Popular YouTube channel ‘Jameskii’ held for ransom by copyright claims

Popular gaming YouTuber James ‘Jameskii’ Swire has found himself backed into a corner, after a copyright company demanded monetary compensation in exchange for releasing multiple strikes against his channel.

Jameskii addressed the issue in a video on January 4, after Tweeting about the incident in a post the day prior. According to the YouTuber, Digital Rights Management company CollabDRM has been “holding his channel hostage” with four copyright claims in a half-month period – and are even asking for money to remove the strikes in question.

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Jameskii claimed that the incident began after CollabDRM struck a single video with four separate copyright claims, giving vague details as to their reasoning for the strikes. Thanks to independent research, Jameskii speculated that YouTuber Rebecca Zamolo was responsible for the claim, due to his using one of her ‘Tik Tok’ clips in a reaction video.

In addition, Jameskii claimed that the company hoped to extort money for him in exchange for removal of the strikes in question – which have now risen to five strikes in total.

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“Co-founder of Collab is assuring me that ‘your channel is in no real danger,’ offering me to either pay them or let them continue using the claim tool without giving any specifics in the claims,” he wrote in a Tweet on January 4.

CollabDRM’s Twitter account has since gone dark as of January 3, with their website reportedly even going offline (although it is now available as of January 5). 

The company has yet to make a public response to Jameskii’s complaints.