"Fortunately, machinima has inherent virtues that film is hard-pressed to match. Aside from its uniquely fast production time and low cost, machinima also shares the advantages of other computer animation, such as visionary design and fluid camera work impossible on a practical set. ... The main issue facing machinima is neither technical nor artistic. As any machinima maker can tell you, the main issue is copyright."

The French Democracy

Remember the BF2 Modern Combat / Sonic Jihad kerfuffle?

http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/285129.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2105341

Here is a prime example of people in power misunderstanding both games and machinima.