Riot Games has made a huge hit with the Netflix series “Arcane” based on their game League of Legends. But now there is trouble. A small artist says she is “just a girl from Ukraine,” but Riot Games has taken down a T-shirt design of hers from the market. This is said to violate the copyright of Riot Games, even though the T-shirt is based on her own comic “Arcane Flames”. Her complaint caused an uproar online and prompted Riot Games to reconsider.
This is what the artist says:
- The artist “KuttySarkArt” said on Twitter on January 28 that she is just “a girl from Ukraine” and has no voice when a large company like Riot Games goes against her, even though Riot Games is in the wrong.
- Riot Games has had a T-shirt taken down that was created based on the comic of the Ukrainian, “Arcane Flames”. It is claimed that this design violates the copyrights of Riot Games. However, the artist insists that the comic is solely hers, and Riot Games has nothing to do with it. The artist tried to contest the removal of her T-shirt, but the T-shirt company told her: There is nothing that can be done. The complaint is “valid”. She must adhere to copyright law.
- The artist says: The T-shirt depicts Al’vis, the main heroine from her own comic “Arcane Flames” – thus the complaint is incorrect. Riot Games is claiming copyright that does not belong to them.
Much support for an artist from Ukraine and her T-shirt design
This is how the internet responds: People online sounded the alarm because there is clearly an injustice here. The artist’s tweet received over 63,000 likes and 25,000 retweets.
People believed that Riot Games was only acting against the artist because her comic has the word “Arcane” in the title – but that is a normal English word, and Riot Games can’t just claim it.
One user says:
“Copyright is literally created so that big companies and copyright trolls can harass people.”
Riot Games responds on the same day, apologizes
This is how Riot Games responds: They released a message stating that they themselves do not even know exactly what happened. They assign “teams and third parties” to protect the rights to their own brands.
They are now looking into what exactly happened. But this is evidently a mistake. They apologize for this experience and assure that they are “actively looking into it.”
What it’s about: Two phenomena are coming together here:
- It has become common among large corporations to simply issue takedown notices for anything that even remotely raises suspicion of endangering their copyright – a takedown notice from “Apple” against a small company that makes anything related to apples has become a myth.
- The internet loves to side with the underdog in such “David vs. Goliath” situations. It requires no effort, and it feels good.
Evidently, it is uncomfortable for Riot Games to take on the role of the bad corporation that steamrolls the project of an artist without properly assessing what they are actually doing.
Riot Games has been on the fast track in recent months:
The studio behind League of Legends, Riot, is currently becoming the new Blizzard
