Those who were involved in the LittleBigPlanet beta and early adopters who have been happily adventuring with their Sackpeople have no doubt spent a good amount of time tooling around the user-created levels and enjoying just how creative some people can be. The list of available levels is getting shorter though, as it seems Media Molecule has taken it upon themselves to "moderate" user content that is deemed to violate copyright restrictions.

The issue was first brought to light on the LittleBigWorkshop forums, with users claiming that their levels had been deleted without any sort of warning or communication even though they contained nothing offensive or inappropriate. Upon futher digging, it turns out that these levels were removed because Media Molecule deemed them to be in violation of copyright rules. Therefore, levels themed after trademarked games, movies, consoles, etc. are being removed without warning, lost and gone forever.

This news comes as a major blow for the game, considering that user-created levels are meant to be a huge part of the experience. Also, while there are some truly creative minds out there able to come up with their very own original ideas, a lot of the most popular user levels, especially in the beta, have been ones built to pay homage to specific games. The burlap revisiting of Sonic the Hedgehog’s Green Hill Zone or the reimagining of Shadow of the Colossus were major draws, but now levels such as these are becoming a thing of the past. Hopefully Media Molecule will come to their senses and scale these actions back a bit, but for now the world of LittleBigPlanet is becoming an increasingly lonely place.