Things We Saw Today: Lofi Girl Livesteams End Abruptly Due to False Copyright Claims

This weekend, many live streams in the internet’s biggest study rooms (Lofi Girl, a.k.a. Chilled Cow) ended out of nowhere. While they shared an image of one copyright strike, several of the live streams read “this live stream recording is not available.” This included the main two live streams that were each streaming for over 20,700 hours and, collectively, almost a billion views. Each stream ran for about two and a half years, serving as music to help study, destress, read, sleep, and more.

The Lofi Girl Twitter account shared a screenshot early in the morning of July 7 and said these issues of accessing the stream came from false copyright strikes. The attention garnered by the tweet alerted YouTube, and within 12 hours, it replied that these accusers were abusing the system. According to YouTube, those people had their accounts closed.

While YouTube was made aware and said they fixed the problem, it will take a few more hours for the streams to be fixed. In the meantime, you can find their music on music streaming platforms, including Apple Music.

Unfortunately for the countless others to whom this happens, there’s no getting their issues resolved unless they have a legal team or the audience size to all notify YouTube at once. This has been an issue for years and is one of the few times the platform has come out this quickly and fixed the issue. It probably helps that Lofi Girl wasn’t fighting a big company or else they’d be out of luck because YouTube would not have resolved the issue so quickly.

(via Twitter, featured image: Juan Pablo Machado)

Here are some other bits of news we saw today:

• VFX Artists across the industry are calling Marvel the “worst” client due to stress and unrealistic deadline demands. (via The Gamer)
• HBOMax and Cartoon Network greenlight 2D animated series based on the graphic novel Iyanu: Child of Wonder. The mythological and magical story draws on Yoruba culture. (via Variety)
• The trailer for Art of Incarceration explores how art empowers Australia’s First Nations during and post-incarceration. (via YouTube)

• Taika Waititi reveals Taylor Swift meme in Thor: Love and Thunder. (via Insider)
• PBS Origin’s explores the history of the blind and Black musician trope in American history. (via YouTube)

What did you find on the internet today, Mary Suevians?

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