Can you imagine being sued because someone else used your meme? It sounds ridiculous, but something like that happened to Anthony Fantano, the YouTuber and music critic better known as The Needle Drop. It turns out that this content creator is being sued by Activision after the company used a meme he created in a Crash Bandicoot advertisement.
It all started in 2021 when Anthony Fantano created the famous "Slices Video." In case you're not familiar, it's a video where the YouTuber reacts to a clip of someone cutting a pizza into ridiculously tiny slices. The video went viral, and many people used its audio to create their own videos. Activision also used it to promote some Crash Bandicoot shoes.
As you can imagine, Fantano didn't appreciate a company using his video. So, he asked for a "substantial" amount of money to avoid facing a lawsuit from him. His argument is that the use of his audio represented a "false endorsement" of the product. It's worth mentioning that Activision has already taken down the video that Fantano mentioned.
In response to this threat, Activision decided to counter with a lawsuit, aiming to prevent any legal action from Fantano. In the lawsuit, Activision claims that "hundreds of thousands" of TikTok users have used Fantano's audio, and the content creator himself has expressed pride in that fact.
Additionally, Activision points out that their use of this audio is protected by TikTok's terms of service, which state that users can take any portion of another user's generated video to create new content. Therefore, the company seeks to clarify that they did not violate any laws by using this audio.
As of now, Fantano has not made any comments about this situation.
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