Neumayer defended his livelihood and started asking questions. Initially, this led to his videos being restored. But that victory was short-lived, as the alleged Nintendo lawyer only escalated his demands, prompting the YouTuber to voluntarily remove some videos, The Verge reported, as he continued to investigate the potential troll.
Contacting Nintendo directly helped, but questions remain
The Verge has all the receipts, shares emails from the fake lawyer, and chronicles Neumayer's battle blow by blow. Neumayer eventually discovered that a patent attorney with a similar name was working for Nintendo in Japan, though he couldn't say if that was the person who sent the demands and Nintendo wouldn't confirm to The Verge whether Tatsumi Masaaki exists.
It was only after contacting Nintendo directly that Neumayer finally received information with which he could challenge the takedowns. Nintendo reportedly responded, telling Neumayer that the fake attorney's Proton email address “is not a legitimate Nintendo email address and that the details in the communication do not reflect Nintendo of America Inc's enforcement practices.”
Nintendo promised to investigate further as Neumayer continued to receive demands from the fake lawyer. It took about a week after Nintendo responded to “Tatsumi” beginning to withdraw, writing in a stunted email to Neumayer, “I hereby withdraw all my previous claims.” But even then, the troll went down fighting, The Verge reported.
The latest posts from “Tatsumi” claimed that he was only suspended for filing claims and threatened that other Nintendo lawyers would resubmit them. He then sent what The Verge described as “in some ways the most legitimate-looking email yet”, using a publicly available web tool to spoof an official Nintendo email address while continuing to threaten Neumayer.
However, it was that spoofed email that finally put an end to the facade, The Verge reported. Neumayer discovered the spoof by checking the headers and identifying the tool used.
Although this case of copyright trolling is apparently over, Neumayer — along with a few other gamers targeted by “Tatsumi” — remains frustrated with YouTube, The Verge reported. After his battle with the fake Nintendo lawyer, Neumayer wants the streaming platform to change its policies and make it easier for YouTubers to defend themselves against copyright abuse.
When Ars reported in May about a YouTuber who was upset by a DMCA takedown over a washing machine noise heard in his video, a YouTube researcher and director of policy and advocacy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Katharine Trendacosta, told Ars that it YouTube's current process discourages YouTubers from contesting copyright strikes.
“Any idiot can hit any YouTuber and it's almost no problem. It's crazy,” Neumayer said. “It has to change NOW.”
