Someone who really, really loves his soccer team found out the hard way that QR codes are dumb and copyright infringement has no mercy.
“A River Plate fan got a QR code tattooed on them that shows the Copa Libertadores final goals against Boca Juniors whenever you scan it with your phone,” Marathonbet, an online sports betting company, tweeted on Thursday. The video was wildly popular and now has more than two million views.
The video features a dude with a sizeable QR code inked on his calf that, when scanned with a phone, brings up a link to a YouTube video showing the highlights of the Copa Libertadores win over their rivals Boca Juniors in December of last year.
Only, dicks online predictably trolled the dude by reporting the YouTube video for copyright infringement. The video has since been taken down. We have reached out to YouTube for comment on why the video was taken down.
It’s true that a QR code can be unchangeable, meaning you can’t edit the link it takes you to once the graphic has been generated. But there are services available that offer the opportunity to redirect a QR code link after the fact. It’s unclear whether that’s the case for this sports fan, and if not, I hope he finds a deeper meaning in “This video is unavailable.”
Update: A spokesperson for YouTube said in an email that the user who posted the video set it to private.
[ESPN]