Video Game clips make up a sizable chunk of the most popular content on YouTube, and its becoming easier and easier for gamers to share short videos online, and game publishers rarely try to flex their copyright muscle to get clips taken down because they know it’s good publicity. Someone failed to tell this to Activision, which has been flagging Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare videos, but only those that highlight that the game has flaws.

YouTube works on a “strike” system that tallies up the number of copyright complaints a user gets before facing a ban. According to Ars Technica, the game-streaming folks at Machinima recently began alerting its video creators to be careful about posting Call of Duty videos because Activision had begun “issuing strikes on videos showing glitches.”

Activision then confirmed this, explaining that it was looking for “videos that promote cheating and unfair exploits.”

So posting a clip of errors, like people falling through levels or figures floating in mid-air, are apparently a no-no. Also strike-worthy are clips that show how you can exploit those glitches for your own success or amusement.

This, in spite of the fact that there are huge segments of YouTube devoted just to funny glitches and interesting exploits.

But rather than fix these exploits, Activision would rather leverage the threat of a YouTube ban into getting people to stop posting them.

And the game publisher has even more pull by dangling that Sword of Damocles over the heads of a huge streaming network like Machinima, whose business could be harmed if enough of its content creators are flagged.

“When a channel receives a certain number of strikes it is possible that they may be blocked as a YouTube partner,” explained Machinima in a statement, saying that its actions were taken “to protect not only its network partners, but its publisher partners as well.”

Activision may be able to strong-arm large YouTube networks, but there are still plenty of CoD glitch videos available for viewing. We’d love to see the company try to explain why it is cherry-picking which videos and networks while leaving huge swaths of clips untouched.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.