Nintendo just ended their Creator Program and released a general usage policy that applies to all. Now, everyone is allowed to publish videos that include Nintendo characters, which is nice, but unfortunately, their requirements are short-sighted and narrow-minded, and also discriminate against various people. As written, the policy states:
Q1: What types of content are acceptable under the Guidelines? What types of content are not acceptable?
A1: We encourage you to use Nintendo Game Content in videos and images that feature your creative input and commentary. For example, Let’s Play videos and video game reviews are within the scope of the Guidelines.
However, you may not simply upload or livestream an existing Nintendo video, gameplay footage without your own creative input, or a copy of content created by someone else. For example, mere copies of Nintendo promotional trailers, tournaments, music soundtracks, gameplay sequences, and art collections are outside the scope of the Guidelines.
Some of the things that they forbid make sense, like a copy of someone else’s video, and even a copy of trailers and soundtracks. Footage of a tournament on the other hand is restrictive, especially that unlike a music concert, there is no way for people to purchase a formal copy of it.
Worse, they forbid uploading gameplay footage without “your creative input and commentary”, which is short-sighted and narrow-minded, as well as discriminatory to various people.
It is short-sighted because even though it is vague and open to interpretation, you can certainly bet that Nintendo will not hesitate to attack videos that they claim are not sufficiently derivative and put the burden of proof on the creator to prove that it is.
It is narrow-minded because it does not account for what might count as creative. They say you cannot just upload gameplay footage without creative input and commentary, but gameplay (style) is creative input. For example, speed-runs are creative, as are other styles of play (e.g., playing the game backwards, 100%ing, going for minimal-score, playing with restrictions, and so on).
Worse, that conjunction is important; legally, saying and instead of or is significant because it requires both creative input and commentary, not one or the other. This is discriminatory because it essentially means that to post a video of a Nintendo game, you must include your voice. (Technically, you could probably get away with just onscreen text, but that is not usually practical, and Nintendo would probably attempt to discount such videos regardless.) Requiring a spoken commentary discriminates against people with medical conditions that prevent them from speaking, people who are shy (or have social-anxiety disorder), people with unusual voices, and such.
Legal documents are tricky, and this one definitely needs a bit of tweaking to be more fair and considerate to players.