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Nyan Cat Creator Suing WB & Level-5 Over. [Mini rant]
12 years ago
Before you hit the comments, let me be clear: I'm on the side of the guy who created Nyan Cat, Chris Torres AKA 
prguitarman
To the three-or-so people that have no idea what I'm talking about, check out these links:
http://www.prguitarman.com/?id=348
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4
http://www.nyancat.com/
Basically, Chris created the original Nyan Cat character and animation (see first link above) and put it up on his website. A fan then combined that OC with someone else's OC (the music) and put it up on Youtube. After the video became a worldwide hit, other people jumped on the bandwagon, except these guys were actually making money off of their use of the Nyan Cat character, and were not giving him a cent.
Now, I personally don't care all that much when a nobody starts making money off of something that's not theirs, but soon enough, major corporations started using his character in their marketing.
The Coca-Cola company via this Vitamin Water commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB8wTYxLbnk
Sprint, Samsung, & Google via this cell phone commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctZxEcNUi_I
Warner Bros Entertainment and Level-5 via the Scribblenauts series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW7K2kr0Yg0
Now, most people think "oh yay, it's Nyan Cat!" when they see these commercials, and don't consider anything further than that. The problem is that these companies are promoting their products using someone else's original creation, and not giving any compensation to the creator. I'm usually not one to support suing over copyright, but when a major corporation uses the population's love for the creation of someone else for monetary gain, that is just plain wrong. Chris deserves compensation for the use of his intellectual property.
prguitarmanTo the three-or-so people that have no idea what I'm talking about, check out these links:
http://www.prguitarman.com/?id=348
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4
http://www.nyancat.com/
Basically, Chris created the original Nyan Cat character and animation (see first link above) and put it up on his website. A fan then combined that OC with someone else's OC (the music) and put it up on Youtube. After the video became a worldwide hit, other people jumped on the bandwagon, except these guys were actually making money off of their use of the Nyan Cat character, and were not giving him a cent.
Now, I personally don't care all that much when a nobody starts making money off of something that's not theirs, but soon enough, major corporations started using his character in their marketing.
The Coca-Cola company via this Vitamin Water commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB8wTYxLbnk
Sprint, Samsung, & Google via this cell phone commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctZxEcNUi_I
Warner Bros Entertainment and Level-5 via the Scribblenauts series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW7K2kr0Yg0
Now, most people think "oh yay, it's Nyan Cat!" when they see these commercials, and don't consider anything further than that. The problem is that these companies are promoting their products using someone else's original creation, and not giving any compensation to the creator. I'm usually not one to support suing over copyright, but when a major corporation uses the population's love for the creation of someone else for monetary gain, that is just plain wrong. Chris deserves compensation for the use of his intellectual property.
