As popular as they might be, Warner Bros. has seemingly threatened to “destroy” YouTuber ToastedShoes’ channel over his Mortal Kombat 1 mod videos.
While they can obviously get you in a bit of trouble, mods for fighting games are actually pretty popular, primarily because it’s just plain old funny to watch the most random of people or characters duke it out (take this Mortal Kombat 1 Kendrick vs Drake mod, for example). However, YouTuber ToastedShoes has found himself in that aforementioned trouble, claiming that Warner Bros. is “threatening to destroy” his YouTube channel, leaving him uncertain in what he needs to do. ToastedShoes is known for a big range of popular modding videos, with Mortal Kombat 1 being amongst so of his most popular.
“This morning I received an IP Infringement Notification directly from Warner Brothers stating that the Mortal Kombat mods in my content ‘infringe’ on their intellectual property rights,” ToastedShoes wrote on Twitter earlier this week. “I’ve been requested to delete all Mortal Kombat 1 videos from my channel or else they will issue copyright strikes and essentially delete my channel in its entirety.
“For over 6 months Warner Brothers have had 0 issues with people modding the game and [Mortal Kombat co-creator 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 that have allowed me to bring attention to the game as well as to continue supporting the team of developers I work with. My team of modders work with me on both a part time and fulltime basis and the revenue from these videos pays their wages.”
ToastedShoes went on to explain that the email he’s received can’t even be responded to, so he has no way of contacting Warner Bros. to determine what is infringing on their copyright. In an email to Eurogamer, ToastedShoes said that he is yet to “hear from Warner Bros. or NetherRealm regarding the cease and desist.”
This is obviously a bit of an odd one, given how long ToastedShoes has been doing this for, but unfortunately in situations like this the big guys will always have the power.