I’m not trying to come off as entitled, it just seems like a particularly foolish move on GW’s part since it feels like they’re trying to stamp out creativity. Wargamer Fritz and Arch both looked at this, and there’s a fine line between protecting your IP and controlling it. If someone was purposefully stealing their artwork and passing it off as their own without crediting the original source, like if I took a picture of a painted model off GW’s catalog and said that it was my work, that would be IP theft and a cause to take legal action with appropriate precedent. However, if I were to make a fanwork like these animations on YouTube, such as The Last Church or Death of Hope, giving full credit to them for the IP, saying that I in no way own the designs, characters, or story, yet am still producing work meant to show how much I love the stories and designs, the legal precedent isn’t there, since credit has been given and the creator isn’t passing off the company’s IP as their own. It’s the same situation with Disney trying to stamp out Star Wars fan films; it’s acknowledged that it’s a fan work, full credit is given to the creators of the IP, and no one is out to turn a profit off it.
Now when it comes to people monetizing GW fan animations on YouTube, that’s when you get into the issue of IP theft, since people are essentially turning a profit off an IP that they don’t own, even with all of the credit given. People treat demonetization as this horrible, horrible thing, but honestly if you’re not making money off the video and are instead making it as a labor of love, like Death of Hope, then you’re in the clear in a legal sense. Forcing people to take down their videos completely, monetized or not, with vague threats of legal action is really overstepping boundaries, even for a corporation like this, since the creators are completely protected by IP law, even with the ridiculous gobbledygook that GW cooked up in its latest press release.
It also seems foolish from a business perspective that GW is essentially getting rid of “free advertising.” Astartes, Death of Hope, SODAZ’ work, and lots of other fan projects are commercials for their product that they didn’t have to spend a single penny on; whereas now if they get rid of them, they’re now spending money to advertise, meaning they’re cutting into their revenue stream, and are also requiring people to PAY to watch “commercials” through Warhammer Plus. I’m not a legal or business expert, but seeing creativity attacked in this way is disheartening. You’re welcome to disagree with me, that’s all part of the discussion.