Cover Corp’s Alleged Copyright Issues Lead to Community Backlash Over Company Management of Virtual Youtubers and More

July 31, 2020: This article has also been updated to reflect apparent, recent, negotiations between Cover Corp. and Nintendo. Which you can find at the end of the report.

Cover Corp, the parent company of Hololive/Holostar and the rest of their subsidiaries, was hit by another massive allegation of copyright violations from various gaming companies, mainly FromSoftware, Capcom and Konami, over the unauthorized use of their material by various Vtubers. As a result the company rushed to private and hide all archived videos until they could work out what was going on.This has resulted in a massive uproar from both Japanese and Western audiences so much so that the screenshots here only represent a tiny fraction of the amount of outrage that I have seen. Essentially the company is being roasted alive all over social media. You can find the archive link to the Hololive reddit community thread here. The effected Vtubers came out and apologized to their fans for all the heartache. Personally, I feel sorry for all them cause none of this is their fault, but it does shows how much they do care for there community and fan base.A user on reddit also pointed out that A-Chan, one of the managers at the company, had no idea what was going on. Many are viewing this as a huge sign of incompetence on the companies behalf.

Shortly after, Cover Corp released an official statement admitting fault and saying that they are sorry for what happened and will do better in the future.

Official Statement:English Translation (courtesy of Seele and Axis):However this statement fell on deaf ears due to the fact that this is not Cover Corp’s first time having copyright problems. Back on May 5, 2020 they were hit hard by Nintendo for not asking for permission to monetize streams that contained their games.Official Statement:English Translation:Kiryuu Coco’s Response:Allegedly this dispute is still ongoing to this very day on top of everything else and has yet to be resolved. Not a good look if true. As of this writing it is alleged that some of the videos have been returned and that the worst is over. No official statement has been made as of yet to clarify that the entire situation has been resolved. The ongoing fallout from this incident continues and is beyond measure.Both the heated community base as well as the apparent rushed job to take down all the videos has led to wide spreading allegations of terrible management, massive community backlash, and deletion of entire sections of content from various Vtubers. Also certain Vtubers are now alleged to being made to take time off due to their channels being on the verge of being deleted over Copyright strikes. To say that Cover Corp is not in a good place is an understatement.

One allegation that was brought to light was an off hand comment about the company forcing the girls to do deal with all of the copyright nonsense themselves. This is alleged to be the main reason why they are feeling upset and depressed at this entire situation. If true that would be insane, cause the purpose of joining a company like Hololive is to be able to have access to people who’s job is to deal with issues like this.Some users allege that Hololive hit the little red button and nuked entire archives of videos instead of hiding them due to the company being in a panic. This piece of news has really devastated some of the Hololive Vtubers who have either lost years of content or projects that they really loved. Imagine losing years of your work, just cause someone else did not know what they were doing. If true, I pray there are people out there who have archived these videos.

Update: It has been confirmed by Hololive’s official video tracking tool that videos were indeed deleted in haste. You can also see the full extent of the nuclear fallout below. Curiously, Vtuber Ookami Mio has come out to say that she will be taking a break from streaming after talking with managment. Some are speculating that due to the timing of her announcement that she, and possibly many others, may be under threat of having their channels terminated due to all the copyright strikes.Other people want answers to what happened to Vtuber Tsukishita Kaoru after he mysteriously quite just two days ago. For those who do not know, Cover Corp issued a statement on July 28, 2020 that Kaoru will no longer be working with the company and that he allegedly departed on good terms.Official Statement:English Translation:While many mourned the exit of their favorite Vtuber, what came out as strange was how sudden all of this happend. According to some in the community Kaoru was doing very well and showing no signs of stopping. Even the girls over at Hololive were taken by surprise and had no time to give him a proper send off.In a move that shook the community, all of his content was scrubbed with no reason as to why. It was as if overnight his entire presence was erased off the internet. Many people took notice and speculation began as to what happened.Some argued that this is all normal and that either Hololive or Kaoru made the choice to delete all of his content while others are saying there has to be something else going on cause nothing is adding up.Some people point to what has been making the rounds recently as of July 19, 2020 as a possible factor where in multiple instances of certain Vtubers are alleged to have been harassed by a certain woke crowd of Western viewers during both their live streams and in the comment sections. This is very disheartening to hear cause Vtubers are people like you and me and deserve the same respect as everyone else. It has gotten so bad that it seems certain Vtubers, like Kanata, have decided to turn off the comment sections in their videos.Other allegations include oversea viewers starting race wars in the comment section as well as outright disrespecting the chat rules set by the Vtubers during live streams. This has angered the Hololive staff yet from what I can tell no company action has been taken against all this. It has gotten so bad on some streams that even the Vtubers themselves are starting to get annoyed by it all.I bring all this up cause the prevailing theory that has been slowly gaining traction, is that there is more going on than what we are being told. All these events have happened within such a short amount of time with hardly any explanation as to what is being done about them. This has led to speculation that this is an underhanded attempt by woke western influence to try and put a dent in Cover Corp’s reputation. According to this alleged theory the copyright incident that just occurred was a direct result of certain woke westerns contacting the gaming companies to try and get them to issue copyright strikes in hopes of taking down channels. If true, then they did succeed to an extent cause right now the community is up in arms and they want answers.Whatever the case maybe, I am sure Cover Corp will recover from this. That being said, this copyright incident along with several recent events, are going to leave a lasting mark on the companies reputation. Right now the company is in some turbulent waters and where they go from here only time can tell. Hopefully they will look into getting better management cause they really been dropping the ball lately. Until that time comes, go out and show your love and support for your favorite Vtubers during these difficult times.