Dark Skyes Drama Part 3: C&D's are F-ing BS

In the past, Horse News has done a number of articles looking into the attempt by Million Dollar Extreme to scam the pony crowd with a fake dating game. New developments arise as other (slower) outlets begin to cover the story, one in particular involving a YouTube video from iDubbbz about the scam getting taken down for "Copyright Claims". Huh. I guess even a fake game has to belong to somebody. More on it below.

Naturally, we hit iDubbbz up and asked him a few bits about his experience.

Bold: Horse News
Regular: iDubbbz

Perhaps you'd like to give a small summary of events from your perspective. What was this video, where was it posted, when was it taken down, WHY it was taken down.

I have an ongoing video series called 'Kickstarter Crap' where I identify Kickstarter projects that are lacking a certain level of professionalism. We've all seen our fair share of bad Kickstarter projects, and I like to try to get some entertainment out of the truly crappy ones. I often get requests from subscribers to check out certain projects. Dark Skyes was mentioned more than once. 

The copyright notification sent to iDubbbz

After looking over the project I decided there was enough material to make fun of. While I was checking out the project I noticed a lot of links to MDE, twitter, and random forums. These were all linked to highlight the illegitimacy of the project. After watching an MDE video, I got an idea of what was going on. The problem is, there are a lot of people behind this project, and it's difficult to know who is serious and not serious about it. I decided to just focus on the Kickstarter project itself and the update video that accompanied it. The update video featured a guy who claimed to have worked on the game for 3 years. I didn't believe any of it, especially given the amount of crappy Kickstarters I had seen before. A common trend among crappy Kickstarters is that they want to be funded with very little skin in the game. As a result you end up getting some pretty flashy videos making bold claims and showing you what the game could be like. I railed on the bad writing, the awkward update video, and that was about it. I ended up thinking the update video was funnier than the project video.

I uploaded the Dark Skyes Kickstarter Crap video and it was about as well received as they usually are. Then four days later when I go to my YouTube page, I am greeted with a copyright strike from "Dark Skyes Team". Copyright strikes are fairly common these days and there is little to no repercussions for filing a false claim. As to why the video was taken down is beyond me. I think I made this video on the tail end of all the bad press they were getting. It's still unclear how many people are actually involved and if any aspects of the project are legitimate. I just know that my video should not have been taken down.

Are you really all that affiliated with the pony fandom?

I'm not into ponies, but I have a decent amount of subscribers who are. I do my best to treat them with respect and let them know if somethings up.

Hah, no problem, it's not everybody's thing.

Is this whole situation hilarious or rage-inducing for you?

Neither. I'm feeling pretty normal about it. I'm frustrated that I got a copyright strike, but I'm doing my best to reverse it. I actually like MDE videos, but the public stunts take it a little too far sometimes.

Have you made any attempts to re-upload your video on a video sharing site less in the pockets of copyright companies a la Dailymotion?

I haven't tried to reupload the video. In the 4 days the video was avaliable it reached all my subs. The video was meant to entertain, I didn't have much of a message. All the evidence of illegitimacy is on the kickstarter project page.

Have you gotten any direct messages from Sam or any other member of MDE?

I haven't received any messages from MDE.

Have you at all participated in the Dark Skyes investigation, save the video?

I haven't really done any sleuthing. It seems like most people did that for me

I haven't seen the video, but do you think Dark Skyes is a scam?

Yea. There are parts that are scammier than others, but I think the general consensus is there are too many strange occurrences for there not to be a scammy aspect about it.

Anything you'd like to add as a final comment or two?

After this whole experience, I've realized that Bronies have been more reasonable and willing to talk than the people who made the Kickstarter project.

>implying we're bronies

In light of the recent C&D of JanAnimations, this is certainly a bit of entertaining news (technically it's a Copyright Claim but that's no where near as good a buzzword). All condolences to iDubbbz, whose channel can be found here. He's pretty funny, and deserves some lovin' after all this shit.

Is the saga of Dark Skyes over yet? Is this hardcore damage control just the first step in Sam's retaliation? Either way, Horse News will be there to cover it all.

#Pray4Justice