Baby Yoda GIFs from the Disney+ show The Mandalorian are being pulled from the internet, apparently due to claims of copyright infringement.
According to the Twitter account of Kathryn VanArendonk, a staff writer for Vulture, Giphy has removed all of the site’s Baby Yoga GIFs. Baby Yoda GIFs, as fans are well aware, are just short clips from the show, but at this point if someone was to search for “Baby Yoda” in Giphy’s database, none of their applicable GIFs would appear. It has since been suggested this is reportedly occurring because Disney thinks Baby Yoda GIFs infringe upon their copyright, and instead of spending the money to refute the claim, Giphy opted to simply remove Baby Yoda from their website altogether.
The highlighted part from the shared Forbes article includes the following:
“According to Jeff John Roberts of Fortune, GIFs can be considered ‘transformative’ under copyright law because they do not undermine the market for the original work: ‘No one, for instance, is going to watch a Star Wars GIF instead of the original movie.'”
The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal as the titular bounty hunter, who travels the outer reaches of the lawless galaxy, surviving as a mercenary-for-hire. The series is set shortly after the events of the original trilogy of films and is expected to have a unique approach to the franchise. The cast also includes Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Nick Nolte, Omid Abtahi, Emily Swallow, Werner Herzog, and Taika Waititi as the voice of IG-11.
In addition to The Mandalorian, other upcoming Star Wars series will include a show that stars Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and a prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which is set to feature the return of Diego Luna as Cassian Andor and Alan Tudyk as K-2SO.
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