YouTube hasn’t necessarily remained the darling of the internet as they close Google accounts of people spamming emotes in YouTube Gaming Live chat, take bizarre strategies that attempt to downplay their own grievances while profiting from tragedies and ‘influencers’, and demonetizing anyone for any reason they can think of, such as ‘they hurt my feelings.’
Yet, as companies are aught to do in the modern era, they aren’t going anywhere because that’s simply too much of a hassle for the majority of the internet; the good news is that gives us more than enough content to chuckle sensibly at while we watch from the sidelines.
The most recent stumbling revolves around the horrifying title Doki Doki Literature Club! (colloquially DDLC), a free visual-novel on Steam that surrounds a fun literature club filled by people with fascinating issues. The free to play aspect might sound tantalizing, but know you’re in for a bit of psychological scarring.
The creator of DDLC (Dan Salvato) has had his YouTube account demonetized for the past few months because he’s using his own music. Today, he finally got fed up and aired his grievances on Twitter.
My @YouTube channel for Team Salvato is getting denied monetization because they think that the soundtrack I composed for my own game is "someone else's content". This has been going on for months and is not only losing us money, but also preventing us from protecting copyright. pic.twitter.com/fFBB26xGWF
— Dan Salvato (@dansalvato) August 27, 2020
Have no fear! Team YouTube was on the case, on Twitter, where they enjoy trolling everyone that attempts to use their platform.
Thanks for looking into this.
— Dan Salvato (@dansalvato) August 27, 2020
Now, surely Team YouTube (on Twitter) would realize that the creator is uploading original soundtracks (that he made) for a popular title, and everything would be sorted out. But that wouldn’t have much entertainment value for us: thankfully YouTube realized this before they fixed it.
(2/2) Your channel may be lacking context about the creative value you’re adding to make the content unique. We recommend changing your overall content strategy and reapply in 30 days to send your channel for a new review. Check out best practices here: https://t.co/KHFKZvSlNY
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) August 27, 2020
YouTube officially fired back by stating that Dan Salvato, the creator of one of the most outlandish and bizarre visual-novels on Steam that has scarred hundreds and thousands of people, isn’t adding enough creative value to his content (which he entirely owns) resulting in the ongoing demonetization.
Simply brilliant.
I literally composed the soundtrack that I'm hosting on YouTube. It's not "reused" – I am the original creator and owner. You're denying me the right to monetize the first, original uploads of my own soundtrack. Am I missing something here?
— Dan Salvato (@dansalvato) August 27, 2020
YouTube since stopped replying to Dan Salvato for reasons unknown at the moment; Dan Salvato still hasn’t been allowed to monetize his YouTube channel as the works that he has made are being used against him to stop from monetizing what he has made.
Even individuals who aren’t immediately aware of who Dan Salvato is, or hasn’t been introduced to Doki Doki Literature Club!, can easily surmise the situation by following Dan’s link to the YouTube video and realize that everything is a gaffe, and could be easily fixed.
Instead of doubling-down on what is likely an automated process and the idea that it can’t err consistently to the detriment of users and content creators. Perhaps someone at YouTube was scarred by DDLC and is simply giving Dan a bit of punishment on the interim until he finishes his current project.
