{"id":548118,"date":"2026-07-18T21:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/548118\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T21:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T21:12:08","slug":"backrooms-almost-got-trapped-in-copyright-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/548118\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Backrooms’ Almost Got Trapped In Copyright Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"

A24\u2019s\u00a0Backrooms\u00a0is one of 2026\u2019s biggest movies<\/a>. But the same week it came to home platforms<\/a>, it managed to step in some hot water and draw negative attention.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, indie creators claimed to be hit with copyright strikes for making Backrooms-related merch. At least one work was based on a liminal wallpaper that inspired the initial creepypasta that predates the film, and the artist alleged the takedown came following a complaint from A24. Similar copyright claims hit several indie developers, including Davilkus Games, who made Backrooms: Level 94 for the Google Play Store. (Davilkus later clarified this was an \u201cautomated error\u201d on Google\u2019s side and not a copyright claim.)<\/p>\n

Upon hearing of these issues on Reddit<\/a>, a user believed to be director Kane Parsons posted that he\u2019d look into the matter and that it \u201cshouldn\u2019t be happening.\u201d Parsons, to his credit, has previously called<\/a> Backrooms an \u201copen-source, public-domain idea\u201d since it first took life in online spaces. The ire was mainly directed toward A24, who\u2019s already caught flak<\/a> for entering a teamup with Google<\/a> for AI research.<\/p>\n

A user believed to be Parsons later explained to a private Discord channel (reported on Reddit)<\/a> what A24 had told him: an \u201coutsourced system error\u201d led to the wallpaper and game takedowns when it was initially meant to copyright camrips of the Backrooms film that had been spreading around social media. \u201cThey\u2019ve been very adamant about not wanting to touch the community. Any legitimate action of the sort suspected would be unacceptable,\u201d the user explained. \u201cThey\u2019re working rapidly to resolve it and will probably issue a statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBackrooms\u00a0is one part of an infinitely bigger ecosystem, rife with creatives who have every right to tell their own version of the story,\u201d said A24 via an Instagram Stories post on the Backrooms Instagram page. \u201c[We] make no claim of ownership over the yellow wallpaper, the original post referencing it, or any of the community works that have since been built around it. We will continue to support the artists who, like Kane, were inspired by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who get paid making things based off popular IP, copyright strikes are no joke and can seriously mess with their business. In\u00a0Backrooms\u2019\u00a0case, this controversy couldn\u2019t have come at a worse time for A24: along with the aforementioned AI partnership that\u2019s turned folks against the indie studio, it\u2019ll also have to fend off competitors like Warner Bros.<\/a> hoping to snag Parsons for future projects.<\/p>\n

[via Polygon<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A24\u2019s\u00a0Backrooms\u00a0is one of 2026\u2019s biggest movies. But the same week it came to home platforms, it managed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12698,154757,146,85,46,154758],"class_list":["post-548118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-a24","tag-backrooms","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-kane-parsons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}