Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg revealed that he can’t use his own music anymore, including his immensely popular ‘B*tch Lasagna’ song, due to YouTube’s “backwards” copyright system.
After criticizing Japanese anime studio Toei Animation for allegedly issuing more than 150 copyright strikes against a YouTuber Mark Fitzpatrick in a single day, PewDiePie talked about his own experience with the platform’s copyright system.
Not only did he describe the system as “backwards”, but he also claimed that it has allowed a company to claim music on his behalf, even though he has nothing to do with them.
The worst part, he revealed, is that he can’t even use some of his own songs anymore.
“I’ve had this problem recently where all my music got claimed,” said PewDiePie. He explained that if you click onto his B*tch Lasagna music video, it has been claimed by a company called RepostNetwork on his behalf.
“Nah!” he scoffed in disgust. “What do you f**king mean? You can’t just say it’s on behalf of me. That’s not just stealing. That’s stealing and lying about it. I know I didn’t claim that. I didn’t tell anyone to do that.
PewDiePie pointed out that he even included a section in the video’s description saying: “Feel free to use this track. It won’t be claimed.”
He explained that he did that because he wanted people to do fun stuff with the song, but now they can’t.
“It pisses me off,” he added. “I don’t support this whole claim music thing. I think it’s completely backwards.”
He compared it to how TikTok lets people use songs in clips, which he described as a “positive” thing.
“I don’t know how this was possible that someone can claim my own video and say it’s me. How is that possible? I understand it’s a difficult process. It’s never going to be perfect. But the kind of stuff that happened… it’s not okay.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
It’s not the first time, even just recently, PewDiePie has spoken out against YouTube — the platform he’s called home for over a decade.
In November 2021, he slammed YouTube for removing the dislike count feature, saying: “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”