Zepla is one of the largest content manufacturers for the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. To expand Dawntrail, Square Enix invited them to an event. She now received a strike on the associated video – Square Enix itself turns the tap.
Who is Zepla? The Youtuber and Twitch streamer Zepla is one of the largest content manufacturers around Final Fantasy XIV. According to her own, she discovered the game around 2016 when she was looking for an alternative to World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.
At the start of her career, she published guide and comedy videos. In the meantime, she has over 304,000 subscribers on YouTube and the Twitch channel of the same name over 261,000 followers.
In 2024, Zepla was invited by Square Enix to the media tour for the new Dawntrail extension. At this event, journalists and influencers from all over the world are given initial insights into the new content of the expansion.
To do this, she published a video with recordings that she made on site with permission. Eight months later she received a copyright strike-from Square Enix itself.
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What kind of strike was there? Specifically, there was a copyright strike on the Zepla video All Job Armors with 2 Dye Channels Showcase | Dawntrail Media Tour (via YouTube). Square Enix notes that the background music is protected and its property is. They blocked the monetization of the video.
The copyright strike, as can be seen in Zeplas video.
In a stream section of February 5, 2025 (via YouTube), Zepla speaks about it and is surprising that the video was created as part of the media tour. Image and sound were used accordingly. Above all, that the strike only comes about eight months after the video was published, it is surprising.
Zepla also emphasizes that the video was not explicitly paid by Square Enix. The meaning of the event would have been reporting on Dawntrail. The video is accordingly exactly what Square Enix would have expected from the invited people.
It seems as if they wanted the advertising [durch mein Video]But now that the extension is published, they behave strange.
What is a copyright strike on YouTube?
A copyright strike happens when a right holder reports a video on YouTube that illegally uses his image or sound recordings. Strikes are tools for rights holders to protect their property.
However, it also happens that rights holders illegally distribute these strikes: the makers behind Dragon Ball Z Abridged according to their own statements must regularly defend themselves against illegal claims from TOEI animation.
One strike too much and is the YouTube career
What are the consequences? The first consequence of the strike was that Zepla could no longer make money with the video. In her stream, she already announced that she wanted to contact Square Enix because of the problem. Advertising is currently being played before the video. It is not apparent whether the revenue of this will go to Zepla or Square Enix.
But even if the strike was a mistake-Zepla suspects a bot-this can lead to problems in the long term: If a YouTuber receives three copyright strikes within 90 days, the channel and all associated YouTube will be terminated. YouTube himself writes this in the information on copyright violations.
In her video, Zepla also speaks that she hopes that such strikes will not become a bigger problem now. In many of her videos for Final Fantasy XIV, she uses in-game music. If Square Enix enix or bot via Bot, this could probably lead to the termination of all YouTube accounts from ZEPLA quite quickly.
Zepla itself criticized Final Fantasy XIV recently strong for the declining quality of the main story. According to the Youtuber Larrysaur, this has probably moved back since the current patch and the prospects for patch 7.2 in March voices are quite optimistic: Final Fantasy XIV finally gets the popular MMO content after a long content, which everyone has been waiting for again