On July 24, Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard filed a lawsuit in California alleging that YouTuber Anthony Fantano, a music critic who runs the immensely widespread channel The Needle Drop, is misusing mental property regulation and “leveraging the popularity” of a widespread TikTok voice clip he created for monetary acquire. The firm mentioned that Fantano, broadly generally known as “the internet’s busiest music nerd,” has launched into a “scheme” to sue sure customers of the clip until they pay him “extortionate amounts of money,” with Activision Blizzard apparently being Fantano’s largest goal.
At the middle of the dispute is a broadly used voice clip of Fantano saying “it’s enough slices!” The clip originates in a 2021 TikTok that options Fantano reacting to a pizza being reduce into more and more smaller slices. Fantano appears on appreciatively for some time however the slicing simply doesn’t cease, prompting him to ultimately scream the now-famous line.
The video garnered thousands and thousands of views and spawned 1000’s of copycats, main Activision Blizzard to create their very own rendition of the meme in a now-deleted June 2023 TikTok selling some Crash Bandicoot footwear. Apparently, Fantano wasn’t about it, alleging it created a “false endorsement” of the product with out him really being related to it. He despatched the corporate a cease-and-desist letter on June 27 demanding that Activision Blizzard stopped utilizing the audio and made a six-figure settlement fee to him. If the corporate didn’t pay up, he would “initiate litigation.” Interestingly, although, Activision’s lawsuit alleges that Fantano himself opted to place the clip in TikTok’s “Commercial Sounds” library, particularly designating it as usable in commercials.
“In reliance on TikTok’s explicit representation that the ‘Slices Audio’ was part of its ‘Commercial Sounds’ library— described as ‘sounds that are licensed for commercial use’—Activision paired that video with the ‘Slices Audio,’” the corporate wrote within the 33-page lawsuit. ‘Notwithstanding that thousands of TikTok videos containing the Slices Audio have been available on TikTok for years without complaint, Fantano suddenly decided that Activision’s video infringed his publicity rights and constituted a false endorsement.”
Activision is successfully arguing that Fantano is making an attempt to sport the regulation for his personal acquire, with the corporate’s attorneys writing, “Fantano has embarked on a scheme whereby he selectively threatens to sue certain users of the Slices Audio unless they pay him extortionate amounts of money for their alleged use.”
“This dispute is a textbook example of how intellectual property law can be misused by individuals to leverage unfair cash payments,” Activision’s attorneys wrote. “Fantano was very happy to receive the benefit of the public use of the Slices Video. It was only after he identified a financial opportunity—namely, receiving unjustified settlement payments—that he suddenly decided that his consent was limited. The law does not permit, and the court should not countenance, such overt gamesmanship.”
The firm is searching for reimbursement of its authorized bills and a ruling declaring that Fantano can’t sue TikTok customers for utilizing the voice clip.
Richard Hoeg, a lawyer who focuses on digital and online game regulation, informed Kotaku in an electronic mail that whereas he hasn’t seen the entire supplies within the lawsuit, based mostly on what he is aware of this far, the corporate has a good case right here.
“As described by Activision (and remembering theirs is only one side of the story), it would seem they have a good case,” Hoeg mentioned. “The TikTok audio library appears to allow for general commercial use on TikTok, so anyone placing content in the library should be limited in their rights to challenge. That said, there still could be facts we don’t know like whether an unauthorized third party actually effected the sound’s inclusion or even whether it might have been automated.”
Kotaku reached out to Activision Blizzard and Fantano for remark.
Discussion about this post