Jeff Kaplan responds to copyright strike on OWL content creator

The Overwatch community has always loved developer Jeff Kaplan. Now, Papa Jeff’s response to a content creator’s frustration with a copyright strike from Blizzard has fans even more appreciative of what he does for the game’s community. 

Popular Overwatch League content creator Itsjeyang had one of his most recent highlight videos taken down by YouTube, OWL’s new streaming partner. On Reddit, the Overwatch community shared a screenshot of the strike on Itsjeyang’s channel, reading that the clips were “removed by Blizzard.” 

“Well, we had a good two day run. No more highlights from me for now,” Itsjeyang said. 

As the Reddit post continued to gain attention from Overwatch League fans, it appeared that Kaplan felt the need to respond on Blizzard’s behalf. 

“Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We looked into this and apparently this was auto-actioned. We’ve worked to correct this and it should be fixed now. We’re fans of Itsjieyang’s content (especially the patch break downs) and we’re sorry this happened,” Kaplan said. 

The community applauded Kaplan’s response, calling him a “class act” for being so active in the Overwatch community. Others called Kaplan’s post “positive for the scene.” 

“Thank you for encouraging content creation!” one person exclaimed. 

While fans were pleased with Kaplan’s response, some also encouraged him to hire Itsjeyang to create Overwatch League content. All of the positivity also rubbed off on ItsJieyang, who was at first skepitcal of Kaplan’s “auto-actioned” claim, since the strike had stated it was “manual.” 

In a second Reddit post, Itsjieyang said it “doesn’t matter” since “it’s all good now.” 

“Having said that, I wish they would hire me,” he added. 

The community rallied behind the YouTuber, calling on Kaplan to give him a chance. Still, others said that Blizzard might not be too keen on hiring anyone these days, referring to the massive layoffs the company experienced last year.