At the center of this incident is content creator Nubzombie. After he uploaded a gameplay video of “Silent Hill 2/Silent Hill 2”, Akira Yamaoka’s song “Promise” appeared in the video, and he was infringed by two different accounts. Moreover, neither account was the real Akira Yamaoka. They claimed that the works they created were actually obvious imitations and even counterfeit versions with traces of AI generation.
First post: Take a song covered with AI dubbing and sue people
Nubzombie first posted a video to talk about this matter, saying that his “Silent Hills 2” video was hit with infringement by an account called “Aggro memos”. What’s even more ridiculous is that the audio track used to claim the rights sounds like an obvious copy of “Promise”, but with a layer of AI-generated vocals or processing overlaid on it, which is equivalent to using a different skin to turn the original song into a tool that can be used to sue people.
Again within a few hours, with another “author”
Not long after the first video was released, Nubzombie released a second video: the same “Silent Hills 2” gameplay content was once again slapped with infringement by a different account. This time the other party didn’t even cover it up, because the fake track was simply called “Promise”. “The whole thing looks like the same original song” was used by different fake accounts in turn to grab rights and harvest YouTube’s automated judgment.
The most irritating thing is: YouTube’s automatic system still decides that you lose first!
When platforms face suspected false rights claims, they often let the system automatically side with the reporting party. As a result, creators are forced to spend a lot of time handling complaints and bear revenue and channel risks, and the costs of this type of false infringement are almost entirely passed on to content creators.
A deeper background
Although the background of the second fake audio track is unknown, in the information about the audio track related to “Aggro memos”, you can see the description “Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises”. The Orchard Enterprises, part of Sony Music Entertainment, has been involved in similar disputes over claims in the past.
No matter who is ultimately responsible, the reality is cruel for creators: as long as the platform’s automatic infringement system remains loose and lacks an effective anti-infiltration mechanism, this kind of “AI counterfeiting to grab rights” will always be done and people will be victimized.