GIPHY Reinstates GIF’s of “Baby Yoda” and Apologizes for Removing Them. With the recent launch of Disney+ came an all new Star Wars series called The Mandalorian. The series follows the adventures of a Mandalorian bounty hunter who forms an unusual bond with one of the targets he was assigned to deliver to a loyal member of the imperials. This ‘target’ now being referred to as “Baby Yoda” until we learn the name of the creature or at the least, his species, has caused quite the stir online, with fans clamoring for merchandise and sharing the characters photos and gifs just about everywhere.
A few days ago, fans noticed GIFs of “Baby Yoda” seemed to disappear, and rumors quickly swept that Disney was to blame over “copyright concerns” for the character. Yesterday, The Guardian shared that in fact Disney was not to blame, but the GIF were taken down by GIPHY, who went on to apologize to Disney and Vulture, who initially made the claims against Disney.
“Last week, there was some confusion around certain content uploaded to Giphy and we temporarily removed these Gifs while we reviewed the situation,” Giphy said in a statement. “We apologize to both Disney and Vulture for any inconvenience, and we are happy to report that the Gifs are once again live on Giphy,” GIPHY shared in a statement.
Forbes had initially weighed in on the situation shedding light on how usage of GIFs tends to fall under the “fair use” policies regarding copyrights and are not usually used or released with the intention of harming the work of the original artist/content creator.
“According to Jeff John Roberts of Fortune, GIFs can be considered ‘transformative’ under copyright law because they do not undermine the market for the original work: ‘No one, for instance, is going to watch a Star Wars GIF instead of the original movie.'”
We seriously doubt anyone intended to use these GIFs for The Dark Side, and are happy to see that GIPHY has reinstated the GIFs and took responsibility for their decision.
Have you enjoyed The Mandalorian so far on Disney+? What is your favorite GIF of “Baby Yoda”? We would love to see them in the comments! Be sure ot check back here at Chip and Company for all things Star Wars and Disney+
Featured Photo Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Photo Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney+
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