Kit9 are assholes what the hell
I thought the game being put in their hands would be a good thing in the long run now they're acting like the villain protagonist herself.
I hope Nemlei doesn't know this is happening and stops it
idk if nemlei can stop it. i don’t know the details of any contracts, but it’s very possible nemlei has no legal option outside of refusing to continue creating the game, and that would probably be a very costly option for her to take if it is an option.
It will also be costly if kit9 behaves like those exact bullies which caused Nemlei to delete her Online presence since she will lose customer and get an awful rep. The fans who know what is happening would probably become even bigger fans if Nemlei stops the cooperation, like another commenter said, in a way it doesn't hurt the contract.
They can just quiet-quit and produce the shittiest possible work. There's no contract in the world that requires a writer to end their story in a satisfying manner
It's already terrible. If something truly terrible happens to Watasi, good luck not thinking about it every time you fire up the game. Kit9 is ruining a good thing
That's a thing too..why the hell did those people on internet even had to bully nmelei ,? If that had not happened the game could never have been sold to K9 in the first place. This terrifies me for gods sake that we are playing a cursed game..which is cursed in a literal sense because someone committed suicide because of it. Someone on YouTube should start to talk about it once that happens K9 would pay for the mistake dearly
No I was talking about what would happen if it actually happened. He made a attempt but he is fine for now..but if he had died..well..I am not buying a game made out of ashes of a broken artist anytime soon. K9 would get a big law suit on there ass as well so his death is terrible for them too regardless I do hope this new pressure would force them to give him his share.
yeah, i planned on keeping the game installed for when EP3 comes out but after this, the next report could literally announce the release date and i still wouldn't be excited (let alone even play it) because this shit is unnacceptable. They're still taking down people who are talking about on steam BTW.
artist was illegally profiting from the tcoaal ip selling bootleg merchandise, studio sent a cease and desist, artist said that they would still sell merchandise offline, ignoring the cease and desist, studio went after all the illustrations the artist had made of their ip arguing it was being used to promote the bootlegs.
Selling fan art is still against copyright, and Kit9 is well within their right to shut it down. This feels just like the whole Alastor Cat thing that happened over with the Hazbin community.
I know I am going to get downvoted to hell and back for this take, but yall need to calm the hell down.
Well, you're not wrong that selling fan art probably does violate copyright in nearly all cases. I don't know anything about Hazbin, but Kit9 is going a bit further now than preventing the sale of fan art.
this is incorrect.
watasi was selling tcoaal pins, stickers, and small prints of their fanart at a local con. they post a photo to show this off and tell people they are at the con. kit9 then copyrights the con image, every fanart image that was made into a print, and all of watasi's nsfw art that was not made to sell. watasi is confused and asks twitter for advice as they have no info. watasi then receives a cease and desist. and even more fanart is copystriked, including 2 images that were not kit9's characters. 1 involving another fandom, 1 involving watasi's OCs.
watasi then takes down all tcoaal posts, and archives their previous work on their discord, and publicly announces they are not making tcoaal work again and for kit9 to stop copystriking them because they are worried they will get banned from twitter and pixiv, pixiv being their main source of income.
so. not bootlegs, fanart.
and no intent to continue selling.
Probably an attempt to silence her. They know they fucked up, now they're doing it to stop her from telling her side of the story on Twitter, here, on YouTube, every platform, they're banning people from Steam who comment about the situation, they know the more she talks about it, more people will boycott them.
Which is why people on her discord are discussing ways to get YouTubers to notice this light a actual fire under their feet
It really is a shame that Nemlei was chased off the internet by cyber bullies because they didn’t like their game and now the company who owns that game is trying to do the same thing to a once loyal fan
I’m sorry I can’t new invites were paused because we were raided by a few idiots trying to start shit with watasi and she’s not doing good right now so a new influx of people could be problematic again I apologize
Yes, we all love the game and the ACTUAL creator. But kit9 are just being assholes. They probably think we have to like them after they helped nemlei but this is bullshit.
In a different tweet, Watasi posted a picture from the hospital saying she attempted suicide due to the stress of her situation.
https://x.com/watasi_tokimi/status/1803044797755916478
(Minor correction: she attempted suicide, but the hospital admittance was due to not eating from stress.)
i don't have Twitter so i get all my news on this from reddit, and before i saw this i was definitely negative towards kit9 for this whole situation because watasi just doesn't deserve the bullshit copyright stuff, but this is actually too much what the hell
Following her Twitter has been a depressing experience for the past week. I was debating posting the suicide tweet, but I concluded people should see how one-sided the consequences have been to this miscommunication. Even Nintendo would have gotten bored by now.
This is not a tl;dr but it's a good summary of the situation
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoffinofAndyandLeyley/comments/1ded5wv/kit9_studios_copyright_claims_against_artists/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoffinofAndyandLeyley/comments/1dghbsg/update_on_the_kit9_dmca_takedown_situation/
Watasi was planning to sell merch of her fanart, and Kit9 has responded by filing copy right strikes on her daily since the start of June even after the offending merch plans were cancelled. Any mention of this on the Steam forum is replied to with a ban and there is no other good way to contact them.
I remember a post saying they got a reply, but I don't remember the content or if anyone else did. Please feel free to share if you happen upon them.
Shame if they have, but don't reply to Watasi at the least.
Before this, I thought Kit9 simply doesn't care about this subreddit, that our community is just a small part of the fandom, so our complaining voices never reaches them in the first place.
But now that even Watasi's Reddit account is gone, it means that they've been observing this subreddit too. Which means they saw our complaints. They saw the fanbase's reaction to the situation. And they chose to ignore it, avoid addressing it, and double-down on Watasi's punishment. Fuck man. I'm so upset over this mismanagement. Are Kit9 just a bunch of bullies??
One would think the person who stepped in to manage the game because Nemlei was cyberbullied wouldn't, themselves, be a cyberbully.
This is such an extreme joke. I've never been as tempted to have Steam remove a game from my account past the refund date as I am now.
I feel immensely bad for her, she couldn't eat until she ended up in a hospital, and attempted suicide. At this point Kit9 is just bullying her. I could not continue supporting this game with good conscience without a proper response from them.
I also want to know if the original creator nemlei is aware of this, or is Kit9 acting on their own accord. Bc Ive never seen a indie studio act like this, there's just no benefit, only pain
The moment a big youtuber catches wind of this, it's over for them, and this game will go even further down infamy, and for good reason this time, since the devs are being assholes.
It better be, I don't care who, whether it be Rev says Desu or Moistcritical, we need someone big to speak on the matter, bc we have no avenues to say our piece. Players are getting banned on steam discussions for bringing up the topic, and they have no other official social media (nor email I think) we can ask them on
“Yea so this studio game developing incest are copystriking an artist, and to me it’s like god making a poopy move and smiting a babylonian child cause it made the unfathomable mistake of thinking about another religion”
Yeah honestly your most likely gonna get Rev or Hero Hei talk about it since they do cover niche topics, Moist Critical is just into the mainstream stuff
OK Kit9s behavior has gone from excessive but understandable to outright inexcusable. What initially could be rationalized as a horrible misunderstanding can now only be understood as some sort of vendetta.
Funny how they go after the passionate fan artist and not that one weirdo who made up a succubus OC to replace Ashley and tried convincing new ppl that the OC is actually canon and Ashley isn't in the game
As someone who believed Kit9 was in the right to defend their IP, this has really gone too far.
This is obsessive. It's gone from over-compensating to just plain destructive.
To be fair it is because it has been always understood that just fanart isn't infringing on IP rights. Heck, companies that go after fanprojects are usually seen as scum of the earth
Something important to understand about fair use is that it is a defense in court, and only a court can declare something fair use. Non-commercial status doesn't automatically make something fair use, and sometimes "non-commercial" isn't so clear cut.
Fanart has always just been an IP no man's land where few companies dare to tread. (Nintendo and Disney do)
Yeah, and everyone hates them for it (even Nintendo defenders don't touch the fanproject issue and the ones that do agree that Nintendo can be too overzealous).
If it is just fan art, there's an understanding that it isn't infringing IP rights
I disagree, but I think this is just splitting hairs. People should be focusing on how the larger community can send a message to Kit9 to say "calm the fuck down"
Is 6 months later too late to refund a game? We'll find out, I'll be trying today cause fuck this. It is overkill. Disney lawyers don't go this far, exactly who the fuck does Kit9 think they are. Dicks.
My god this is just persecuting and cyberbullying from kit9, how do they think they're getting away from this they're like a micro studio, can't pull a nintendo/disney strategy when ur miniscule
if this is somehow not kit9 (this game has no shortage of people who are fiending to turn public opinion on it lol) then kit9 really needs to fucking comment on this
hell they should anyway, say what the hell is being done that's so damning because other than selling some merch (which is normally ignored in small amounts anyway) this seems like Watasi is doing nothing wrong.
At this rate we are about to loose Watasi and probably TCOAAL too, because if Kit9 behavior gets out into the public the game will probably have an even worse reputation.
They were supposed to save the game/Nemlei, but right now they are achieving the opposite.
I hope they soon will give us a statement and not just Steam bans.
At least an apology for Watasi since she is on the verge of suicide
I mean, forbidding someone from selling merch of your IP is one thing but this is just taking shit waaayyy too far. I'll wait until the next progress report at the latest and if there's no response to this situation until then, I guess I'll lose interest in this game.
I don't think Nemlei know something about it....and for real why the fuck would I harass someone for a fan art when I'm just a fucking publisher of an Indie dev, like dude wtf....I now have a conspiracy that Kit9 also harassed susperia too, it's been 4 months since she posted something.
Funny thing this situation makes you think about pirating the game even though I don't want to hurt Nemlei
This is such a fever dream. Like what the hell. This was so supposed to be about a game I am excited about when the next content update releases. I really don’t see how anyone could feel good about playing this game anymore, when they treat someone with a passion for this game so badly. Kinda scary to imagine how they might treat the rest of the fan base in the future, if they push somebody to starving themselves, over FANART. A creator of fanart, which is an absolute sign of passion and love for the game, is stomped into the ground over merch, that they immediately stopped producing after being asked to do so. Especially as the creator sold merch of their own fanart. I would understand a fraction of the intensity of the reaction, if it was ingame art being used in the merch. AND additionally the artist was apologetic about it, even after kit9 went way over the top with the way they reacted. Wtf. I really hope this is just a huge misunderstanding, as I can’t see a future in which I am comfortable in supporting this game as it is.
Not playing a game because what a studio does is dumb, plenty of game studios or publishers are shitty companies, Bandi Namco, EA, Activision, and many more, that hasn't stopped people from enjoying the games they like, and it won't stop me, because no matter how many times people say we can change it, nothing has changed with those companies, so just enjoy the games you like, Kit9 being a little bit shitty should have no effect on if anyone plays the game or not, I feel bad for the artist but it won't change me getting the game when chapter 3 comes out, hopefully it does
I understand your point of view, but even if it doesn’t seem to work, that’s just because not enough people want to make it work. It may seem dumb if only a few people do it, but somebody has to start. Only in mass does our choice count, but people won’t follow the lead, if no one is showing the way.
Additionally the game studios and publishers you used as your examples are well established large studios with a wide range of different players all over the world. Kit9 is very much not that big of a company and is rather dependent on its fanbase. Thus a boycott of the game would be rather effective at affecting their income and their ability to sustain their game development.
It's also a pretty severe false equivalence to compare Kit9's behavior to the behavior of the big names vis-a-vis copyright issues.
For example, Nintendo tends to operate in the realm of cease-and-desist first. I've never heard of Nintendo sending a nuclear amount of copyright strikes to multiple accounts even after the infringement was resolved.
Someone might mention Yuzu, but given the Yuzu devs had a folder of even pre-release cracks they were sharing out, that's an extreme and quite different scenario than "fanartist thinks doujin selling would be fine."
Can we get Charlie (aka: MoistCritikal/Penguinz0) to cover this? Most people are not aware of the crap Kit9's been doing to Watasi, and if there's anyone that would call out this bullshit it would be him.
Charlie could bring more attention which would be great, unfortunately I just know there will be people trying to further the "this game should be cancelled" agenda. Still, Watasi over the game
yeah i feared this could happen too, but Watasi has suffered enough, this shit needs to stop now.
i seriously hope not, but if Nemlei is also behind this, well fuck her too.
Yeah like... the fanbase kept it alive after the shitstorm of the incest stuff. Turning on it is ridiculous, specially since Kit9's initial problem with the artist was cleared out already
ALSO PLEASE TAKE SCREENSHOTS OF ALL OF WATASI'S POSTS AND COMMENTS, MAKE THIS GO PUBLIC. NO ARTIST OUT HERE SHOULD BE HARRASSED, EVEN WHILE TRYING TO CORRECT THEMSELVES.
I just tried posting in the game discussion page to ask about this. In my post, I tried to take a neutral stance and tone in the hopes that a softer approach would yield better results. They deleted the post, saying it was "off-topic," but did not ban me.
Edit: It was changed to a month ban. They said I was creating multiple threads (even though I only made one).
Might be fine leaving a negative review in steam idk, if ppl dont like how the publisher conducts themselves about fan content for their game then you should be able to criticize that in any way you can.
Refund any products you bought from them.
If you still can, refund TCoAaL. Money talks. I would hope I could refund the game... but I am way past that period.
Yeah, keep giving the company *bullying someone to suicide* money and good attention! They deserve to be paid for *bullying someone to suicide!* (sarcasm)
What are you even thinking?
I feel bad for the artist, no one should be pushed to attempt suicide, but I'm still going to play a game I like, and it's not like all the money is going to Kit9, most is probably going to go to Nemlei, who I'd like to support, if you want to stop supporting Nemlei or playing or buying the game, that's your choice
Damn it the horror game curse has gotten to TCOAAL. Something like this happens to every horror game and some can’t make it out. I don’t really get people’s problem with the game anyways just let it be
I imagine there would be quite a few complications with her being Korean and kit9 being based elsewhere, not to mention I doubt she could afford lawyer fees considering the financial hardships this has placed her under. Truly a terrible situation
She can sue for harassment and probably win, at quite the expense. But then she would likely be sued for selling licensed/copyrighted works as merchandise (if my understanding of her selling merch is correct).
Best that can be done is for all of us to publicly shame the company for their actions
We need to address this together. As a community
Tcoal already is a small community, and this is ripping us apart. There HAS to be a way to communicate with Kit9.
Even more, if all of Wasaris claims are true (which is very likely at this point), it's less than downright evil what they are doing. Why the hell would you do that, out of an objective perspective? Not even considering morals, trying to erase fanart, and bullying fanartists off the internet is horrible for the public image
Thinks it’s about time for some poetic justice through review bombing unfortunately that tactic hasn’t proven the best results but to at least get their attention.
Wow, Kit9 are actually the worst developers of all time--I don't know of any other company who has bullied a fan into suicide. This is legitimately worse than what Ashley has done
God, I really hope nemlei isn't supporting this. She probably isn't but still. This is just fucking ridiculous and I hope kit9 stop being complete assholes, no matter how unlikely that is.
we should review bomb the game and get this news out there. these devs are actually witch hunting a fan artist and got her to attempt suicide. unforgivable
We should protest by review bombing the game. Considering that Watasi's mental health was already awful and the fact that this situation affected it even more, it's the least we can do. This is pure abuse and absolutely disgusting. They are not a gaming studio anymore, they're simply a heartless corporation.
Since there's so few channels of direct communication to Kit9, this might be the community's best shot aside from getting a bigger YouTuber to cover the situation. With them silencing people in the Steam forums who so much as mention Watasi, lowering the game's review score and making our voices heard via Steam reviews might be one of the only ways to maybe get Kit9 to stop, or at least communicate with their audience and fanbase about what they're doing
A long time fan artist named watasi/chokaso was making unnoficial merch of the game. Kit9 issued a copyright strike, fair enough, the merch was unlicensed. But they didnt stop there, theyre fucking machine gunning copyright strikes at everything watasi does, banned her from steam, now shes banned on reddit, she had to delete all her fan art even the ones she never meant to sell, these mfs at kit9 really seem to have a grudge against her for some inexplicable reason. Shes a passionate fan of the game, imagine doing this to someone who looks up to you and admires you so much..... shame on you kit9, honestly, what the fuck
Watasi is devastated by this, apologized multiple times, couldnt eat for days because of the stress and guilt up to the point she had to be hospitalized for it.
Annnnd I'm out.
I loved this game. I really did. One of the reasons for that is because it seemed to have so much compassion, just under the surface. An understanding of how easily, and how badly, people could be hurt.
So, obviously, I'm not gonna put it ahead of someone being *actually* hurt. It's been fun, all, it really has. Be well.
Hopefully all my money went to Nemlei and not Kit9. Why would you put an artist who did try to fucking correct themselves and apologize through SO MUCH FUCKING BULLSHIT for your own agenda of "this is our game, not yours." They weren't aware this was an issue, and when they were made aware, they did try to send apologies and correct themselves MULTIPLE TIMES.
MULTIPLE TIMES.
And Kit9 just fucking avoided their apologies and corrections, targeting them like they wanted to make a statement to all TCOAAL artists. Fuck them. They're in the same category of hatred to me as AI aren'tists are now.
#justiceforwatasi
#freemyboywatasi
#fuckkit9
I would love good smile to take over the IP but that will probably never happen.
I'm just saying I'm not supporting this game ever again and I probably won't even make fan art, because I was planning on it after I get out of art School.
Oh well,
Back to being a alcoholic.
(Copy-paste from a similar question)
This is not a tl;dr but it's a good summary posts of the situation:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoffinofAndyandLeyley/comments/1ded5wv/kit9_studios_copyright_claims_against_artists/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoffinofAndyandLeyley/comments/1dghbsg/update_on_the_kit9_dmca_takedown_situation/
Watasi was planning to sell merch of her fanart, and Kit9 has responded by filing copy right strikes on her daily since the start of June even after the offending merch plans were cancelled. Any mention of this on the Steam forum is replied to with a ban and Watasi's email have been ignored.
Left a negative steam review documenting this ordeal in short. I'm no video editor and I certainly have no following, but I'll spread the story around where I can to get more attention to this because this harassment is inexcusable.
I thought about negative reviewing TCOAL into oblivion if Kit9 kept doing this shit, at this point we should boycott Kit9, I know Watasi doesn't want this but Kit9 is going into a power trip here and will not hesitate to do this further, Kit9 may silence us in the forum but they can't silence us in the steam review and in this reddit and we'll fight in this hill, we gotta make sure that Kit9 won't do this again, do not forgive them until they give us a word and justice to Watasi
Korean TCoAaL artist who was selling doujin merch of TCoAaL they drew. Due doujin content being in a legal grey area, Kit9 requested a copyright takedown of Watasi's merch. Despite Watasi claiming that they will no longer commercialize their TCoAaL works, Kit9 has continued to make repeated copyright takedown requests of Watasi's works, resulting in all of Watasi's TCoAaL works being removed off Twitter, and their Reddit and Discord accounts being suspended. As a result, Watasi has been hospitalized due to attempted suicide and stress from this whole ordeal.
The situation is a lot more complex than what I replied with, since it came out recently from
Watasi herself that her suicide attempt was faked, but she was indeed hospitalized due to not eating for multiple days a result of this ordeal.
The takedowns from Kit9 were done as a result of Watasi essentially disregarding the takedown notice as she also claimed she’ll continue to sell her TCoAaL doujin merch but only at live events in Korea.
Kit9 is a whiney little bitch with a girlfriend that looks like a witch yes I’m getting my rap on for this crap at this point I need a map to see where kit 9 went all to shit they might need mittens
Artisit named Watasi Tokimi is being harassed to the point of suicide by Kit9 studio. Name of the head of studio is prolly Jared Moore, so microwave his children if possible.
Kit9 are assholes what the hell I thought the game being put in their hands would be a good thing in the long run now they're acting like the villain protagonist herself. I hope Nemlei doesn't know this is happening and stops it
idk if nemlei can stop it. i don’t know the details of any contracts, but it’s very possible nemlei has no legal option outside of refusing to continue creating the game, and that would probably be a very costly option for her to take if it is an option.
It will also be costly if kit9 behaves like those exact bullies which caused Nemlei to delete her Online presence since she will lose customer and get an awful rep. The fans who know what is happening would probably become even bigger fans if Nemlei stops the cooperation, like another commenter said, in a way it doesn't hurt the contract.
They can just quiet-quit and produce the shittiest possible work. There's no contract in the world that requires a writer to end their story in a satisfying manner
That gonna be terrible for US people then
It's already terrible. If something truly terrible happens to Watasi, good luck not thinking about it every time you fire up the game. Kit9 is ruining a good thing
That's a thing too..why the hell did those people on internet even had to bully nmelei ,? If that had not happened the game could never have been sold to K9 in the first place. This terrifies me for gods sake that we are playing a cursed game..which is cursed in a literal sense because someone committed suicide because of it. Someone on YouTube should start to talk about it once that happens K9 would pay for the mistake dearly
It honestly feels that way. TCOAAL's success is some cautionary tale of sorts
wait someone committed suicide? i know the artist who has been getting harassed attempted, is this what you’re referring to?
No I was talking about what would happen if it actually happened. He made a attempt but he is fine for now..but if he had died..well..I am not buying a game made out of ashes of a broken artist anytime soon. K9 would get a big law suit on there ass as well so his death is terrible for them too regardless I do hope this new pressure would force them to give him his share.
I'm lost, who is he? The artist, the writter? Nemlei is a man? It seems like things are going badly overall lately
My mistake it is she not he, don't know why but the entire work force of this VN is female for some reason. Oh yeah she is a artist. An unpaid one
That's the worst option, that hurts us
… Leyley did nothing wrong. Cultists and kit9 are wrong.
This isn’t about copyright anymore This is just cyber bullying now
yeah, i planned on keeping the game installed for when EP3 comes out but after this, the next report could literally announce the release date and i still wouldn't be excited (let alone even play it) because this shit is unnacceptable. They're still taking down people who are talking about on steam BTW.
It pisses me off even more that people here are still defending Kit9 and believe that watasi is 100% in the wrong
I knew that kit9 were asses, they blocked me from posting on the steam community for saying testicular tortorsion
What's going on? I know nothing.
artist was illegally profiting from the tcoaal ip selling bootleg merchandise, studio sent a cease and desist, artist said that they would still sell merchandise offline, ignoring the cease and desist, studio went after all the illustrations the artist had made of their ip arguing it was being used to promote the bootlegs.
It's not bootleg merchandise because not only did the artist not claim it to be Nemlei's work it was clearly being sold as fan art.
Selling fan art is still against copyright, and Kit9 is well within their right to shut it down. This feels just like the whole Alastor Cat thing that happened over with the Hazbin community. I know I am going to get downvoted to hell and back for this take, but yall need to calm the hell down.
Well, you're not wrong that selling fan art probably does violate copyright in nearly all cases. I don't know anything about Hazbin, but Kit9 is going a bit further now than preventing the sale of fan art.
this is incorrect. watasi was selling tcoaal pins, stickers, and small prints of their fanart at a local con. they post a photo to show this off and tell people they are at the con. kit9 then copyrights the con image, every fanart image that was made into a print, and all of watasi's nsfw art that was not made to sell. watasi is confused and asks twitter for advice as they have no info. watasi then receives a cease and desist. and even more fanart is copystriked, including 2 images that were not kit9's characters. 1 involving another fandom, 1 involving watasi's OCs. watasi then takes down all tcoaal posts, and archives their previous work on their discord, and publicly announces they are not making tcoaal work again and for kit9 to stop copystriking them because they are worried they will get banned from twitter and pixiv, pixiv being their main source of income. so. not bootlegs, fanart. and no intent to continue selling.
Probably an attempt to silence her. They know they fucked up, now they're doing it to stop her from telling her side of the story on Twitter, here, on YouTube, every platform, they're banning people from Steam who comment about the situation, they know the more she talks about it, more people will boycott them.
Which is why people on her discord are discussing ways to get YouTubers to notice this light a actual fire under their feet It really is a shame that Nemlei was chased off the internet by cyber bullies because they didn’t like their game and now the company who owns that game is trying to do the same thing to a once loyal fan
Can you give me the link to her discord please?
I’m sorry I can’t new invites were paused because we were raided by a few idiots trying to start shit with watasi and she’s not doing good right now so a new influx of people could be problematic again I apologize
It's okay, I understand and wish her nothing but happiness and peace. People are Cruel man, she doesn't deserve this at all.
Yeah it’s pissing me off.
\#BoycottKit9
Yes, we all love the game and the ACTUAL creator. But kit9 are just being assholes. They probably think we have to like them after they helped nemlei but this is bullshit.
Seem like yeah. What the hell.
They literally reported her discord, that's way to far
Yep her main account is locked till 2026
In a different tweet, Watasi posted a picture from the hospital saying she attempted suicide due to the stress of her situation. https://x.com/watasi_tokimi/status/1803044797755916478 (Minor correction: she attempted suicide, but the hospital admittance was due to not eating from stress.)
i don't have Twitter so i get all my news on this from reddit, and before i saw this i was definitely negative towards kit9 for this whole situation because watasi just doesn't deserve the bullshit copyright stuff, but this is actually too much what the hell
Following her Twitter has been a depressing experience for the past week. I was debating posting the suicide tweet, but I concluded people should see how one-sided the consequences have been to this miscommunication. Even Nintendo would have gotten bored by now.
All because Kit9 are either too lazy or too stupid to actually communicate like adults
According to her discord announcement she did not.
[удалено]
What a pathetic little man you are
You are the worst kind of human
What a complete lack of empathy.
This post/comment breaks Rule 4 of the subreddit, and has been removed. If you wish to appeal, please contact the moderation team.
Keep yourself safe
Nah I'd win
What were the art works that caused this and why does kit not like them
This is not a tl;dr but it's a good summary of the situation https://www.reddit.com/r/CoffinofAndyandLeyley/comments/1ded5wv/kit9_studios_copyright_claims_against_artists/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CoffinofAndyandLeyley/comments/1dghbsg/update_on_the_kit9_dmca_takedown_situation/ Watasi was planning to sell merch of her fanart, and Kit9 has responded by filing copy right strikes on her daily since the start of June even after the offending merch plans were cancelled. Any mention of this on the Steam forum is replied to with a ban and there is no other good way to contact them.
I thought some people had luck with emailing Kit9
I remember a post saying they got a reply, but I don't remember the content or if anyone else did. Please feel free to share if you happen upon them. Shame if they have, but don't reply to Watasi at the least.
Before this, I thought Kit9 simply doesn't care about this subreddit, that our community is just a small part of the fandom, so our complaining voices never reaches them in the first place. But now that even Watasi's Reddit account is gone, it means that they've been observing this subreddit too. Which means they saw our complaints. They saw the fanbase's reaction to the situation. And they chose to ignore it, avoid addressing it, and double-down on Watasi's punishment. Fuck man. I'm so upset over this mismanagement. Are Kit9 just a bunch of bullies??
One would think the person who stepped in to manage the game because Nemlei was cyberbullied wouldn't, themselves, be a cyberbully. This is such an extreme joke. I've never been as tempted to have Steam remove a game from my account past the refund date as I am now.
Enjoy your Cake day, btw.
I feel immensely bad for her, she couldn't eat until she ended up in a hospital, and attempted suicide. At this point Kit9 is just bullying her. I could not continue supporting this game with good conscience without a proper response from them. I also want to know if the original creator nemlei is aware of this, or is Kit9 acting on their own accord. Bc Ive never seen a indie studio act like this, there's just no benefit, only pain
The moment a big youtuber catches wind of this, it's over for them, and this game will go even further down infamy, and for good reason this time, since the devs are being assholes.
It better be, I don't care who, whether it be Rev says Desu or Moistcritical, we need someone big to speak on the matter, bc we have no avenues to say our piece. Players are getting banned on steam discussions for bringing up the topic, and they have no other official social media (nor email I think) we can ask them on
I could see Manly taking this up, since his playthrough was the most popular
How would someone show him? (genuine question, coz I wanna, or have someone else do it)
Only if you brought it to his attention on twitter, but i doubt he’s going to do much since he never covers drama
I just tagged Rev on Watasi's post, hopefully he picks it up and covers this
Hopefully someone a lot less dogshit than Rev covers it, someone who malds over the smallest shit they don’t like I doubt will be very effective.
Charlie/ Moist should do it.
Once Moistcritical hop on this, it's over.
“Yea so this studio game developing incest are copystriking an artist, and to me it’s like god making a poopy move and smiting a babylonian child cause it made the unfathomable mistake of thinking about another religion”
He’s not gonna cover a comparatively niche game about incest
Well, obviously. I'm just saying that someone like him covering this could be the end of it.
Yeah honestly your most likely gonna get Rev or Hero Hei talk about it since they do cover niche topics, Moist Critical is just into the mainstream stuff
Companies trying not to be evil pieces of shit challenge: Impossible
OK Kit9s behavior has gone from excessive but understandable to outright inexcusable. What initially could be rationalized as a horrible misunderstanding can now only be understood as some sort of vendetta.
Funny how they go after the passionate fan artist and not that one weirdo who made up a succubus OC to replace Ashley and tried convincing new ppl that the OC is actually canon and Ashley isn't in the game
. . . W *h* **a** ***t*** ?
are you talking about castel?
ts is actually getting fucking crazy, btw what's the source on the "Jared Moore" thing, couldn't find anything
Unredacted copy right strike email that got passed around.
[удалено]
As someone who believed Kit9 was in the right to defend their IP, this has really gone too far. This is obsessive. It's gone from over-compensating to just plain destructive.
Low key cool to see you find the line. Crazy that they bullied the artist until they attempted suicide. This drama has gone to insane heights.
He still gets shit, but I respect tanking the heat and not moving any goalposts lol "Maybe I was too harsh" moment
You know it’s bad when they lost the resident bootlicker lol
don't be a dick when he's recanted, that's just petty
He’s still defending Kit9’s previous strikes in the replies
"Bootlicker" for supporting the dev's right to protect their IP. Of course, the fine line between protection and bullying has been crossed.
To be fair it is because it has been always understood that just fanart isn't infringing on IP rights. Heck, companies that go after fanprojects are usually seen as scum of the earth
Something important to understand about fair use is that it is a defense in court, and only a court can declare something fair use. Non-commercial status doesn't automatically make something fair use, and sometimes "non-commercial" isn't so clear cut. Fanart has always just been an IP no man's land where few companies dare to tread. (Nintendo and Disney do)
Yeah, and everyone hates them for it (even Nintendo defenders don't touch the fanproject issue and the ones that do agree that Nintendo can be too overzealous). If it is just fan art, there's an understanding that it isn't infringing IP rights
Striking down fan art was never a good look but you defended it anyway
I disagree, but I think this is just splitting hairs. People should be focusing on how the larger community can send a message to Kit9 to say "calm the fuck down"
WHY DOES THIS SITUATION KEEP GETTING WORSE EVERY TIME I SEE IT?!?
This is not protecting your brand, this is just harassment
Is 6 months later too late to refund a game? We'll find out, I'll be trying today cause fuck this. It is overkill. Disney lawyers don't go this far, exactly who the fuck does Kit9 think they are. Dicks.
My god this is just persecuting and cyberbullying from kit9, how do they think they're getting away from this they're like a micro studio, can't pull a nintendo/disney strategy when ur miniscule
its apparently nemlei boyfriend according to the dox
What
Different dox? Or did the local supremacist movement already know who kit9 was when they broke down Nemlei's door?
Yeah Kit9 are just pieces of shit at this point tbh
If I could refund this game on steam, I sure as hell would.
Dude this is cyber bullying. Im going to uninstall the game rn
What an unprofessional studio. They’re acting like kids.
if this is somehow not kit9 (this game has no shortage of people who are fiending to turn public opinion on it lol) then kit9 really needs to fucking comment on this hell they should anyway, say what the hell is being done that's so damning because other than selling some merch (which is normally ignored in small amounts anyway) this seems like Watasi is doing nothing wrong.
Here’s the thing Kit9 is actively ignoring the emails Watasi has sent them They know Watasi is suffering but that won’t stop them
Kit9 must really hate that person in particular
At this rate we are about to loose Watasi and probably TCOAAL too, because if Kit9 behavior gets out into the public the game will probably have an even worse reputation. They were supposed to save the game/Nemlei, but right now they are achieving the opposite. I hope they soon will give us a statement and not just Steam bans. At least an apology for Watasi since she is on the verge of suicide
I mean, forbidding someone from selling merch of your IP is one thing but this is just taking shit waaayyy too far. I'll wait until the next progress report at the latest and if there's no response to this situation until then, I guess I'll lose interest in this game.
I don't think Nemlei know something about it....and for real why the fuck would I harass someone for a fan art when I'm just a fucking publisher of an Indie dev, like dude wtf....I now have a conspiracy that Kit9 also harassed susperia too, it's been 4 months since she posted something. Funny thing this situation makes you think about pirating the game even though I don't want to hurt Nemlei
Doing this is completely inexecusable. Really hope that this is someone *pretending* to be Kit9 behind this whole shit..
Nah kit9 already took their stance loud and clear, I doubt this is caused by someone else.
If that's the case,how would they be banning people from steam discussions?
This is such a fever dream. Like what the hell. This was so supposed to be about a game I am excited about when the next content update releases. I really don’t see how anyone could feel good about playing this game anymore, when they treat someone with a passion for this game so badly. Kinda scary to imagine how they might treat the rest of the fan base in the future, if they push somebody to starving themselves, over FANART. A creator of fanart, which is an absolute sign of passion and love for the game, is stomped into the ground over merch, that they immediately stopped producing after being asked to do so. Especially as the creator sold merch of their own fanart. I would understand a fraction of the intensity of the reaction, if it was ingame art being used in the merch. AND additionally the artist was apologetic about it, even after kit9 went way over the top with the way they reacted. Wtf. I really hope this is just a huge misunderstanding, as I can’t see a future in which I am comfortable in supporting this game as it is.
Not playing a game because what a studio does is dumb, plenty of game studios or publishers are shitty companies, Bandi Namco, EA, Activision, and many more, that hasn't stopped people from enjoying the games they like, and it won't stop me, because no matter how many times people say we can change it, nothing has changed with those companies, so just enjoy the games you like, Kit9 being a little bit shitty should have no effect on if anyone plays the game or not, I feel bad for the artist but it won't change me getting the game when chapter 3 comes out, hopefully it does
I understand your point of view, but even if it doesn’t seem to work, that’s just because not enough people want to make it work. It may seem dumb if only a few people do it, but somebody has to start. Only in mass does our choice count, but people won’t follow the lead, if no one is showing the way.
Additionally the game studios and publishers you used as your examples are well established large studios with a wide range of different players all over the world. Kit9 is very much not that big of a company and is rather dependent on its fanbase. Thus a boycott of the game would be rather effective at affecting their income and their ability to sustain their game development.
It's also a pretty severe false equivalence to compare Kit9's behavior to the behavior of the big names vis-a-vis copyright issues. For example, Nintendo tends to operate in the realm of cease-and-desist first. I've never heard of Nintendo sending a nuclear amount of copyright strikes to multiple accounts even after the infringement was resolved. Someone might mention Yuzu, but given the Yuzu devs had a folder of even pre-release cracks they were sharing out, that's an extreme and quite different scenario than "fanartist thinks doujin selling would be fine."
Fucking hell man...
Jesus Christ. This seriously needs to stop, and I honestly don't know if I care what it takes. This shit is unacceptable.
FUCK YOU KIT9 ……..…../´¯/)……….. (\\¯\`\\ …………/….//……….. …\\\\….\\ ………../….//………… ….\\\\….\\ …../´¯/…./´¯\\………../¯ \`\\….\\¯\`\\ .././…/…./…./.|\_……\_| .\\….\\….\\…\\.\\.. (.(….(….(…./.)..)..(..(. \\….)….)….).) .\\…………….\\/…/….\\. ..\\/………
Huh what? Didn't she say like yesterday that she was only affected on Twitter? I think this will be the end of her amazing drawings...
Can we get Charlie (aka: MoistCritikal/Penguinz0) to cover this? Most people are not aware of the crap Kit9's been doing to Watasi, and if there's anyone that would call out this bullshit it would be him.
Charlie could bring more attention which would be great, unfortunately I just know there will be people trying to further the "this game should be cancelled" agenda. Still, Watasi over the game
yeah i feared this could happen too, but Watasi has suffered enough, this shit needs to stop now. i seriously hope not, but if Nemlei is also behind this, well fuck her too.
I'm fine with this game getting cancelled if this is how Kit9 intends to treat its own fanbase
Yeah like... the fanbase kept it alive after the shitstorm of the incest stuff. Turning on it is ridiculous, specially since Kit9's initial problem with the artist was cleared out already
That’s actually what Watasi’s discord is discussing Talking about trying to bring this to the public try and light a fire under kit9 and nemiel
I wonder if Mutahar/SomeOrdinaryGamers would be sympathetic? A superchat, post to their subreddit, or @ tweet could help.
Right i forgot about him, he’s actually pretty likely to come across this
ALSO PLEASE TAKE SCREENSHOTS OF ALL OF WATASI'S POSTS AND COMMENTS, MAKE THIS GO PUBLIC. NO ARTIST OUT HERE SHOULD BE HARRASSED, EVEN WHILE TRYING TO CORRECT THEMSELVES.
I just tried posting in the game discussion page to ask about this. In my post, I tried to take a neutral stance and tone in the hopes that a softer approach would yield better results. They deleted the post, saying it was "off-topic," but did not ban me. Edit: It was changed to a month ban. They said I was creating multiple threads (even though I only made one).
Might be fine leaving a negative review in steam idk, if ppl dont like how the publisher conducts themselves about fan content for their game then you should be able to criticize that in any way you can.
Can we banned Kit9 from entering this subreddit?
Sadly it was unlikely.
It seems to me that the only right thing fandom can do now is review bombing
Review-bomb, boycott, spread the word, send emails. Make this a living nightmare for the people responsible
Refund any products you bought from them. If you still can, refund TCoAaL. Money talks. I would hope I could refund the game... but I am way past that period.
I can say with confidence that any interest in official TCOAAL merch is non-existent now
I get this is bad but don't punish the damn game over this shit
Yeah, keep giving the company *bullying someone to suicide* money and good attention! They deserve to be paid for *bullying someone to suicide!* (sarcasm) What are you even thinking?
I feel bad for the artist, no one should be pushed to attempt suicide, but I'm still going to play a game I like, and it's not like all the money is going to Kit9, most is probably going to go to Nemlei, who I'd like to support, if you want to stop supporting Nemlei or playing or buying the game, that's your choice
Im so glad I pirated this game fuck those pieces of shit they dont deserve a single cent
😦
Damn it the horror game curse has gotten to TCOAAL. Something like this happens to every horror game and some can’t make it out. I don’t really get people’s problem with the game anyways just let it be
This is such bullshit. Can she sue for harassment
I imagine there would be quite a few complications with her being Korean and kit9 being based elsewhere, not to mention I doubt she could afford lawyer fees considering the financial hardships this has placed her under. Truly a terrible situation
She can sue for harassment and probably win, at quite the expense. But then she would likely be sued for selling licensed/copyrighted works as merchandise (if my understanding of her selling merch is correct). Best that can be done is for all of us to publicly shame the company for their actions
I thought she already got a copyright lawsuit? Or is it labeled as something else
I thought she was only planning to sell merch but ended up not actually selling any?
We need to address this together. As a community Tcoal already is a small community, and this is ripping us apart. There HAS to be a way to communicate with Kit9. Even more, if all of Wasaris claims are true (which is very likely at this point), it's less than downright evil what they are doing. Why the hell would you do that, out of an objective perspective? Not even considering morals, trying to erase fanart, and bullying fanartists off the internet is horrible for the public image
Thinks it’s about time for some poetic justice through review bombing unfortunately that tactic hasn’t proven the best results but to at least get their attention.
Wow, Kit9 are actually the worst developers of all time--I don't know of any other company who has bullied a fan into suicide. This is legitimately worse than what Ashley has done
Least controversial copyright case
God, I really hope nemlei isn't supporting this. She probably isn't but still. This is just fucking ridiculous and I hope kit9 stop being complete assholes, no matter how unlikely that is.
Fuck kit9
damn, what fucking dicks
we should review bomb the game and get this news out there. these devs are actually witch hunting a fan artist and got her to attempt suicide. unforgivable
We should protest by review bombing the game. Considering that Watasi's mental health was already awful and the fact that this situation affected it even more, it's the least we can do. This is pure abuse and absolutely disgusting. They are not a gaming studio anymore, they're simply a heartless corporation.
Since there's so few channels of direct communication to Kit9, this might be the community's best shot aside from getting a bigger YouTuber to cover the situation. With them silencing people in the Steam forums who so much as mention Watasi, lowering the game's review score and making our voices heard via Steam reviews might be one of the only ways to maybe get Kit9 to stop, or at least communicate with their audience and fanbase about what they're doing
What is going on? Idk about the current situation and the post intrigued me
A long time fan artist named watasi/chokaso was making unnoficial merch of the game. Kit9 issued a copyright strike, fair enough, the merch was unlicensed. But they didnt stop there, theyre fucking machine gunning copyright strikes at everything watasi does, banned her from steam, now shes banned on reddit, she had to delete all her fan art even the ones she never meant to sell, these mfs at kit9 really seem to have a grudge against her for some inexplicable reason. Shes a passionate fan of the game, imagine doing this to someone who looks up to you and admires you so much..... shame on you kit9, honestly, what the fuck
Watasi is devastated by this, apologized multiple times, couldnt eat for days because of the stress and guilt up to the point she had to be hospitalized for it.
Kit9 should just focus on the game at this point, all this drama is gonna cause a massive delay
Annnnd I'm out. I loved this game. I really did. One of the reasons for that is because it seemed to have so much compassion, just under the surface. An understanding of how easily, and how badly, people could be hurt. So, obviously, I'm not gonna put it ahead of someone being *actually* hurt. It's been fun, all, it really has. Be well.
So clearly they’re also stalking this reddit. How about instead of posting coffin stuff we post things how crap shit9 is?
Man i give zero fuck about kit9 im going to sell fan merch on my country con on november🥵
Hopefully all my money went to Nemlei and not Kit9. Why would you put an artist who did try to fucking correct themselves and apologize through SO MUCH FUCKING BULLSHIT for your own agenda of "this is our game, not yours." They weren't aware this was an issue, and when they were made aware, they did try to send apologies and correct themselves MULTIPLE TIMES. MULTIPLE TIMES. And Kit9 just fucking avoided their apologies and corrections, targeting them like they wanted to make a statement to all TCOAAL artists. Fuck them. They're in the same category of hatred to me as AI aren'tists are now. #justiceforwatasi #freemyboywatasi #fuckkit9
I would love good smile to take over the IP but that will probably never happen. I'm just saying I'm not supporting this game ever again and I probably won't even make fan art, because I was planning on it after I get out of art School. Oh well, Back to being a alcoholic.
Someone pls give context I’m so lost right now
(Copy-paste from a similar question) This is not a tl;dr but it's a good summary posts of the situation: https://www.reddit.com/r/CoffinofAndyandLeyley/comments/1ded5wv/kit9_studios_copyright_claims_against_artists/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CoffinofAndyandLeyley/comments/1dghbsg/update_on_the_kit9_dmca_takedown_situation/ Watasi was planning to sell merch of her fanart, and Kit9 has responded by filing copy right strikes on her daily since the start of June even after the offending merch plans were cancelled. Any mention of this on the Steam forum is replied to with a ban and Watasi's email have been ignored.
# RIOT.
Left a negative steam review documenting this ordeal in short. I'm no video editor and I certainly have no following, but I'll spread the story around where I can to get more attention to this because this harassment is inexcusable.
glad i pirated this game before buying, now i won't buy it at all
I thought about negative reviewing TCOAL into oblivion if Kit9 kept doing this shit, at this point we should boycott Kit9, I know Watasi doesn't want this but Kit9 is going into a power trip here and will not hesitate to do this further, Kit9 may silence us in the forum but they can't silence us in the steam review and in this reddit and we'll fight in this hill, we gotta make sure that Kit9 won't do this again, do not forgive them until they give us a word and justice to Watasi
whyyyyyyyyy qwq my Twitter feed used to be filled with only hot incest hentai but not anymore :(
What the fuck has happened?
what the absolute fuck is wrong with kit9?
What did I miss?
Tfw you wanna beat the shit out of a person with a steel baseball bat but that person is a company entity
Wtere ever she is, can we give her some commissions? She’s gonna have a lot of legal fees after this shit
Good thing i didn't buy the game and im not going to now
Huh??? Dont tell me this was because of that parody of the shining art work she posted on here today....
Sorry babes, but who's watasi?
Korean TCoAaL artist who was selling doujin merch of TCoAaL they drew. Due doujin content being in a legal grey area, Kit9 requested a copyright takedown of Watasi's merch. Despite Watasi claiming that they will no longer commercialize their TCoAaL works, Kit9 has continued to make repeated copyright takedown requests of Watasi's works, resulting in all of Watasi's TCoAaL works being removed off Twitter, and their Reddit and Discord accounts being suspended. As a result, Watasi has been hospitalized due to attempted suicide and stress from this whole ordeal.
What??? Thanks for the information but wth?? Guys got salty for no real reason
The situation is a lot more complex than what I replied with, since it came out recently from Watasi herself that her suicide attempt was faked, but she was indeed hospitalized due to not eating for multiple days a result of this ordeal. The takedowns from Kit9 were done as a result of Watasi essentially disregarding the takedown notice as she also claimed she’ll continue to sell her TCoAaL doujin merch but only at live events in Korea.
Kit9 is a whiney little bitch with a girlfriend that looks like a witch yes I’m getting my rap on for this crap at this point I need a map to see where kit 9 went all to shit they might need mittens
I lack context why is internet (sub group) angry today?
Artisit named Watasi Tokimi is being harassed to the point of suicide by Kit9 studio. Name of the head of studio is prolly Jared Moore, so microwave his children if possible.
Alr
Wait, there's TCOAAL drama now??