Popular video game commentary YouTuber SidAlpha has had one of his videos struck down after a bogus copyright claim from Studio71 France – the French arm of media company Studio71.
The copyright claim was on a video titled “FCC plans to vote to overturn Net Neutrality in December” and SidAlpha wrote that the video featured his own gameplay of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 5 – a game that Rockstar Games owns the copyright to and generally allows content creators to use in their videos.
“I demand Studio 71 release their claim,” SidAlpha tweeted. “You don’t own any copyright to that game.”
Upon review with my NOT first thing int he morning brain, this is not a DMCA, it's a Content ID claim where they have chosen to completely block the video in ALL countries. Same end result but without the ability for legal recourse. Shady fucks. https://t.co/2AIv3hRDjM
— SidAlpha (@SidAlpha) February 11, 2020
As a result of the claim, SidAlpha’s video will be blocked on YouTube unless the claim is successfully appealed.
The claim is the latest of many examples of YouTube’s broken copyright system impacting creators this year and resulting in either their content being blocked or the revenue from their videos being claimed.
In January, multiple YouTubers were hit with copyright claims by Fullscreen, Inc. for using random numbers.
And the account “Studio71_1_2” also hit hundreds of YouTubers with false copyright claims in January with many of the claims targeting gameplay videos.