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Fox TV Gives ‘Bikini Streamer’ Zoie Burgher Cease And Desist Over Dr. Zoidberg-Themed Gaming Videos Citing Illegal Use Of ‘Futurama’ Overlay

By David Cornell
Published on: 06:23 PST, Oct 7, 2016

Fox TV has taken action against Zoie Burgher, the creator of a banned Twitch streaming series known for flaunting her assets while playing video games and posting them to YouTube. The Twitch ban on Zoidberg Nation had to do with her wearing skimpy clothing and twerking for audiences, which violated their policy on sexual behavior.

This is odd, considering that Miley Cyrus did the same thing at the 2013 VMAs on stage with Robin Thicke. She drew outcries of indecent displays, but she’s still making music and is even more famous than she was as Hannah Montana.

Zoie Burgher gained fame doing it, with 10 million views attesting to her success, and Twitch wasn’t pleased. She has been banned four times already because of her shenanigans, and she replied to the streaming service’s attitude toward her, according to the Sun.

“I totally get why they would be kind of miffed about that. It was viewed 10 million times, but it was PG-13 at worst. X-rated has never been and will never be my style. Twitch got upset because I was wearing cleavage on their streams, I never once did anything further than that because I was well aware of their stricter rules. I just disregarded them and wore the cleavage tops anyway because I thought I would be able to get away with it. I used sexuality to help me get ahead on YouTube, but it’s nothing that other girls haven’t been trying to do, I just did it better.”

This isn’t the part of the Zoidberg Nation creator’s problem with Fox TV, though. Fox once had the Matt Groening animated series Futurama, until it was canceled after Season 5. Comedy Central picked it up and eventually canceled it themselves after 10 seasons. Apparently, Fox still owns the legal rights to the first five seasons and its characters, one of which was a lobster-like alien named Dr. Zoidberg. The red alien gained his fame for being the outcast with some of the best one-liners in the show’s history.

Fox TV is taking legal action against Zoie Burgher for continuing to post videos to YouTube using an image of Dr. Zoidberg as an overlay. She has been using the character to symbolize her fan base, which she called the Zoidberg Nation. YouTube is known for their copyright issues, and Fox TV is one such copyright owner cracking down on violators, according to Kotaku.

“[The Zoidberg Nation overlay] creates consumer confusion because users encountering it will assume that Fox sponsors, endorses, or authorizes the use of the Fox IP or the content of your channel, when neither is true. [Zoie Burgher may have to pay] statutory damages up to $150,000 per copyright infringed … and permanently remove all references to Futurama.”

Fox TV and YouTube have been involved in other unusual activity as well, including allegedly stealing a user’s footage of the video game Double Dribble for an episode of Family Guy, and then removing the original footage over copyright violation.

Zoie Burgher is not taking this lightly and says it has affected her original plans, as she took to Twitter in outrage.

Copyright violation takedowns are nothing new on YouTube, as most anime abridgers know. Users like Megami33 and LittleKuriboh have been among those who had to use disclaimers and counter claims to keep their channels up. Now even Nintendo has gotten in on it but have lightened up and let the video makers have part of the income.

Is Fox TV wrong in threatening Zoie Burgher with a massive lawsuit over her use of Dr. Zoidberg?

[Feature Image by Fox TV]

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