Michael Bay's company Invisible Narratives has issued a DMCA claim against physics sandbox Garry's Mod, alleging the appropriation of assets from YouTube series Skibidi Toilet.
The claim relates to certain Skibidi Toilet characters, including three Titan character models and one of the titular Skibidi Toilets (which are essentially human heads that protrude from toilet bowls).
Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman posted the DMCA claim he received in the Discord server for his upcoming game-slash-platform S&box, and the claim, along with a message sent to Newman by Invisible Narratives, was subsequently spotted by YouTuber T9 and shared on X (formerly Twitter).
At first, T9 suggested that it was Skibidi Toilet creator DaFuq!?Boom! who issued the DMCA takedown, but the YouTuber quickly reneged on that allegation, citing a message from DaFuq!?Boom! himself in which the creator disavows any involvement with the DMCA.
We've also independently verified that Newman's message, as well as the message sent by DaFuq!?Boom!, are legitimate, so unless the DMCA claim is an elaborate fake, it looks like this is a genuine claim being made by Invisible Narratives.
The claim itself alleges that Skibidi Toilet's assets are "all registered copyrights that are unique and representative of our brand", and that revenue is being generated by "unauthorized Skibidi Toilet Garry's Mod games" despite the fact that there is "absolutely no licensed Steam, Valve, [or] Garry's Mod content related to Skibidi Toilet".
If you're across Skibidi Toilet, Garry's Mod, or both, you'll likely know just how wrong-headed this claim is. Plenty of Skibidi Toilet's assets, including some of the assets at the center of this DMCA claim, are taken from Valve games like Half-Life 2, so Invisible Narratives arguably don't really have any right to claim said assets as their own.
The claim presumably derives from the fact that Invisible Narratives secured the rights to a Skibidi Toilet movie recently, which is likely the reason behind the company's lawyers apparently looking for opportunities to hunt down Skibidi Toilet "imitators", as it were.
As T9 points out, it's entirely possible that the DMCA claim is nothing but corporate trolling. It could also just be an attempt to stake a claim by lawyers who aren't familiar with either Skibidi Toilet or Garry's Mod, but it's not a great look either way.
We've reached out to Invisible Narratives, as well as Newman's company Facepunch and DaFuq!?Boom!, for comment, and will update this story as soon as we hear anything back.
