Samsung is really getting pummelled from all sides now. First was its second recall of its “Galaxy Note 7” smartphones, then there was the FAA ban. Now, the company has to contend with “Grand Theft Auto V” modders who made exploding versions of the phablet in the game. It seems Samsung has had enough and forced a video of the mod on YouTube to be taken down.
Samsung’s reaction to the YouTube video about the “Note 7” being made into a bomb in “GTAV” could not be worse, The Verge reports. By issuing a DMCA takedown on something that the copyright tool was never meant for, the South Korean company has placed itself in the position of abusing its power and misusing an already oft-misused YouTube service. This will likely only add to its already damaged reputation after the PR nightmare that was the actual explosions and fires caused by “Note 7” smartphones.
The mod, which was made by HitmanNiko, is not a copy of anything that is copyrighted by Samsung. If anything, Rockstar has the biggest reasons to complain, but it isn’t. The mod is just a parody that exaggerates a real-world situation, which just happens to involve Samsung’s hazardous device.
Other videos of the mod are still circulating the web, with many YouTube channels featuring it as they were expected to. Unless Samsung plans on issuing DMCA takedown notices to all of these channels, which would be a terrible idea for the company, the mod is going to stay up. In fact, by trying to suppress the existence of the mod, the South Korean company might have just made it more popular.
On that note, it’s not even clear that the takedown was intentional on Samsung’s part, Ars Technica reports. If it was, the smartphone maker wouldn’t be the first company to misuse the DMCA the way it did.


Ohio Man Indicted for Alleged Threat Against Vice President JD Vance, Faces Additional Federal Charges
U.S. Announces Additional $6 Million in Humanitarian Aid to Cuba Amid Oil Sanctions and Fuel Shortages
SpaceX Reports $8 Billion Profit as IPO Plans and Starlink Growth Fuel Valuation Buzz
Nintendo Shares Slide After Earnings Miss Raises Switch 2 Margin Concerns
Jack Lang Resigns as Head of Arab World Institute Amid Epstein Controversy
Nvidia, ByteDance, and the U.S.-China AI Chip Standoff Over H200 Exports
Jensen Huang Urges Taiwan Suppliers to Boost AI Chip Production Amid Surging Demand
Instagram Outage Disrupts Thousands of U.S. Users
Sam Altman Reaffirms OpenAI’s Long-Term Commitment to NVIDIA Amid Chip Report
Trump Allegedly Sought Airport, Penn Station Renaming in Exchange for Hudson River Tunnel Funding
U.S.-India Trade Framework Signals Major Shift in Tariffs, Energy, and Supply Chains
SpaceX Prioritizes Moon Mission Before Mars as Starship Development Accelerates
Sony Q3 Profit Jumps on Gaming and Image Sensors, Full-Year Outlook Raised
Anthropic Eyes $350 Billion Valuation as AI Funding and Share Sale Accelerate
Nvidia Confirms Major OpenAI Investment Amid AI Funding Race
Amazon Stock Rebounds After Earnings as $200B Capex Plan Sparks AI Spending Debate
Trump Lifts 25% Tariff on Indian Goods in Strategic U.S.–India Trade and Energy Deal 



