In a somewhat surreal legal battle, Activision is taking YouTube and TikTok music critic Anthony Fantano, also known as theneedledrop, to court, Axios reports. Activision is suing Fantano to prevent Fantano from suing the company first because the critic took issue with his use of an audio clip in a 19-second TikTok video about Crash Bandicoot-themed sneakers.

Are you familiar with the Fantano clip in question? It is also known as the "No more slices!" also known as the "I've had enough slices!" meme, taken from one of the critic's 2021 TikToks, in which he reacts with horror as the pizza is cut thinner and thinner. The audio has been used in countless videos since it was first uploaded, but Fantano took issue when Activision used it in one of its own TikToks uploaded in June (it has since been removed).

A court filing from Activision explains that the company is "the latest target of Fantano's scheme" and that "certain users of Slices Audio have selectively [threatened] to sue him if he does not pay them extortionate amounts." Activision claims that Fantano has done the same thing before to other clip users, who told him that they "paid a similar amount to avoid the cost of a lawsuit." It does not say how much that amount was.

In Activision's defense, "Fantano suddenly determined that Activision's video violated his publicity rights and constituted a false endorsement," and even after the company removed the video, he "immediately demanded that Activision pay substantial monetary damages or be prepared to defend the suit . to immediately pay Activision substantial monetary damages or be prepared to defend the lawsuit."

Activision therefore "had no choice but to seek declaratory relief from this Court." . to issue a statement declaring that Activision's use of the meme was justified by TikTok's Terms of Service, which states that users "may create additional user content by extracting all or part of the user content created by other users." The expectation is that Fantano will be taken to court.

Activision also argues that "no reasonable consumer would mistakenly believe that Fantano is a sponsor or endorser of Activision or its videos simply because Slices Audio is included in those videos," and that he uploaded the original video to wants the Court to agree that when he "granted TikTok a perpetual, royalty-free license to use Slices Video and Slices Audio on its platform and to sublicense it to its users."

We have contacted Fantano for comment on Activision's lawsuit and will update this article if we hear back.

While I understand the confusion as to why Fantano would take issue with the use of a single voice when thousands (perhaps millions) of voices have been used, I am not particularly keen on allowing a giant corporation to further do whatever it wants with a person's voice and likeness once it is uploaded to the Internet. I must say that I am not willing. We'll have to wait and see how this all turns out in the end, but I admit to feeling a little uneasy about it at the moment.