FUN Creators’ Copyright Strike Against TotalBiscuit Goes From Weird to Wacky

Internet personality and YouTuber TotalBiscuit (also known as The Cynical Brit, TotalHalibut, or John Bain) has not had the most stress-free time of it lately.

He already had a rather trying time earlier this week after being called out on his own subreddit, r/CynicalBrit, for taking a quiet step back from direct community interaction. The internet can be a terrible place, and draining on even the most passionate personality.

Well, the internet can be a bad place, but it is the stage for this new drama that has unfolded between the TotalBiscuit team and FUN Creators, the geniuses behind the universally-panned indie title, Guise of the Werewolf. 

It began with a single click of a button – that is, a button that make a copyright strike against TotalBiscuit’s (weeks-old) video review of Guise of the Werewolf. 

In the space of one weekend, a maelstrom of emails, tweets, threats, and YouTube videos have been flung back and forth between the two sides – and from all the bystanders looking on in awe (see header video).

It first came to the notice of the general public when this email exchange was posted to TotalBiscuit’s Twitter:

So @funcreators denied taking down our Guise of the Wolf videos. This email from them shows otherwise. http://t.co/mIIIgouBcS

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) February 14, 2014

What followed was the most bizarre Twitter exchange I have ever seen take place between two respectable businesses – even taking into account the fact that both are involved in the video game industry. FUN Creators proceeded to deny the authenticity of the email… and accused TotalBiscuit of having photoshopped it.

@Totalbiscuit Please don’t play photoshop games until we sort out the problem. Do you want us to create an email sent by you to anyone?

— FUN Creators (@FUNCreators) February 14, 2014

Redditors proceeded to capture the exchanges, namely most of FUN Creators’s Tweets which continued to grow increasingly more bizarre. A good thing too because most of the really wacky ones have since been deleted from their Twitter: 

This stunning display of professionalism was followed by even greater example of personal maturity:

More exchanges discussing revenge for the indie companies TotalBiscuit has ruined and blackmail ensued which have all since been deleted off of FUN Creators’s twitter, but can be found here thanks to the keen-eyed capping of bystanders.

In response to all this nonsense, the TotalBiscuit team tackled the challenge head-on and only acknowledged the most serious issue – the accusation that they in fact photoshopped the email for the express purpose of trolling FUN Creators.

Since @funcreators claimed we photoshopped the email, here’s a video showing the full email and header info https://t.co/2TAgu4HXYG

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) February 15, 2014

Of course, this story makes very little sense in light of the fact a copyright strike had most definitely been made… and most definitely had been made by FUN Creators, as affirmed by the network VP that TotalBiscuit works for:

I’m a VP at Maker Studios. I can confirm that @Totalbiscuit‘s video takedown request came from @FUNCreators.

— David Sievers (@dnsievers) February 14, 2014

Perhaps to bring this entire incident to a close, FUN Creators proceeded to give their “last words” on the subject through email:

And also on Twitter: 

While this situation might strike you as bizarre to the extreme, you can be sure that even with a pretty good sense that you’re going to come out on top, it is not a pleasant situation to find yourself in when your business and your livelihood is threatened in this manner. 

Thanks for your support. This whole thing is unsettling and somewhat stressful. Polaris is handling it.

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) February 15, 2014

Since then, the TotalBiscuit team has declined to continue this rigmarole any further and has left it to their lawyer to continue the correspondence.

This appears to be the last Tweet that FUN Creators have made on the subject so perhaps their moment of fame has come to an end (much in the same vein as Wild Games Studio, the makers of Day One: Garry’s Incident which also attempted to make a false copyright claim against one of TotalBiscuit’s videos back in October 2013). 

TotalBiscuit’s last words on the situation are as follows:

No interest in fighting with this company, we just want the strike removed & an apology. Direct communication is being handled by our lawyer

— TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) February 15, 2014

Kudos to TB for handling this like a pro. I would say having a law degree under your belt certainly helps in this situation… but let’s be honest. You wouldn’t even need one to deal with the silliness we’ve seen this weekend, would you?