This is a big problem. Read this rule from Fortnite’s own Island Creator rules:
1.7 Respect IP Ownership - The content you create, publish, or use cannot infringe or violate someone else’s rights, including their intellectual property rights (such as by infringing their copyright or trademark). You must own or have obtained the necessary rights to share and publish the content, and any such license must be broad enough to grant Epic a license consistent with the Fortnite EULA and the UEFN Supplemental Terms.
The above rule is supposed to prevent stealing Intellectual Property and copywritten works. This includes small brands to big franchises.
However, some believe rules are meant to be broken.
We see creators in Discover stealing copywritten content and IP. A LOT. Because these big franchises have a big following, players who are fans of said franchises will, naturally, play these experiences because they have characters they like.
This not only breaks rules, but it also takes away from original content in Discover getting as much plays, and ruins the experience of a creator like me who follows the rules.
And it’s not just small creators stealing IP.
Normal players who follow these big content creators likely don’t know that stealing IP is against Creator Rules, as they see it so much on the platform. Small creators wanting to make a quick buck who are follow said content creators are going to see using other brands as acceptable, whether conscious in this thought or not.
Basically, if a bigger creator is doing it, it must be fine for them to do it also.
This is not good. for multiple reasons:
- It puts the user at risk of being taken down via DMCA, in case the holder decides to look through the platform
- It’s against rules and it’s not morally correct.
- It makes other rule-abiding creators lose players.
Now, I know that there’s probably a reason why Epic doesn’t act unless the IP holder gets involved. I get that. But we can’t just let this go on.
These big creators are an influence on smaller creators, and a lot of these creators are willing to break rules to make money (whether knowingly or not).
And so, I propose, we should work to find a way to stop this from happening as much. We’re never going to fully remove this problem, but I feel we still have the power to do something about this recurring issue.
Thank you.
Edit 1
I acknowledge that I don’t have the information necessary to say whether or not these big creators actually do possess required permission… and that is also part of the problem.
There’s not as much as even a hint of actual collaboration from all the examples I’ve seen, and these creators are STILL an influence anyways.