GTA 5, of course, is the video game Grand Theft Auto 5. And, like many video games, it's possible to mod (modify) those video games to add in other elements. And so it appears that someone took the "ripped from the headlines" stories of exploding Note 7s and created a GTA 5 mod that made such things into weapons you could use in the game.
The company is trying to erase it from the internet completely. Samsung has issued a DMCA takedown targeting a YouTube video that showcased the mod, which gives the Note 7 explosive, grenade-like capabilities. It was a pretty great way of poking fun at Samsung's ongoing PR crisis — and now the company is responding in a terrible way: ridiculous overreach and misuse of the DMCA tool.
In case you still don't get what's going on here, let's lay it out for you: there's a big story going on these days about how Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 devices are, well, catching fire (some prefer exploding, but it seems that they're mostly just setting themselves on fire). It's causing injuries and Samsung is in full on panic mode. It's now a felony to bring a Galaxy Note 7 on an airplane. This is the kind of stuff that business school case studies are written about years later, describing how Samsung handled this kind of crisis.
The Note-as-bomb mod, created by HitmanNiko, is clearly a parody of a rather unfortunate real world situation. He didn't copy anything. But that didn't stop Samsung from filing a bogus copyright claim. As a result, the video that we originally linked to earlier this month has been pulled from YouTube, and there's little mystery about the party responsible.
It's unclear whether the original uploader has appealed Samsung's request. Thankfully, other videos featuring the mod remain available for viewing, such as the one embedded below. Instead of pursuing YouTube users, Samsung should probably point those resources to customers affected by the dangerous product that's now been ushered into technology disaster history.
SOURCE: YouTube, Techdirt
The company is trying to erase it from the internet completely. Samsung has issued a DMCA takedown targeting a YouTube video that showcased the mod, which gives the Note 7 explosive, grenade-like capabilities. It was a pretty great way of poking fun at Samsung's ongoing PR crisis — and now the company is responding in a terrible way: ridiculous overreach and misuse of the DMCA tool.
In case you still don't get what's going on here, let's lay it out for you: there's a big story going on these days about how Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 devices are, well, catching fire (some prefer exploding, but it seems that they're mostly just setting themselves on fire). It's causing injuries and Samsung is in full on panic mode. It's now a felony to bring a Galaxy Note 7 on an airplane. This is the kind of stuff that business school case studies are written about years later, describing how Samsung handled this kind of crisis.
The Note-as-bomb mod, created by HitmanNiko, is clearly a parody of a rather unfortunate real world situation. He didn't copy anything. But that didn't stop Samsung from filing a bogus copyright claim. As a result, the video that we originally linked to earlier this month has been pulled from YouTube, and there's little mystery about the party responsible.
It's unclear whether the original uploader has appealed Samsung's request. Thankfully, other videos featuring the mod remain available for viewing, such as the one embedded below. Instead of pursuing YouTube users, Samsung should probably point those resources to customers affected by the dangerous product that's now been ushered into technology disaster history.
SOURCE: YouTube, Techdirt
