Undertale Yellow and the Dangers of Music Copyright Management

Undertale is nine years old. It came out in  September 2015 and took the indie gaming world by storm. Many fans were inspired, with fanart, music covers, and even fan games coming out for free downloads.

Creator Toby Fox has supported the fan community, having seen their praise of him from earlier works like Homestuck and The Halloween Hack. He has a reasonable response to any merchandise via the Undertale Tumblr in February 2016:

Regarding Music:

-You can sell your cover songs on iTunes and other stores but please license them. You can license UNDERTALE cover songs through Loudr, or distribute it via companies that license it for you (like Soundrop, Distrokid, or CD Baby)- Please don’t use any sound effects from the game or samples from the original songs.- You can make your own sheet music for free...
Yes, you can perform UNDERTALE music at conventions/at a concert/at your school. Please inform us if you’re an orchestra or something though...

It seemed that with this policy and the setting of expectations, there would be no problems. But here we are, nine years later, and one fan game ran into trouble.

Undertale Yellow's Copyright Claims

Undertale Yellow is a prequel fan game, about one of the previous souls that navigated through the underground. The Yellow Soul was once named Clover, and they decide to navigate the Underground with Flowey's help. It's different from AU (Alternate Universe) games like Underswap in that most of the routes can align with canon. Additionally, Toby Fox approved the game's development and release. Getting a creator's blessing can make a huge difference against copyright claims.

Unfortunately, the claims arrived. Playthroughs of Undertale Yellow ran the risk of YouTube copyright-claiming them on behalf of Materia Music. Clearly, this was a problem, as Lets Play streams/videos are one way for players to learn about new games and for YouTubers to establish themselves. 

The Undertale Yellow soundtrack uses derivative themes inspired by the original Undertale. When the creators uploaded the soundtrack, Materia Music said that 100 of them had to be deleted. Materia CEO Sebastian Wolff then responded to Twitter when the development team posted about it (no, I am not calling it X. It has been Twitter since the 2000s.)

Twitter users were quick to cap and share an announcement that Toby gave regarding the fair use of his music. For a CEO, such a statement was a huge misstep to an international fandom that has thrived on creation and inspiration.

Toby posted this statement the following month:

The YouTuber CiblesGD, who reported this issue on YouTube, later conducted an interview with Materia Music representative Jamie Mac Rae, the Vice President of Business Development. Jamie confirmed that it was YouTube's Content ID system that was automatically flagging the Undertale Yellow videos and that the copyright holders don't have the means to turn that off. Materia did not flag any of the Undertale Yellow material on YouTube, and could not adjust the filters. What they are doing currently is dismissing the current claims for the Undertale Yellow background music.

As for Sebastian's comments on Twitter, Jamie admitted that they were "terse" and emerging from the logic of a lawyer, not someone who understood the joy of fan creation. Sebastian has had private discussions with Toby since the controversy and has at least come to an understanding of Toby's wishes. Jamie reaffirms that "we love fan games" and wants to keep seeing fans create.

Jamie has advised that for remixes and derivative works of Undertale soundtracks, the best thing to do is for the composers to obtain a distributor or distributing platform first that can get the appropriate license before uploading music on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify. The distributor can then proactively protect the users or get in contact with Materia Music.

So it seems that Materia has resolved the issue, and the CEO found out what happens when you are condescending to fan creators. But what will happen with the next fan game that Undertale or Deltarune inspires?

Creators, Fan Creators, and Video

YouTube has some janky systems with their copyright claims. While some of it curbs piracy issues, the other part curbs creativity. There are cases when people have laid copyright claims to public domain music and videos like Beethoven's Fifth movement or the Mickey Mouse short Steamboat Willie. 

As more games continue to inspire remixes and creators to work with labels to protect their interests, we need to resolve such copyright and content flagging issues on systems like YouTube. YouTube currently has shown little interest in refining its Content ID system, though it needs reform, as many video creators cannot afford the demonetization.

Something needs to change. We can remember to show mercy, as it seems Sebastian Wolff has received from the Undertale community. But we also remember that capitalism can create beings like Flowey, that want to gain power without thinking.