Microsoft makes grand steps into making Machinima "legal"

In an unprecedented move (and hopefully one, others will make in the near future), Microsoft announced today new content usage rules that allows for machinimators to make their Machinima epics without fear of MS lawyer retribution. Read all about it here.

This is by no means a free pass to give the aspiring machinimator a chance to make their own Red vs. Blue. The strings are: this only applies to certain titles (though, yes, the Halo franchise is in there), only for non-commercial use (surprise!) plus there's still plenty of legal-gotchas to make any machinimator give pause ("You can’t add to the game universe","can't use it to enter a contest").

While MS probably has sizable staff of legal babysitters to pursue anyone who wanders too far off, smaller companies might not be so quick to join the cheer based on their needs to keep their properties closer to home. The other interesting side to this announcement is that it's probably also making plenty of people aware of what they can't do with Machinima to begin with.

Additionally, Microsoft themselves gets a boost from this. Marketing has all the wording in place to run their own internal initiatives without needing to check in with MS legal every go. Expect MS to commence XBL contests and showcases for Machinima once Halo 3 releases pronto.

Still, it's great step in the right direction and I do hope others take a similar path (with possibly less restrictions). We'll have to keep track of how it manifests itself for future developments.

As you were...

Thanks to Ken Thain, Jennifer Urban and a number of others who sent up the Machinima signal.