YouTube's Fine Bros. Attempt to Trademark Reactions
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 6:44 pm
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35459805
Two of my favorite YouTube veterans, the Fine Brothers made really fun videos about people talking about the Internet and other geek things. I was always hoping they'd make a "College Students React" series so I could appear.
Except... They've managed to flush millions of dollars worth of monetization down the toilet by making a move that I remember quite a few people attempting... And failing miserably.
Yes... They tried to trademark reactions to... Things. Reaction videos are a genre of sorts on YouTube, one of many critical genres similar to video reviews, protected under Fair Use and other copyright protections... But, the thing about them being a genre is that they perform a specific action that isn't unique to them. They literally tried to trademark critical analysis... Very shallow critical analysis, maybe, but critical analysis nonetheless. Criticism is 50% opinion, and the human process of reacting to things... Is not something you can trademark.
Needless to say, people have reacted poorly. They've lost hundreds of thousands of subscriptions as of today.
I... I can't understand why they bothered, or how they thought this was a good idea. However, they are, surprisingly (or not, if you're of a nigh-omnipotent cynical persuasion... Like me), not the first to have tried something like this.
They join the ranks of such people as Monster.com, T-Mobile, and... Professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page.
http://www.weirdworm.com/the-8-most-ins ... -lawsuits/
Of course, the above are nowhere near as depressing as actual existing trademarks and copyrights. Cracked speaks of the elite few to trademark really stupid things, besides the song "Happy Birthday", which I think is the dumbest:
http://www.cracked.com/article_20066_5- ... ghted.html
Plagiarism Today talks about some copyright issues for the un-enlightened (ironically, includes some of the above trademarks):
https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/01 ... hat-arent/
Anyway, down to you, my beloved NSG: do you think the Fine Bros. had a right to trademark (... That's a rhetorical question you don't need to answer if you don't want to)? Does anybody else mentioned? Should people be allowed to make things like fanfiction and other derivative works? Should copyright be reformed? Is the answer to the previous question anything other than "yes"?
If you ask me, the Fine Bros. attempted this because of just how unclear a lot of copyright laws are, favoring the people with the best lawyers. There has been a lot of Fair Use abuse on YouTube, mostly on the side of people claiming copyright on unprotected small channels. YouTube attempted to curb this through the "copyright promise", where they'll pledge $1 million in legal fees for channels without the money to defend their Fair Use claims if there is a very obvious standing for the law. In other areas, however, YouTube has bowed to corporate pressure to crack down on "copyright abuse" on the other side of the coin, among them the video game company Nintendo, who forces anybody reviewing or analyzing their games to submit to a very unorthodox process where Nintendo can monetize advertising featured on the video. Whether that extends to educational institutions and others... I don't know.
And frankly, it shouldn't. I get that we're talking about business and I myself have pledged to the Businessman's Nuremberg Defense ("I have a mortgage to pay"), this is severely stifling critical analysis and creative enterprise. A lot of critics are also creators themselves, sometimes even when they're in the middle of critiquing.
This is the nature of "transformative works", a founding principle in Fair Use law.
Courtesy of the very beautiful princess/prince Napkiraly:
https://medium.com/@FineBrothersEnt/a-m ... .xxpid5ea1
The Fine Bros. have apologized following the backlash.
There is apparently a video of them apologizing as well.. But the ones I've found are usually re-uploads of them with fart sounds overlaid on top of them, or other YouTube-esque criticism videos.
Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAVqSdX4UL8
Two of my favorite YouTube veterans, the Fine Brothers made really fun videos about people talking about the Internet and other geek things. I was always hoping they'd make a "College Students React" series so I could appear.
Except... They've managed to flush millions of dollars worth of monetization down the toilet by making a move that I remember quite a few people attempting... And failing miserably.
Yes... They tried to trademark reactions to... Things. Reaction videos are a genre of sorts on YouTube, one of many critical genres similar to video reviews, protected under Fair Use and other copyright protections... But, the thing about them being a genre is that they perform a specific action that isn't unique to them. They literally tried to trademark critical analysis... Very shallow critical analysis, maybe, but critical analysis nonetheless. Criticism is 50% opinion, and the human process of reacting to things... Is not something you can trademark.
Needless to say, people have reacted poorly. They've lost hundreds of thousands of subscriptions as of today.
I... I can't understand why they bothered, or how they thought this was a good idea. However, they are, surprisingly (or not, if you're of a nigh-omnipotent cynical persuasion... Like me), not the first to have tried something like this.
They join the ranks of such people as Monster.com, T-Mobile, and... Professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page.
http://www.weirdworm.com/the-8-most-ins ... -lawsuits/
Of course, the above are nowhere near as depressing as actual existing trademarks and copyrights. Cracked speaks of the elite few to trademark really stupid things, besides the song "Happy Birthday", which I think is the dumbest:
http://www.cracked.com/article_20066_5- ... ghted.html
Plagiarism Today talks about some copyright issues for the un-enlightened (ironically, includes some of the above trademarks):
https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/01 ... hat-arent/
Anyway, down to you, my beloved NSG: do you think the Fine Bros. had a right to trademark (... That's a rhetorical question you don't need to answer if you don't want to)? Does anybody else mentioned? Should people be allowed to make things like fanfiction and other derivative works? Should copyright be reformed? Is the answer to the previous question anything other than "yes"?
If you ask me, the Fine Bros. attempted this because of just how unclear a lot of copyright laws are, favoring the people with the best lawyers. There has been a lot of Fair Use abuse on YouTube, mostly on the side of people claiming copyright on unprotected small channels. YouTube attempted to curb this through the "copyright promise", where they'll pledge $1 million in legal fees for channels without the money to defend their Fair Use claims if there is a very obvious standing for the law. In other areas, however, YouTube has bowed to corporate pressure to crack down on "copyright abuse" on the other side of the coin, among them the video game company Nintendo, who forces anybody reviewing or analyzing their games to submit to a very unorthodox process where Nintendo can monetize advertising featured on the video. Whether that extends to educational institutions and others... I don't know.
And frankly, it shouldn't. I get that we're talking about business and I myself have pledged to the Businessman's Nuremberg Defense ("I have a mortgage to pay"), this is severely stifling critical analysis and creative enterprise. A lot of critics are also creators themselves, sometimes even when they're in the middle of critiquing.
This is the nature of "transformative works", a founding principle in Fair Use law.
Courtesy of the very beautiful princess/prince Napkiraly:
https://medium.com/@FineBrothersEnt/a-m ... .xxpid5ea1
The Fine Bros. have apologized following the backlash.
There is apparently a video of them apologizing as well.. But the ones I've found are usually re-uploads of them with fart sounds overlaid on top of them, or other YouTube-esque criticism videos.
Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAVqSdX4UL8