Activision Blizzard drops lawsuit against TikTok star

Activision Blizzard has dropped its legal complaint against a popular content creator that had threatened to sue the publisher after it used an audio clip without permission.

Earlier this year, Activision began legal action against content creator Anthony Fantano – who goes by the name ‘TheNeedleTok’ on TikTok –  after he contacted Activision, threatening to sue them for using the audio from one of his videos.

In the video, which is a TikTok ‘duet’ involving another previously uploaded clip by a different user, Fantano watches someone cutting a pizza into progressively smaller slices, which results in him shouting, “it’s enough slices”.

The clip became a meme online and has reportedly been remixed and reused numerous times over the past two years, which Activision says was celebrated by Fantano.

However, when Activision then used the “it’s enough slices” audio in its own TikTok video promoting Crash Bandicoot sneakers, Fantano contacted them and threatened to sue.

Activision’s lawsuit alleged that Fantano sent a letter asking them to remove the video and demanding a settlement. Activision responded, denying it had done anything wrong, but agreed to remove the video anyway “to avoid litigation, and without any admission of liability”.

At the time, Activision argued that TikTok’s terms of service say that users who upload videos give third parties the right to “modify, adapt, reproduce, [or] make derivative works” of their content.

What’s more, it says it took Fantano’s audio from a list of sounds that the TikTok app had marked as having been cleared for commercial use.

However, now, as spotted by Axios, the action has been dropped by Activision Blizzard. “Plaintiff Activision Publishing, Inc. hereby dismisses this entire action, including, without limitation, all claims alleged therein, with prejudice,” it stated.

Fantano has yet to comment on the issue and it’s unclear if Fantano’s suit is still ongoing.