YouTuber KSI accused of hypocrisy over piracy rant

Outspoken YouTube star KSI has apologised for his recent expletive-laden tirade addressing piracy of his debut feature film – called Laid in America – with a new video involving a Pirates of the Carribean costume, a HMV store and an inpromptu high street giveaway.

The original video (which you can watch here, but be warned – it contains very strong language) was branded as hypocritical by viewers, with some referring back to an image in a tweet from 5 April, 2015, that displayed a pirated version of Sony's film editing PC suite, Vegas Pro (via TorrentFreak).

The UK-based KSI – real name Olajide Olutunde – uses the apology video to beg fans to buy Laid in America legally, but not before taking to the street in a Jack Sparrow outfit and proceeding to buy dozens of copies of the film from a HMV store in London himself.

Olutunde spends the rest of the video giving the copies away to passers by, with 'funny' interjections dubbed over the top. The video, which is also expletive-laden, can be seen here. How exactly the act atones for the pirated copy of Vegas Pro is anyone's guess.

Originally rising to fame through YouTube videos based on Electronic Arts' annual football video game series Fifa, KSI has since expanded his horizons and turned to music and acting. Despite garnering a following of over 14 million on YouTube, KSI has been the subject of several notable incidents during public events.

In 2012, the organisers of the Eurogamer Expo – now EGX – banned KSI for his "behaviour towards women" at the show, while Microsoft, after working with the artist at an Xbox One event at the tail end of 2013, pledged to not work with him again after learning of some of his more unsavoury work and character gimmicks such as "rape face".