A campaign video by Greenpeace against Lego’s relationship with Shell has been subject to a copyright claim by Warner Brothers forcing its temporary removal from YouTube.

The video, which campaigns against Lego’s involvement in threatening the Arctic by promoting the Shell brand on its toys, was uploaded to YouTube last Tuesday as part of its “Everything is NOT Awesome” campaign. However, the video was then removed from YouTube on Friday morning following a copyright claim from Warner Brothers who distributed The Lego Movie released earlier this year.

Greenpeace responded by encouraging its supporters to continue sharing the campaign video on social media and on alternative video-sharing site vimeo where it was subsequently uploaded.

On Friday evening the video was reinstated on YouTube after Warner Brothers withdrew its complaint. However it has since complained to vimeo over copyright claims, forcing the film to be taken down from that site.

Speaking before the video was reinstated on YouTube, Ian Duff, Arctic campaigner at Greenpeace, said: “Our film was designed as a creative way of letting people know about the threat to the Arctic from Shell and the role Lego has in the story. It seems to have struck a nerve with some important corporate bigwigs, but this crude attempt to silence dissent won’t work.”

A spokeswoman for Greenpeace said that it had planned to challenge the YouTube complaint before Warner Brothers withdrew it, and it now plans to challenge the vimeo complaint.

Greenpeace argues that its video uses satire and parody and is in the public interest, and therefore should be protected under the right to free speech.

It also stated that, according to a YouTube search, there are 772 other videos on the site that use the ‘everything is awesome’ song, and many more that depict characters from the film.

In a blog post titled Are big companies using spurious copyright claims to try to stop our viral film spreading?, James Turner, head of communications for Greenpeace’s Arctic campaign said: “If this is a game of 'copyright whack-a-mole', it isn't working. The film is all over the internet and picking up more views by the second.

“We can't say for sure what's going on between Warner Bros, Lego, Shell and YouTube here. But what we can say is that these copyright claims just don't stand up to scrutiny, and yet they're being used to try to silence a video that is gaining real momentum online.”

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, president and chief executive of the Lego Group said: "The Greenpeace campaign focuses on how Shell operates in a specific part of the world. We firmly believe that this matter must be handled between Shell and Greenpeace.

"We are saddened when the Lego brand is used as a tool in any dispute between organisations."

He said that Lego will live up to the contract that it entered into with Shell.

The video, which despite being removed has had almost four million views on YouTube, can be seen below.