Oct 24, 2022

Lawsuits, counter suits, and Youtube takedowns: A copyright battle between their own "Peppa Pig" and "Wolfoo".

This summer, amid a flurry of legal issues, Youtube has removed nearly 2,000 highly popular Wolfoo videos produced by Vietnamese studio Sconnect, following claims from Entertainment One (eOne).

What Happened - On May 6, Youtube pulled Wolfoo videos from several verified accounts hosted by the show's production company Sconnect. According to social media tracking website Social Blade, the video could have been lost somewhere between 20 billion and 30 billion views since then. Sconnect claims that downtime has caused significant financial losses to the company, with "the damage increasing every hour.""

Why the Video was Taken Down - Youtube was taken down Wolfoo's video after a request was made by eOne, a Toronto-based company that owns Peppa Pig. According to Sconnect, eOne's claim that Wolfoo was derived from Peppa Pig was false, and Youtube should not have acted on them.

What is the legal history here-eOne, owned by American toy company Hasbro, has previously filed a copyright lawsuit against Sconnect in both the UK. And Russia claims that Wolfoo is nothing more than a knock-off of the "reworked" Peppa pig. The British case was intended to take place on May 7, but had been postponed until May 11. The Russian lawsuit took place on May 8, when a Moscow City Court dismissed eOne's claim against Sconnect.

What was Sconnect's response - Sconnect filed a counter-lawsuit against Russia seeking compensation for losses and filed an unfair competition lawsuit against eOne in the People's Court of Hanoi - the court stated that no infringement of intellectual property rights has been done by sconnect and that eOne cannot file a claim to make the same accusation against Sconnect in the future. Alleged illegal use of images. According to Sconnect, eOne is using Wolfoo tags in at least 53 Peppa Pig videos to draw traffic that would have been directed to the wolfoo channel.

Where does Youtube Stand - According to Youtube, its copyright protection tool is intended for property owners and users alike to use and resolve conflicts between eOne and Sconnect Basically, the platform appears to be waiting for a more definitive conclusion of a legal feud before taking further action on behalf of either party . This is not the first time Youtube has been asked to intervene under similar circumstances. Just last year, Youtube scrapped its Super Jojo channel, which had more than 22 million subscribers at the time, after copyright claims were made by Cocomelon producers Moonbug Entertainment and Treasure Studio.