Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris (34) made headlines when he had to take a stream offline due to a court order. Now he wants to take action against the decision.
What kind of stream was it? On October 23, 2022, MontanaBlack surprised his fans with a special stream from the Wildpark Schwarze Berge in Lower Saxony. The 34-year-old had clearly a lot of fun interacting with the animals and was rewarded with up to 60,000 viewers.
However, this beautiful action had a rather unpleasant aftermath: A mother was dissatisfied with being visible in the background of the stream along with her daughter and obtained a restraining order. MontanaBlack had to take the video recording offline.
Now he has come forward with an update and criticized the reporting.
MontanaBlack: “Most articles are nonsense”
Why did the topic only come up now? In a stream, MontanaBlack explained that he deliberately did not address the incident at the time to avoid prompting anyone to take action against IRL streams. He does not know how the topic made its way to the public.
Suddenly, he was approached about the situation in the chat. Later, the streamer found out: Lawyer Christian Solmecke had published a YouTube video about the case, which was then picked up by several media outlets.
What does the streamer criticize? MontanaBlack is apparently quite dissatisfied with the reporting on the case. It was said that he would have to pay a fine of 250,000 €. An article that was circulated on Snapchat even mentioned up to 6 months in prison for the 34-year-old.
However, this is “pure clickbait,” says the streamer, as the matter has long been resolved. He received the restraining order only two weeks after the stream and took the VoD offline. Therefore, he is no longer facing any penalties: “Every article that has reported on this is nonsense,” says MontanaBlack.
However, the matter is not completely resolved, as the streamer wants to defend himself. We have embedded a video here in which MontanaBlack talks about the case:
MontanaBlack sees a dangerous precedent
This is the current status: MontanaBlack explained that he is “taking legal action” with his lawyer. He is not only concerned about himself: As one of the largest IRL streamers in Europe, he also wants to advocate for smaller streamers:
If it is now common practice for someone seen in a livestream for two seconds to run to a judge to have that content removed, then no one, big or small, can do IRL streams anymore.
What is the legal situation? The streamer himself sees himself in the right: The legal situation in Germany is actually clear. If someone is seen in the background for “two to three seconds” without being filmed explicitly or being “the main focus of the stream”, then this is considered ancillary.
There is actually a regulation regarding this. On the website of NRW, there is the following explanation regarding ancillary content:
You do not need to obtain consent if a person is only seen as ancillary in the picture, for example, in a pedestrian zone or at a public event. However, in close-ups, it is advisable to ask the respective individuals for permission before shooting.
via NRWision
Why the judge to whom the restraining order was presented decided differently and what the chances of success are for MontanaBlack, we cannot tell you. However, we will keep you updated if there is any news on this topic.
The end of IRL streams?
What happens next with IRL streams? For the time being, MontanaBlack seems to have lost interest in IRL streams, which is a pity, as the streamer appeared to enjoy this type of content.
However, he can no longer do it “in a relaxed manner”, says the 34-year-old. What annoys him particularly is that he had indeed made an effort to be considerate: if someone would have been clearly visible, he and his team would have always approached beforehand and asked for permission.
Also, if a larger group of children had been nearby, he would have asked his cameraman to “put the camera away”.
However, he also demands a bit of personal responsibility: after all, the big camera is hard to miss, and his cameraman Adam “skyline_tv” Wolke also wears a cap that says “Live”. People should just turn away if they don’t want to be on camera.
He will now wait and see, but he does not know if he will ever feel like doing IRL streams again.
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