[hkes_show_google_ad] SK Telecom T1 has confirmed that they will continue to issue DMCA takedown notices on League of Legends videos that “may cause serious brand or monetary loss to SKT and its players,” but will funnel those requests through Riot Games in the future. The announcement on the team’s Twitter account confirmed that the team had been directly pursuing takedowns of videos. It claimed that the reason was that, “Fans were left confused between official SKT stream channel and third-party streamers, causing the split in viewership and ultimately damaging our income,” and that VODs of SKT players were being monetized by content creators. SKT’s players began to stream on Twitch earlier this month. When Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok debuted on Twitch, he broke the record for most concurrent viewers on an individual streamer’s channel with 245,100 viewers. Soon after, content creators using footage from the team’s players began to complain that takedown notices had been issued by SKT. The SKT tweet stated that they will receive firm guidelines from Riot Games regarding what qualifies for takedown, and that they will request takedowns through Riot in the future. After receiving those guidelines, they will also reinstate videos that do not meet the new criteria. The statement also apologized for their “initial approach” to the situation, which they pursued without having “fully communicated with the legitimate IP holder of the contents, Riot Games.” The implications for the future of League of Legends content creation aren’t entirely clear, as much of the impact would depend on what exactly qualifies for takedown under Riot’s guidelines. Earlier this week, OGN caster and former LCK commentator Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles tweeted about how an increase in DMCA takedowns could affect content creation. Riot Games’ current policies on content creation do not specifically mention whether specific esports organizations can issue DMCA notices against content creators using the League of Legends IP. theScore esports has reached out to Riot Games for comment. [hkes_show_google_ad]
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