BOOTH Halts VTuber IME Dictionary Sales After Unauthorized Name Backlash
The platform, not the creator, stopped the sale, and BOOTH has not given a reason, leaving the dictionary's status and the policy behind the decision unresolved.
Reporting from 1 source: KAI-YOU.
BOOTH has halted sales of the VTuber conversion dictionary, an IME dictionary carrying roughly 20,000 VTuber names, KAI-YOU confirmed with the dictionary's staff. The platform's stated reason is not yet clear. The dictionary sold for 1,800 yen after being distributed at Comiket 108. A September 5 website letting people check whether their name is included drew criticism over names being collected and sold without permission. KAI-YOU notes legal infringement is unlikely, and the backlash is mostly ethical.
The dictionary comes from Kaze to Virtual, a project that records VTuber history. It was distributed at Comiket 108 in mid-August, then listed on BOOTH for 1,800 yen. On September 5 the project published a website where anyone can search whether a name is in the dictionary; it currently lists 20,014 entries.
That site spread quickly on X and drew criticism that names were collected and sold without the VTubers' permission. Reactions were mixed: some VTubers were pleased to be included, others posted self-deprecating notes about being absent. KAI-YOU's legal read is that selling name and reading data as a conversion dictionary is unlikely to infringe copyright, trademark, or publicity rights, and that the backlash is mostly ethical discomfort with treating VTuber names as a paid product.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.