Before a huge wave of hype after the latest news The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom intro video, Nintendo seems to have increased the number of deceptive copyright claims they make against YouTube content creators, and at least one of them is responding. In his latest video, Eric “PointCrow” Morino begged Nintendo to leave his channel alone after the studio recently made dozens of additional complaints against his videos.
“Please remove these strikes and complaints or at least start a dialogue with us so we can all move forward with excitement. I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching my future games,” said Morino in a video for Nintendo posted on YouTube on April 14 that he said was scrutinized by his attorney. The claim comes after the Switch maker apparently doubled down on filing copyright claims and strikes against Morino’s channel, bringing the total to 28, including those against older videos have nothing to do with the breath of the wild, like the one about Wii Sports.
Nintendo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nintendo first started targeting Zelda speedrunner’s YouTube channel on April 6 after he uploaded footage of a Breath of the Wild multiplayer mode he authorized and released to the public. Despite creating videos featuring challenge runs and other modified content for years, this seems like the first time Nintendo has signaled that it has addressed any issues with the content. Morino posted about it on Twitter at the time, criticized the move and called on the publisher to reverse its decision.
Now he says Nintendo did the opposite, filed a copyright claim over 20 additional videos in his entire content-making career. While most of them include the word “mod” in the title, at least one contains just the usual gameplay with commentary. “These takedowns may have started with modified content, but they’ve turned to something completely different,” Morino said in his latest video.
On April 23, a Zelda YouTuber, Croton, said 10 streams and two of their videos were “swallowed” from the platform. “No answers, no context, just copyright removal,” they tweeted. “And one of these videos really has nothing to do with mods and is simply a Zelda run the challenge.”
In his own video, Morino accused Nintendo of ignoring content creator guidelines to target him and protect his revision. Breath of the Wild run, has garnered tens of millions of views in total and helped maintain the excitement surrounding a game that is six years old. “To be clear, I have never encouraged piracy of Nintendo games,” he said. “The mods I have commissioned are not for sale and all code is custom, meaning they are not property of Nintendo.”
At a time when many content creators are gearing up for a huge amount of interest from fans and viewers. the release Kingdom Tears the next month, Morino is now tired of creating game content, lest arbitrary copyright claims continue. “This is a bit scary because the precedent they set with this case could apply heavily to their upcoming movie release. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” he say. “In light of their decision to remove challenge and gameplay videos with modified content, it would be difficult for any creator to post creative ideas without fear of Nintendo taking action. copyrights to the video in accordance with their own policies.”
Morino originally intended to appeal the copyright claims, defending his videos on a fair use basis, but he now says those legal efforts could cost millions of dollars and could jeopardize the future of his 1.6 million-subscriber YouTube channel. He recently tweeted, “it’s hard to get excited because Kingdom Tears when Zelda community is being removed from YouTube.”
