A YouTuber who has been posting for 13 years has revealed that his account is due to be terminated, after YouTube deemed him to be making “fraudulent” DMCA claims against another channel “stealing” his videos.
Beau ‘Aquachigger’ Ouimette isn’t a YouTuber that you typically think of when you look at stars on the platform – but, with over 1 million subscribers, he’s certainly built himself a solid platform, and has been featured on TV, too.
Defined by the Sky History TV channel as “a master Relic Hunter who specializes in shallow water river hunting,” many of Aquachigger’s videos feature him hiking and searching for treasure.
Now, after over a decade of working on his channel, Ouimette is set to lose it all.
Ouimette definitely offers viewers a more unique type of content.On Monday, May 3, Aquachigger uploaded a video titled “Aquachiggers Youtube Termination Notice: Someone Stole My Videos And Youtube Is Terminating Me”
In it, Beau discusses the channel which he says is stealing his videos, alleging that they’re posing as “reaction videos” and simply flipping and slowing his videos. He filed a DMCA claim, requesting YouTube remove them.
In the video description he adds: “Youtube now thinks I do not own my own works and has ‘determined’ that I have submitted ‘fraudulent’ copyright complaints.” The channel in question is based in Saudi Arabia and has well over 6m subscribers, dwarfing Aquachigger’s impressive number in comparison.
Aquachigger adds that he received a notice of termination for his account, effective from May 7, 2021, unless he gives up copyright ownership rights of the two videos that have been “stolen.” Even if he does so, they still say that the DMCA claim was “fraudulent,” which could result in termination regardless.
YouTube community backs Aquachigger
The YouTube community has come out in full force to defend Aquachigger and his channel, whether they were already fans or not. One Reddit thread about the situation has garnered well over 50k upvotes, with one commenter saying that “Chigg is one of the best on the platform” and that he “hopes some big channels hear about this and help him out.”
Planet of the Apes and The Maze Runner director Wes Ball also tried reaching out to YouTube, demanding them to help him out.
Hey @youtube help out #aquachigger https://t.co/njyfr12JL8
— Wes Ball (@wesball) May 4, 2021
A simple search of his name on Twitter returns hundreds of tweets with fans trying to get the decision reversed, with the full YouTube community getting behind him.
Thus far, one of the targeted videos has been removed from Ouimette’s copyright claims. It remains unknown whether the other video will be removed and, ultimately, what the fate of the Aquachigger YouTube channel will be.
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