If you can, you’ll want to watch this one full-screen and in high-res. It starts off as an incredibly faithful Left 4 Dead fan film, and then expands into… Well, I shouldn’t spoil it. You’ll see.
Awesome, but it’s also very instructive in light of the recent SOPA debate. There’s a lot of copyrighted characters in this thing. Midway Games, Warner Bros. Interactive, Epic Games, Microsoft Game Studios, and Valve could all claim that this movie uses their copyrighted stuff. Sure, this is non-profit and obviously every bit as legal as fanfiction, but companies have opposed this sort of thing in the past.
But even if none of those companies would take action, would people really risk sharing it? Would I want to share this video on my website if doing so could result in a takedown? I mean, a SOPA takedown would mean this site would vanish and I’d have to fight to have it restored, during which time I wouldn’t be able to promote my various projects. I can’t perform due diligence on this video and make sure the producers have permission to use those characters, sounds, and music.
But most importantly: Who would bother making a video like this? This cost a great deal of time and money to produce. Who would take that risk in a world where everyone would be afraid to share it??
This is the fiendish heart of it. Beyond the lack of due process, the damage to free speech, the potential for abuse, the security hazards, and the dangerous precedent created by SOPA, we wouldn’t even know just how much we’d lost. There’s no way of measuring the things that don’t get made.
Anyway, that was a pretty hilarious movie. I’ve never been a fan of Master Chief, but even I cracked a smile when he showed up and started kicking ass. I am simply amazed at the sheer volume of clever, interesting, high-quality content that the internet produces for me every day.
Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.
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