Anime Studios Are Just Starting Their War with Youtubers
Youtube has long been one of the premier places to find videos of both anime and, basically, anything that you're looking for. Last year saw Youtuber Mark Patrick, aka Totally Not Mark, struggling with Youtube problems thanks to his use of content from Toei Animation series including the likes of Dragon Ball Super and One Piece. Now, it seems as though another creator is facing a very different circumstance that sees an anime producer resorting to new legal tactics to have their Youtube channel dismantled, potentially meaning big trouble for any creator that uses material from popular anime series.
One Youtuber that is seemingly in the crosshairs of the anime company known as Shopro, whose had a hand in series including Pokemon, Naruto, Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2 to name a few, is a creator that goes by the moniker of Suede. Posting parodies of Pokemon, Suede shared his story of how he was sent a court complaint by Shopro that demanded legal fees and a fine be paid for his videos:
"From this point on, there are a million swords hanging over a million heads all held up by a single hair each. They might never drop, but they might also all drop tomorrow. Youtube is in a really bad situation too, and it needs to make a decision relatively quickly. It either needs to allow geoblocking to all users so that [they] aren't at the complete mercy of Japanese rights holders, or continue its current policy, which could result in an entire demographic being purged from its base."
Suede's video details his unfortunate journey as the Youtube creator states that not only has he deleted all of his videos besides this one, but he might have to do so with his channel as well:
Youtube had this to say regarding the apparent war that is taking place between video creators on their platform and certain anime studios and companies:
"When YouTube receives a valid lawsuit regarding a creator's content that allegedly infringes copyright, we may remove the content until there is a legal decision, which is what we've done in this case."
What do you think of this Youtube War taking place between creators and anime companies? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.