AnneMunition hit with bizarre copyright strike for using random numbers

Andrew Amos

Popular Twitch streamer ‘AnneMunition’ has received one of the weirdest YouTube copyright claims ever, with two of her videos being demonetized over the use of the numbers “36” and “50.”

To protect copyright holders, YouTube has a system in place to demonetize or take down videos that infringe on various copyrights from around the world. It’s been widely criticized in the past for being anti-creator, with false claims being submitted daily.

However, one weird claim might trump them all, with AnneMunition having her monetization for two videos dating back to 2017 over the use of random numbers.

AnneMunition shared the rather puzzling copyright claim on her YouTube account on January 23. The claim, which was only made recently, is in regards to her 2017 video playthrough of The Witcher 3, but that’s not the part that has left AnneMunition confused.

The claim, made by media company Fullscreen, was simply over the number “36.” There wasn’t anything else to do with what media they were trying to protect, or any timestamps, just that the number “36” was not AnneMunition’s property.

Fullscreen describe themselves as a “social content company for talent and brands” on their company website. They are owned by Otter Media, a subsidiary of WarnerMedia, who doesn’t hold the license for The Witcher 3, or any trademarks related to the number “36.”

AnneMunition’s “The Witcher 3: VOD Part 21” video was one of two clips demonetized by YouTube over the claim.

That wasn’t the only number Fullscreen tried to claim against the Twitch streamer. Another one of her videos was hit with a claim for the number “50.”

This is problematic for AnneMunition’s YouTube channel, because while claims are active, Fullscreen takes all monetization for the video. While the videos are over two years old, with both having very little views, they still leave a stain on her YouTube record.

The streamer has disputed both claims, replying to YouTube saying “you can’t copyright a number, you wombats,” and that using the numbers is within fair use.

Her disputes should be answered pretty quickly by YouTube as the copyright claims seemingly have no real substance behind them.

However, it’s still a needlessly annoying task that the content creator has to do to keep her 90,000 subscriber channel alive.

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