YouTuber MxR Plays is falling on hard times as video company Jukin Media is striking his channel for “using videos without permission.” The channel, which has garnered a large following of 831K subscribers, came out with a video Thursday claiming they are being extorted by the company and providing evidence of the low-handed attempt at getting more money than they ask for.
In the video, which has the two faces of the channel, Henry Liang and Jeannie Lee, explaining the situation. They explain the company appears to have some sort of grudge against the channel as they haven’t heard anyone out the company before for what’s currently happening to them. According to Lee, they have given in and paid their weighty fee which comes in at $1,500 per clip used in the past, which Liang interjects could be a reason why they keep reacting to their videos.
In a response to the situation, Jukin Media put out a lengthy comment on a video and posted it to Twitter, citing Liang and Lee’s channel is breaking YouTube TOS for uploading content from other creators to monetize from it. They explained they only request $49 to license a video to use and that they don’t want to issue a strike, but rather have a duty to protect the copyright of creators signed with them.
We left a comment on the video. Here's a screenshot. You're making money off of videos that don't belong to you — our only goal here is to ensure that the rightful owners of the videos are compensated. We're happy to talk and try to find a resolution that works for everyone. pic.twitter.com/M2uwRbDOsN
— Jukin Media (@JukinMedia) January 10, 2020
MxR Plays, on the other hand, has operated to make the content transformative with the inclusion of commentary and reactions. This makes it different than the original source material and in a gray area of YouTube copyright.
