Bilibili Issues Response on Official VTuber Suspected of Plagiarism

A user of Chinese microblogging platform Weibo issued a post on Wednesday claiming that a VTuber, or a virtual live streamer using computer graphics and real-time motion technology, designed by his friend was copied by an official Bilibili E-sports account. After repeated negotiations, the netizen claimed to have only received an “arrogant” reply from the firm. In addition, the user’s interest protection video was deleted by the platform, so he had no choice but to post a blog in an attempt to defend his rights.

Regarding the post, Bilibili E-sports responded that the face of its Vtuber named “Ranran_Ranoca” is indeed quite similar to that of another Vtuber. After verification, the drawing was confirmed to be used by the operator of “Ranran_ Ranoca.” The company has reprimanded the operator and demanded her to stop using the image immediately. It also admitted that the firm has omissions in the audit of the Vtuber, which helped to cause this incident. In the future, it will standardize and formulate a stricter audit system, trying best to maintain originality and avoid such incidents.

Bilibili then apologized to the offended Vtuber and its affiliated companies Gretia and Vdproject official. In addition, the company said it will continue to actively communicate with them to deal with any follow-up matters.

Bilibili admitted that its operator who communicated with the creators in the early stages had committed serious speech misconduct and was directly responsible for this incident. The Bilibili operator’s performance-related pay will be deducted, as will the head of the Vtuber Management Division. They will receive internal reprimands within the company.

A Vtuber generally refers to a virtual live streamer on video platforms including Youtube and Bilibili. Users can synchronize their actions and expressions to virtual images in real time through the virtual live streaming software VUP, so as to realize an instant virtual interactive experience. The software is based on Unity3D engine and technologies such as motion capture, face capture and real-time rendering.

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The software can realize real-time synchronization of eyebrows, eyes, mouths and other details of physical people through a webcam. It has various built-in dynamic interfaces to capture real-time action data of people and generate virtual images.