Minecraft developer Mojang has had its Youtube account suspended for supposedly infringing on a trademark. The Microsoft owned company currently has no idea what happened with the suspension, but says that it is looking into the matter.
Mojang’s Youtube channel was used like any other game developer; and hosted videos to promote its games. Most of which happen to be Minecraft related; although there were also a handful of Scrolls videos. The thing is that Mojang either genuinely owned the intellectual property in the videos, or had at least legally licensed them.
This is is likely to be used by critics as evidence of Youtube’s broken reporting system. At the moment, Youtube uses an automated algorithm that allows just about anyone to filed a DMCA takedown notice on any video; whether or not the person actually owns the IP. The option to flag videos similarly lacks any safeguards.
Content creators have long rallied against the weaknesses in the system; although it has done little to convince Youtube to alter its practices. Whether this episode with Mojang will be the catalyst to an improved reporting system is unknown.
However, it will be interesting to see whether Microsoft will step in to back up its biggest gaming title. If anyone can get Google to back down and make changes; it should be a company as big and as influential as Microsoft.
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