If you’re an Undertale fan, you know the community is intense, especially when it comes to fan games. But even the best projects can run into real-world headaches, which is exactly what happened recently with the fantastic fangame, Undertale Yellow (UTY).
The creator of Undertale, Toby Fox, has long worked to give fans freedom while navigating complicated copyright issues, especially with music claims hitting YouTube Let’s Players. This time, when a major public dispute over music hit Undertale Yellow, but the way Toby stepped in to fix this dispute like a total baller.
The $10,000 Bet That Started the Trouble
Late last year and early this year, Sebastian Wolff, the CEO of Materia Music Publishing, started calling out potential copyright issues with Undertale Yellow‘s music.
Basically, UTY had been operating with Toby Fox’s blessing, but maybe not all the official, clearly defined legal paperwork needed for publishing rights. Sebastian Wolff made a big, public deal about it, even laying down a $10,000 bet:
“clearly defined permission’ that Toby granted 7 years ago, which covers all of these uses, and I’ll personally donate $10k to Undertale Yellow’s dev team and retract this whole thread.”
While he might have been technically right about the lack of formal permission, the public challenge caused a major headache for the UTY team, especially with YouTube content creators getting hit with copyright claims.
In late 2023 to early 2024, the CEO of “Materia Music Publishing”, Sebastian Wolff, made a series of tweets raising concerns over potential copyright infringement by the fangame “Undertale Yellow” publishing some of its music.
This involved a bet of $10,000 to provide proof of- pic.twitter.com/KUrClcaqWS
— Daily Toby Fox Trivia (@dailytobytrivia) January 6, 2024
Problem Solved
The good news? Everyone, Toby Fox, the UTY team, and Materia Collective, worked together behind the scenes to sort out the legal mess.
Soon after, the Undertale Yellow team posted an update letting everyone know the dust had settled:
“Thanks to the cooperation and hard work of Toby Fox and Materia Collective, any Youtube claim that occurs can now be disputed and released – much like how UNDERTALE’s music works. We thank you all for being so passionate for UTY and its music, and hope this situation paves a better path for fanworks of the future.”
The copyright claims were dealt with, and content creators were safe. Huge sigh of relief!
Toby Fox Steps Up: “Support the Love and Passion”
Even after the legal stuff was fixed, Toby Fox had one more thing to say on January 6th, 2024, and it was the best part of the whole story.
He admitted Sebastian Wolff was technically right about the missing paperwork. But he called out the public bet as totally unnecessary:
“However, even if Sebastian is technically correct, the way that he handled this situation was wrong. Making a bet against a creator of a fanwork is extremely unprofessional in a way I shouldn’t even have to explain.”
Then, he delivered the philosophy that makes him such a cool creator:
“As I have explained to Sebastian in private — if well-meaning fans have made a mistake, it should be our job to figure out how to help them make it right. More than anything, we should be supporting the love and passion of our fans at every opportunity.”
Turning a Dispute into a $20,000 Donation
Toby Fox decided to completely neutralize the negative vibe from the public bet by taking massive action:
“As a token of apology, I have donated $20,000 to the charity of UNDERTALE Yellow Team’s choice – AbleGamers. You can consider it as a $10k for Sebastian, and $10k from myself.”
Yep, he doubled the $10,000 amount and donated it to AbleGamers, a fantastic charity that helps people with disabilities play video games.
Which was like, the coolest jab we might ever witness. You gotta love a feel good resolution like this.
