I understand Square-Enix's need to protect its assets. The Final Fantasy franchise is a big deal, and the fan-base that has developed over its lifetime is large and diverse. Fans have many ways of expressing themselves, and while I understand that not all of these expressions are in the best interest of the company, the current Material Usage Policy is much too strict. Even on your own official forums, users are violating this policy left and right. People have custom signatures that are in blatant violation of SE's policy. Youtubers, even the ones that go to the trouble to post the trademark and copyright notices, are often in violation of the policy in some fashion or another through some kind of "materially altering" the content through text overlays or by masking the chat-logs to protect the privacy of Free Company members' dialogues.

Many people seem to just ignore SE's policy on these things, and that's unfortunate. Yet, it would be a very positive move on SE's part to embrace the different ways people want to express their enjoyment of Final Fantasy XIV by easing some of the more restrictive aspects of the Material Usage Policy. Let us edit images to create our own banners, icons, and whatnot. Give us the freedom to create our own strategy videos that have been "materially altered" to mark things that work and things that don't.

I'm not saying fans should be given any sort of carte blanche, but the strictures of the current policy do not reflect the modern gaming community Final Fantasy XIV has, nor the spirit of community I'm sure SE wants to foster. Please consider easing the restrictions on the Material Usage Policy to reflect a more modern and open attitude toward its fan-base.

Thank you for your considerations on this!