Samsung is really getting pummelled from all sides now. First was its second recall of its “Galaxy Note 7” smartphones, then there was the FAA ban. Now, the company has to contend with “Grand Theft Auto V” modders who made exploding versions of the phablet in the game. It seems Samsung has had enough and forced a video of the mod on YouTube to be taken down.
Samsung’s reaction to the YouTube video about the “Note 7” being made into a bomb in “GTAV” could not be worse, The Verge reports. By issuing a DMCA takedown on something that the copyright tool was never meant for, the South Korean company has placed itself in the position of abusing its power and misusing an already oft-misused YouTube service. This will likely only add to its already damaged reputation after the PR nightmare that was the actual explosions and fires caused by “Note 7” smartphones.
The mod, which was made by HitmanNiko, is not a copy of anything that is copyrighted by Samsung. If anything, Rockstar has the biggest reasons to complain, but it isn’t. The mod is just a parody that exaggerates a real-world situation, which just happens to involve Samsung’s hazardous device.
Other videos of the mod are still circulating the web, with many YouTube channels featuring it as they were expected to. Unless Samsung plans on issuing DMCA takedown notices to all of these channels, which would be a terrible idea for the company, the mod is going to stay up. In fact, by trying to suppress the existence of the mod, the South Korean company might have just made it more popular.
On that note, it’s not even clear that the takedown was intentional on Samsung’s part, Ars Technica reports. If it was, the smartphone maker wouldn’t be the first company to misuse the DMCA the way it did.