In context: It's pretty common for game companies to issue cease-and-desist notices to YouTubers that violate their copyright. Content creators have to juggle the risks of putting something up that falls under fair use, and often, even if they are careful, they will still see aggressive companies like Nintendo come after them. Regardless of whether they are in the right or not, most cannot afford to take on a large corporation's lawyers.
Many in the Destiny community have been getting nailed with copyright strikes for about the last week, as chronicled in the r/DestinyTheGame subreddit. The claims primarily involve YouTube video makers who have been archiving sunsetted Destiny music that can no longer be found in the games.
The Destiny takedown notices come as a surprise because series creator Bungie has never gone after these creators in the past. In fact, Bungie claims that neither it nor its partners are responsible for the copyright claims. The game publisher says that even its own official YouTube channels have gotten strikes.
We're aware of a series of copyright takedowns on YouTube and we're actively investigating. This includes content on our own Bungie channels.
--- Bungie (@Bungie) March 20, 2022
These actions are NOT being taken at the request of Bungie or our partners. Please standby for future updates.
https://t.co/xPY1EzkgTh
Indeed, it would seem that Bungie's official stance on fan-created content is that as long as it's non-commercial, it's okay to post. Its license agreement regarding intellectual property and trademarks notes that there are only a few conditions that violate its terms.
"Examples of what "player created content" may be defined as include custom commentary, animations, graphics, or gameplay. Conversely, please do not upload Bungie trailers or cutscenes with mere advertisement(s) or borders that take up 20% of the screen or 20% of the runtime. Content creators should use our stuff to make their own stuff, rather than uploading our content to their own channels."
However, for the most part, the company is pretty open to players posting all kinds of content, including "images, footage, music, sounds, dialogue, or other assets." So who or what is causing the copyright strikes? Bungie says it's looking into the matter and will let us know what it finds out.
It did not have any advice for content creators, but the wise move would be to wait for Bungie to give the green light before posting or reposting anything related to Destiny.