The production company behind Michael Bay's Skibidi Toilet movie has apparently sent DMCA takedown requests to Garry's Mod

Update: Garry Newman confirmed in an email to IGN that the DMCA notice was sent last year and that “everything has been resolved” since then.

Original story:

Earlier this month, it was reported that YouTube phenomenon Skibidi Toilet could be making its way to film and television via director Michael Bay. Now, it appears that Invisible Narratives, a production company co-owned by Bay, has sent Garry Newman a DMCA takedown notice citing the numerous Skibidi Toilet games and assets advertised on Garry's Mod.

Skibidi Toilet uses assets derived from Half-Life 2, but owes a lot to the Garry's Mod machinima scene. And the original creator of the animation, best known as DaFuqBoom, claims to be innocent of the DMCA.

Newman shared a screenshot of the alleged DMCA notice on the S&box Discord channel.

“The unauthorized Skibidi Toilet Garry's Mod games advertised everywhere are generating significant revenue. There is absolutely no licensed Steam, Valve, or Garry's Mod content associated with Skibidi Toilet.” The statement goes on to state that “characters like Titan Cameraman, Titan Speakerman, Titan TV Man, and Skibidi Toilet” are the property of copyright holder Invisible Narratives. As Newman put it on Discord, “Can you believe this impudence?”

Unless you have kids or very young teenagers in your life, you might not be familiar with Skibidi Toilet , a 3D animated series best known for its early episodes featuring a singing head emerging from a toilet. If you've watched it and are a jaded millennial like me, you'll probably notice that the head looks like a City 17 resident and the toilet looks like something you'd shoot at a Combine soldier from the end of your Gravity Gun.

YouTuber Alexey “DaFuq!? Boom!” Gerasimov, who currently has 43 million subscribers, makes no secret of these sources of inspiration, frequently referencing Garry's Mod community assets in his video descriptions. Gerasimov also appeared on the S&box Discord after the DMCA began circulating in hopes of contacting Newman. “I did not hit Garry's Mod and I'm trying to figure out what else the letter said!” he wrote.

It wouldn’t be surprising if lawyers for the production company Invisible Narratives were acting without Gerasimov’s knowledge. It also wouldn’t be surprising if the whole thing was fake – the DMCA system is susceptible to abuse, and it wouldn’t be the first time Garry’s Mod has received takedown notices pretending to be from a company it wasn’t involved in at all. The typo in “unathorized” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

I'll stay on top of the situation and update this story if there's any breaking news regarding Skibidi.

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