'Fire Baseball' Episode 1 has been suddenly deleted, and the production company Studio C1 has stated its position.
On the 17th, Studio C1 announced through its YouTube channel bulletin board, "On the morning of May 17, the video of 'Fire Baseball' Episode 1 on the Studio C1 YouTube channel was temporarily suspended due to a copyright infringement report," and added, "We have immediately filed an objection, and it will take about 1 to 2 days, or up to 10 days at most, for the video to be re-released according to YouTube's system."
The variety show 'Fire Baseball' Episode 1, which was released on the 5th, is currently unavailable for viewing on the official YouTube channel. The playlist shows a message stating, "1 unavailable video has been hidden."
The production company stated, "We are currently verifying the exact reason and are doing our best to restore the video as soon as possible through the objection process," and strongly criticized, "This matter was unilaterally carried out through a simple copyright infringement report system, not through legal procedures such as a 'provisional injunction.' This is a typical case of abuse of the copyright system that can block video viewing without a clear legal judgment, exploiting YouTube's structure."
They continued, "We will review all legal and institutional responses to such unfair attempts and will protect the autonomy of content and the rights of viewers. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to our viewers. Studio C1 will continue to respond responsibly to provide quality content to our viewers."
Meanwhile, Studio C1 is in conflict with JTBC, which produced the 'Strong Baseball' series. 'Strong Baseball' is a variety show produced by Studio C1, led by PD Jang Si-won, featuring retired professional baseball legends competing against national baseball teams from Season 1 to Season 3 in 2022.
JTBC has raised suspicions of duplicate and excessive billing of production costs by Studio C1, claiming, "C1 has excessively billed production costs by hundreds of millions to billions of won and is infringing on the Strong Baseball IP rights by forcibly proceeding with Season 4."
In response, C1 stated, "The production costs are not subject to post-billing or actual cost settlement conditions, so excessive billing is structurally impossible. JTBC's copyright is limited to the footage of Season 3," arguing that this is an attempt to seize intellectual property rights.
Currently, both parties are in a legal dispute over the program. JTBC has filed a lawsuit for destruction of electronic records and obstruction of business, claiming that C1 unlawfully deleted 'Strong Baseball' related files stored on the JTBC server after the program production contract ended.
[Kim So-yeon, Star Today Reporter]
