be entirely in vain.

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