Ubisoft pulls back music copyright holder's claim on YouTubers

Many of the thousands of copyright infringement notices sent out to YouTube game video producers this week have originated from companies not obviously connected with games, very often music rights holders.

This has caused bewilderment among the producers who, in the last few days, have found advertising revenues from their Let's Play and walk-through videos diverted to companies making copyright claims, often with a tenuous connection to the videos in question.

Under YouTube rules, any company claiming ownership of an intellectual copyright used in a video, and scanned by YouTube's copyright-matching Content ID system, receives revenues from the video. YouTube has defended its crackdown and shows no sign of pulling back

While some games companies, like Nintendo, are joining those seeking to derive revenues from Let's Plays, other have been vocal in their support of producers, stating that people should be allowed to share the content freely (albeit with caveats.)

One such is Ubisoft, which has taken its support one step further, by seeking to pull back a music rights holder that is making claims on videos using Ubisoft footage.

"Due to recent changes in how YouTube allows copyright holders to file claims we have heard from many of you who have been frustrated by a sudden flurry of claims against your videos," offered a company statement today. "At Ubisoft, we value the talented content creators on YouTube, and we want to empower all of you to produce Ubisoft-related videos.

"We are aware that many of the Ubisoft-related claims have come from IDOL, our longtime partner in the digital distribution of our music. We are working closely with IDOL to remove these claims. We kindly ask you to be patient, as this process may take another week or so to fully resolve."

Other companies to come out in support of 'YouTubers' include Deep Silver, Blizzard and Capcom.