The latest follows in the wake of a massive wave of hype The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Fan, Nintendo has apparently increased the number of fraudulent copyright claims it is making against content creators on YouTube, and at least one of them is hitting back. In his latest video, Eric “PointCrow” Morino asked Nintendo to leave his channel alone after recently making dozens of additional claims against his videos.
“Please remove those warnings and claims, or at least start a dialogue with us so we can all move forward with the excitement I’m sure you’d love to see about your future games,” Morino said in a video for Nintendo posted on YouTube on April 14 that he said he had been checked out by his attorney. The request comes after the Switch maker appeared to double down on copyright claims and strikes against Morino’s channel, bringing the total to 28, including those against older unrelated videos breath of the wild, like one about Wii Sports.
Nintendo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nintendo first started targeting the zelda Speedrunner’s YouTube channel on April 6 after uploading footage of a breath of the wild multiplayer mod he commissioned and made available to the public. Although Nintendo has been making videos of challenge runs and other modified content for years, it seemed to be the first time Nintendo signaled that there were any issues with the content. Morino posted on Twitter at the time about criticized the move and called on the publisher to reverse its decision.
He now says Nintendo did the opposite, who goes on to assert copyright claims for over 20 other videos spanning his entire career as a content creator. While most of them contained the word “mod” in the title, at least one featured only vanilla gameplay with commentary. “These takedowns might have started out with modified content, but they’ve evolved into something very different,” Morino said in his latest video.
Another on April 23rd zelda Youtuber Croton said 10 of his streams and two of his videos were “naked” by the platform. “No answers, no context, just a copyright removal,” they tweeted. “And one of those videos literally had nothing to do with mods and was just a zelda challenge run.”
In his own video, Morino accuses Nintendo of violating its content creation guidelines to attack him and defends his mod breath of the wild Runs that have collectively garnered tens of millions of views and helped keep the excitement around a game that is now six years old. “To be clear, I have never encouraged piracy of Nintendo games,” he said. “The mods I have commissioned are not being sold, and all code is custom, meaning they are free from Nintendo’s assets.”
Right at the time when many content creators are gearing up for a massive influx of interest from fans and viewers the release of Tears of the Kingdom next month, Morino is now tired of creating content for the game at all lest the arbitrary copyright claims continue. “It’s a little scary because the precedent they set with this case could apply to their forthcoming release of heavy The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” he said. “Due to their decision to remove challenge and gameplay videos alongside the modified content, it will be difficult for any content creator to release creative concepts without fear of Nintendo exercising its video copyright that conform to its own guidelines.”
Morino originally planned to appeal the copyright claims and defend his videos on fair use grounds, but now he says these legal efforts could cost millions and jeopardize the future of his YouTube channel, which has over 1.6 million subscribers. He recently tweeted: “It’s hard to get excited about this Tears of the Kingdom if that zelda Community is being destroyed by YouTube.”
