PewDiePie slams "backwards" Toei Animation after YouTuber receives 150 copyright strikes in a day
YouTube star Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg is taking aim at Japanese anime studio Toei Animation after the company filed over 150 copyright claims against a YouTuber in a single day.
Popular anime essayist and reviewer Mark Fitzpatrick uploaded a YouTube video on December 7 claiming that Toei Animation had issued over 150 strikes against his channel due to copyright infringement.
Fitzpatrick stated that Toei had effectively blocked the equivalent of three years of his work, saying he was “devastated” and worried about providing for himself, his employees, and his family due to lost views and income during this holiday season.
The YouTuber’s video has gone viral, amassing over 700,000 views and garnering attention from top influencers in the anime space… one of which included YouTube king PewDiePie.
PewDiePie criticizes Toei Animation after copyright strikes against anime YouTuber
On December 9, PewDiePie uploaded a video reacting to Toei’s apparent mass copyright strike against Fitzpatrick, calling the studio a “big-shot company that couldn’t care less about some random anime YouTuber.”
“Japan is so notoriously dumb when it comes to copyright,” he said. “Backwards thinking or just overall lacking in what most people agree is Fair Use and not. They just don’t care. They’re a big company. That’s it.”
Toei Animation owns the rights to such anime as Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and One Piece.Kjellberg went on to compare Toei’s copyright claims to Nintendo’s failed creator program, which allowed creators to use game footage and music — provided they split their revenue.
“I think it’s important that we call these things out, so that hopefully they can listen,” PewDiePie continued. “This, what happened to Mark, just really highlights a huge issue with YouTube.”
The YouTuber then turned his criticisms to YouTube, noting the site’s notoriously ill-received copyright system.
“Any day, your livelihood on YouTube could get removed, because some big company decided, out of the blue: ‘That, no. Stop that,'” he added.
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No further updates have been posted regarding Fitzpatrick’s ongoing copyright battle with Toei Animation at the time of writing and his affected videos remain demonetized.
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