Lego Confirms Zelda Lego Set By Trying To DMCA Leaks Of It To Hide It

The Streisand Effect. Some folks know it. Some folks even think that some people that know it use it purposefully to their own advantage. Other times people who should know better simply flail around and end up turning content viral which they had intended on burying. So, whenever we do these kinds of posts, someone will inevitably show up in the comments to suggest we’re being gamed by even reporting on a thing, typically absent any actual evidence that such gaming is occurring.

The Lego company, for instance, has long been something of an IP bully. Because of that, it doesn’t suprise me in the slightest that the company went around trying to copyright strike to hell everyone who began posting videos about a leaked Lego set for the Great Deku Tree, which comes from the Zelda universe.

Nothing confirms the existence of something like the copyright holder doing everything it can to hide it. So it is that Lego is issuing takedown notices on YouTube videos with the temerity to repeat the leak of a forthcoming Zelda-based The Great Deku Tree set.

As spotted by Nintendo Life, YouTube channel Nintendo Prime received a copyright takedown notice from Lego themselves, after they repeated a rumor of a Zelda-themed set featuring the Great Deku Tree in a video on their channel.

Here’s a link to that Tweet if you want to follow along with the plot.

Now, very little about this makes sense. First, if the content or images of the Lego set are leaked, anyone reporting or commenting on those leaks are most certainly not committing copyright infringement in doing so. That sort of thing is covered pretty squarely by fair use and the First Amendment. Lego should absolutely know this as well, which could be a problem if anyone wanted to fight back, since the DMCA does have a largely unused provision for DMCA takedowns that occur in bad faith.

Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section—

(1) that material or activity is infringing, or
(2) that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner’s authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it.

17 U.S.C.A. § 512

Reporting on a leak is not copyright infringement and Lego’s lawyers should know that. Seems pretty cut and dry to me.

Now on to the more practical effects of this takedown blitz. First, the company is essentially confirming the leak is real. After all, were it not real, it certainly wouldn’t be copyright infringement to show the leak. It might incur some trademark action, but not copyright.

And, as you may already have guessed, the takedowns have resulted in more wide spread coverage of the leak itself, meaning more people know about it as a result of Lego’s actions, not less.

And that’s where someone will assert that this was the plan the entire time. And, sure, I cannot say definitively that it was not. But if Lego thinks this is a good strategy, all the commentary going around about how shitty of a move it was by Lego to do so suggests otherwise. Most of the new content talking about these takedowns certainly aren’t doing so in a glowing manner. Private respondes on Twitter to the takedowns are mostly negative as well.

Meanwhile, Lego has squandered all the free positive publicity it could have garnered for this particular set if it had just shut up, sat back, and enjoyed the free marketing boon. So if this was the plan, it sure was a shitty one.