Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is taking a stand against a popular modder, despite the fact that his videos showing off mods for WBD games are getting more views than most people could ever hope for…
ToastedShoes is his name, and he accuses Warner of threatening to destroy his YouTube channel over what he says is an exaggerated claim of IP infringement. He also added Homer Simpson to the Elden Ring, turned Palworld into Pokémon (which of course the big N jumped on, and the mod was later turned into a version independent of the Japanese company), and put together a Star Wars clone mod for Helldivers 2 with his team.
So it’s not just one person’s hobby, it’s a company and a team. ToastedShoes’ biggest YouTube success came from the now-deleted Mortal Kombat videos. The NetherRealm Studios title had characters from just about everyone (even Disney and Pixar were included) in the game, and we got to see some interesting matches.
I voiced Rick, Morty, and Meeseeks in another @ToastedShoes mod 🙂 pic.twitter.com/IoI5GgBLhT
— Sean Kelly (@RealMortysays) December 26, 2023
Kendrick v Drake. The universe telling us that a new Def Jam is needed? pic.twitter.com/Ywi067bpuo
— Ed Boon (@noobde) May 20, 2024
“This morning I received an IP Infringement Notification directly from WBD stating that the Mortal Kombat mods in my content ‘infringe’ their intellectual property rights. I’ve been asked to remove all Mortal Kombat 1 videos from my channel or they will issue copyright strikes and essentially take down my channel in its entirety. For over 6 months Warner Brothers has had 0 issues with people modding the game and Ed Boon himself has shared countless mod videos and clips praising them. The clips of my mods have over 1 billion views across all platforms, which has allowed me to bring attention to the game and continue to support the team of developers I work with. My team of modders work with me on both a part-time and full-time basis, and the revenue from these videos pays their salaries.
The email I received directly from WBD I am also unable to reply to. So I have no way of contacting them or asking what exactly they feel is infringing on their copyright. I also seem to be the only content creator that I know of that has received a cease and desist letter from WBD. Because of all this, I am now forced to remove all videos from my channel. I didn’t want to do this, but I feel I have no other choice. There’s not much else I can do at this point, so please feel free to retweet this to make them aware,” ToastedShoes wrote.
According to IGN, the copyright claims were filed by Tracer, an AI-powered trademark protection company, making ToastedShoes the victim of a (at least partially) automated process. And indeed, Ed Boon also supported the mods, so it’s probably not the studio that’s to blame now, but the publisher. And Warner owns NetherRealm.
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