Nintendo’s lawyers are still on a copyright rampage, this time taking down nine songs from a Metroid Prime YouTuber who just likes making covers and remixes for fun. SynaMax posted a video earlier this week stating he’d been contacted directly by a Nintendo legal rep who told him to remove several videos from his YouTube channel.
"On 31st May, a lawyer representing Nintendo called me and asked me to take down nine videos off the channel," said SynaMax. "I'm really disappointed in Nintendo that they would force me to take down these videos because they want compulsory licenses."
As reported by VGC, SynaMax’s case is highly unusual as all previous takedowns have been done through YouTube’s copyright strike system. This is the first time a lawyer for Nintendo has reached out to a content creator directly to request songs be removed.
"I think it's important to point out that this only applies to music that's copyrighted by Nintendo; my research videos about the music from Metroid Prime as well as music done in the style of Kenji Yamamoto, those things are all okay because that's not copyrighted Nintendo music," SynaMax explained. "However, a recreation cover, or just a cover in general or any sort of remix, that unfortunately cannot be done without compulsory licenses."
SynaMax acknowledged that Nintendo had the legal rights to the music he was covering and that he didn’t have a problem with Nintendo receiving all the monetary benefits from YouTube’s ad revenue stream, but removing the songs entirely was a personal blow.
"I just make remixes for fun, not for making money," said SynaMax. "What happens is all that ad revenue goes to record labels instead of me, which is fine, because they own the original song, and I get to keep my remix up on YouTube for everyone to listen to. I don't make a single cent on it, but that's fine with me because at least everyone gets to listen to my remix."
Mirroring sentiments offered by other YouTubers that have fallen under the baleful gaze of Nintendo’s lawyers, SynaMax lamented Nintendo’s refusal to release its music through legal methods.
"It’s obvious that there’s a strong market demand for Nintendo to release this music outside of the game it was written for," he said. "Nintendo can easily capitalize on this market but they refuse to do so."
SynaMax is just the latest example of Nintendo targeting YouTubers over its copyrighted music. Just a few weeks ago, DeoxysPrime received 500 copyright strikes against their channel, forcing them to take it down. Months earlier, Gilvasunner received over 3,000 copyright strikes resulting in the destruction of that channel too. At least SynaMax was able to keep his channel operating, albeit without some of his beloved Metroid Prime remixes.