It’s not been a great few weeks for A24’s PR team, and it’s about to get a whole lot worse if reports that the film production studio is copyright-striking Backrooms-related content are indeed true. According to several different sources, “A24 Films LLC” has supposedly been issuing bogus copyright claims against indie game developers and artists for producing Backrooms content—even though the IP itself technically belongs to no one.
In a post on the r/backrooms subreddit by user GnarlyNet, the artist claims that A24 hit them with a copyright strike on Redbubble, a print-on-demand marketplace for user-created artwork. GnarlyNet states that “A24 Films LLC” issued a copyright claim against their Backrooms-wallpaper-inspired artwork, which they explained was based on the “original 2019 Backrooms image” and “not copied from A24’s film or merchandise.”
GnarlyNet isn’t the only artist reportedly getting hit with copyright claims, either, as another user on the subreddit shared more examples of Backrooms-inspired artwork that had been removed from Redbubble. That’s not the most egregious example, though, as a developer from indie team Davilkus Games also stated that they were hit with three copyright strikes earlier this month, which resulted in the team’s Google Play developer account getting banned.
Welp, this is it, A24 is now trying to copyright the backrooms. They’re taking down wallpaper designs from redbubble that were made ages before the film came out. pic.twitter.com/QBANiEI9P3
— assorted goods & sundries (@maywrence) July 15, 2026
In a separate post, Davilkus Games explained that its game, originally titled Exit the Backrooms: Level 94, had to be renamed to Liminal Complex: Level 94 as it was violating Google’s “impersonation policy.” Worse still, according to Davilkus Games, at least “3 other small indie devs” were hit with similar copyright claims on the Google Play store.
“Back on July 3rd, I woke up to a bunch of emails from Google Play. Some of our Backrooms games were permanently taken down out of nowhere,” stated the developer. “It wasn’t just us – it was a silent ban wave. I know at least 3 other small indie devs who had their games suspended that exact same morning. Bigger studios with Backrooms games seemed to be unaffected.”
Kane Parsons, the director of A24’s Backrooms film, stated in a comment on the initial Reddit thread that he is “looking into this” and that it “should not be happening.” While content related to A24’s Backrooms, such as images and videos from the film itself, do indeed belong to A24, the concept of the Backrooms was originally shared in a 4chan thread in 2019, and featured an image from an independent photographer taken in 2002.
Kotaku has reached out to A24 for comment to confirm if the production studio is behind the recent Backrooms-related copyright claims, but did not receive a reply before publishing.
