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The Walt Disney Corporation may have issued copyright strikes over animated gifs of a character from Star Wars: The Mandalorian that fans have dubbed “Baby Yoda.”
For those unfamiliar, the show is set in
the Star Wars universe five years after the events of Star Wars: Return
of the Jedi, and debuted on Disney+ on November 12th. The first episode
sees the titular bounty hunter sent after a target- only to find it is a
mere infant of the same species as Yoda.
Yoda’s species has
never been given a canon name, and the character’s official name is the
far less enticing “The Child”. Audiences soon fell in love with it, and
resulted in the far catchier fan-name “Baby Yoda“.
Along with
high-quality puppets, puppeteering, and special effects, the character’s
design and attitude cemented its popularity. Aside from being a literal
“Muppet Baby” version of a character most people know, it has large
eyes, engages in baby-like behavior, and stranger antics such as eating a
frog-like creature alive and floating around in a little pod. It also
showed a fair degree of intelligence (though still emotionally-stable as
an infant), and even some Force powers.
This resulted in fan
art, images and animated gifs from the show, and memes. Forbes senior
contributor Dani Di Placido even argues it is the reason for the show’s
success.
While the main character’s face has not been seen so
far, Di Placido claims that thanks to a combination of the Kuleshov
effect (reading emotion from tiny amounts of body language even when
there is no face), and how the ruthless bounty hunter is willing to make
sacrifices to protect a small child the audience wants to be safe as
well.
“ “Baby Yoda” isn’t just a cute piece of Disney
merchandise; he (or she?) was absolutely vital to the humanization of
Mando, and the moment he chose to spare the Child’s life, we understood
his intentions. It wasn’t just the higher paycheck – clasping the
Child’s tiny hand was a signal that there was a heart of gold underneath
that metal.”
[…] “Knowing that there are forces out there that
seek to kill the Child, and that Mando is his sole caretaker, doesn’t
just provide tension; it means we are practically forced to care about
Mando, our almost unknowable protagonist. If something happens to him,
what happens to the Child?”
Nonetheless, Vulture reviewer Kathryn
VanArendonk has reported (and tweeted) on November 21st that Disney may
have ordered gif sharing website Giphy to remove the Baby Yoda gifs
from its website, uploaded by Vulture. Or at least, for a brief time.
As
of writing this article (November 24th, there are still many gifs on
the website under The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda search terms. Even
Vulture‘s own gifs have returned. As VanArendonk explained (via Forbes),
gifs and memes would be protected under US “fair use” laws.
Many
online have theorized that Disney recanted their demands (as Baby Yoda
has been free press for the show, or realizing they had little legal
right), Giphy had removed the gifs themselves, or even that Vulture had
removed the gifs to make a story.
Nonetheless, Disney are
certainly interested in focusing on Baby Yoda- with the Disney Star Wars
films having a poor reception, and rumors that the test-screenings for
Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker had critics and audience members walking
out. Others have doubted this claim however, alleging that Disney does
not conduct test screenings.
This news evokes concerns about how much free speech and fair use is being defended in the US.
The
US House of Representatives recently approved of the CASE Act, which
critics have dubbed the “anti-meme bill.” While it would allow both
parties in a copyright dispute to settle the matter through the
Copyright Office, critics are concerned it will allow large corporations
to sue for damages of up to $30,000 even in the case of posting
transformative works (such as memes).
The proposed bill has
similar concern to Europe’s Article 11 and 13, both heavily criticized
for using A.I algorithms to detect copyright infringement, and even
taxing posting a hyperlink.
The US’ DARPA is also developing AI
to detect “deep-fake” videos and audio, though some have expressed
concern even memes not intended to deceive (i.e. parody) would be at
risk.
In case you missed it, you can find our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order review here.
Source:nichegamer.com
Author:Ryan Pearson
Editor:Vapor