UPDATE: One day after YouTube, X has now restored the struck Cosmic Book News post as well, confirming it forwarded our DMCA counter-notice to the original reporter and has “ceased withholding” the material. Two platforms in two days, same outcome: WBD never filed the lawsuit. Facebook and Instagram remain.
YouTube has restored the Cosmic Book News Lanterns video.
The confirmation arrived early Monday: in accordance with the DMCA, YouTube completed processing our counter-notification, and the video is back on our channel.
Here is what that means. When we filed our counter-notification, Warner Bros. Discovery and its enforcement vendor MarkScan had a choice under federal law: show YouTube they had filed a lawsuit against us, or the video comes back.
They did not sue.
The deadline to show a lawsuit landed on July 24, the same day as the Lanterns Hall H panel. The restoration came three days later, inside the DMCA’s 10 to 14 business day window.
Recall what was struck: a 67-second video of me, on camera, discussing my own reporting, over screenshots of my own article. MarkScan’s claim designated the WBD content as the “entire video.”
Here is that video, back where it belongs. Judge the claim for yourself.
The strike was part of a much bigger sweep: HBO Max’s own social team filing against fans and press on X, WBD Content Protection claiming a “spoiler” as copyrighted text, and a takedown over a meme.
When it came time to stand behind any of it in court, nobody showed up.
What Happens Next
Per YouTube policy, a successful counter-notification also removes the copyright strike from the channel. We are confirming the strike has cleared and will update here.
Counter-notifications remain pending on Facebook and Instagram, with those clocks running out in the days ahead.
And our Facebook Page and its 666,000 followers remain restricted through August 11 over a notice that named no rights owner at all.
Two down. Two to go.
Lanterns premieres Sunday, August 16 on HBO and HBO Max.
