Yes, It Really Was Nintendo That Slammed GilvaSunner YouTube Channel With Copyright Strikes

from the obviously dept

Well, for a story that was already over, this became somewhat fascinating. We have followed the Nintendo vs. GilvaSunner war for several years now. The GilvaSunner YouTube channel has long been dedicated to uploading and appreciating a variety of video game music, largely from Nintendo games. Roughly once a year for the past few years, Nintendo would lob copyright strikes at a swath of GilvaSunner "videos": 100 videos in 2019, a bit less than that in 2020, take 2021 off, then suddenly slam the channel with 1,300 strikes in 2022. With that last copyright MOAB, the GilvaSunner channel has been shuttered voluntarily, with the operator indicating that it's all too much hassle.

Well, on the internet, and in our comments on that last post, there began to be speculation as to whether or not it was actually Nintendo behind all of these copyright strikes... or an imposter. Those sleuthing around found little tidbits, such as the name used on the strike not matching up to the names displayed in the past when Nintendo has acted against YouTube videos.

It was... strange. Why? Well, because it looked like many people going out and trying to find a reason to believe that Nintendo wasn't behaving exactly as anyone who had witnessed Nintendo's behavior would expect. If this was someone impersonating Nintendo with these actions, it was utterly indistinguishable from how Nintendo would normally behave. Guys, they do this shit all the time.

And this time too, as it turns out. You can hear it straight from YouTube's mouth.

This is where I will stipulate for the zillionth time that Nintendo is within it's rights to take these actions. But we should also stipulate that the company doesn't have to go this route and the fact that it prioritizes control of its IP in the strictest fashion over letting its fans enjoy some video game music should tell you everything you need to know.

In the meantime, to the internet sleuths: I appreciate your dedication to either Nintendo or to simply digging into these kinds of details for funsies or whatever. That being said, as the old saying goes, if you hear the sound of hooves, assume it's a horse and not a zebra.

Filed Under: copyright, copyright strikes, dmca, gilvasunner, takedowns
Companies: nintendo

GilvaSunner YouTube Channel Shuts Down Due To Copyright Strikes From Nintendo; Pokemon Releases Music

from the sigh dept

The Nintendo vs. GilvaSunner YouTube channel saga has come to an end. It had become sort of an annual thing for Nintendo to copyright strike large numbers of videos on that channel, which mostly has "videos" consisting of beloved video game music from Nintendo titles. Over 100 videos were struck in 2019. Then another swath of videos were struck in 2020. After taking 2021 off, Nintendo struck over 1,300 of GilvaSunner's uploads a few weeks ago. Now, while we've taking pains to point out that Nintendo can do this, as it owns that IP, it certainly didn't have to go this route. There were plenty of other alternatives, including offering this music on any relevant streaming platform itself, which it has always declined to do.

Well, as I said, it's over. The GilvaSunner channel is to be shutdown due to the volume of copyright strikes it received.

Following the strike though, Gilvasunner has announced they will be deleting their channel this Friday (February 4).

Writing on Twitter, they said: “Hi everyone, after the 1300 copyright blocks from Nintendo a few days ago, the YT channel received another 2200 blocks today (with likely many more to follow). After thinking about this a lot over the past few days, I’ve decided that at this point it’s really not worth it to keep the channel up any longer, and will therefore delete the GilvaSunner YouTube channel (or what’s left of it) this coming Friday.”

I'll point out again that GilvaSunner's channel did not compete with Nintendo in any way, going all the way back to 2019. Its videos didn't replace buying Nintendo games. The channel didn't compete with legit sources for Nintendo game music, since Nintendo declined to create any such legit sources. This was, for the past 3 years, simply Nintendo trying to stamp out a resource for Nintendo fans to celebrate Nintendo music, thereby expressing and solidifying their fandom.

But when it comes to this latest round of copyright strikes, it comes with a slight sliver of a difference.

So, while this is nothing like all of Nintendo making its game music available for streaming, it's at least a step in that direction. But think about this for a moment: for 3 years Nintendo has been warring with a YouTube channel celebrating its music without offering any real streaming alternative -- yes, some game music has been available to buy on iTunes for some time, but that's not the same thing -- and once the company managed to kill off that channel, one of its properties releases a site to both stream and download for free some of that same music.

Is that not both insane and annoying? Nintendo didn't have to release this site; GilvaSunner was doing it for free. But Nintendo is so in love with controlling all of its IP that this is where we somehow landed.

Filed Under: copyright, gilvasunner, pokemon, takedowns, video game music, video games, videos
Companies: nintendo, youtube