YouTube star Mark ‘Markiplier’ Fischbach is one of the site’s most popular content creators — but being a huge online entertainer also means dealing with copycats who have less-than-stellar intentions.
Boasting over 25 million subscribers, Markiplier has a storied history on YouTube, having started his channel in 2012 with gaming reaction videos that quickly went viral due to his cheeky sense of humor.
Since then, the YouTuber has fostered a hugely supportive community and has even used his massive platform for multiple charity drives — a concept he has continued with his merchandise sales.
Although the full profits from all Markiplier’s merch sales go directly to a charity of his choice, it seems that some companies are giving fans the run-around by selling knockoff versions of his older designs online.
Fischbach hit out at these knockoff merch hawkers in a video uploaded on April 23, where he examined a series of fake merch items found across the web, which included such oddities as a cross necklace, a bath mat, and even a huge cardboard cutout of his face.
While he was pleasantly surprised and even humored by some of the knockoffs, he ultimately pleaded with merch hawkers to halt their operation, reminding them that by selling such items to fans, they are ultimately preventing money from his official merch from going to charity.
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“Listen, if you make knockoff merch that is just a rip of the merch that I’ve already made or have made in the past, stop,” he asked. “Don’t. Don’t do that. The stuff I sell on Markiplier.com is for charity. …and you taking those designs, and you selling it for profit, it’s scummy, and it’s wrong.”
However, Mark revealed that he’s perfectly fine with fans making and selling fanart online, but reiterated that he doesn’t want his charity-specific designs being duplicated.
“Don’t take the designs that were sold for charity and put them up,” he continued. “Okay? Cool.”
This isn’t the first time Markiplier has hit out at legally-questionable products, either; the star also reviewed an unauthorized biography about him in March, making his most recent video the latest in an apparent string of knockoff heists.