August 23, Katherine B. Forrest, the district judge of southern New York, ended one of the biggest YouTube related court cases in favor of the defendants, h3h3productions, also known as Ethan and Hila Klein. The result of this court case not only saved the Klein's career, but it will protect other YouTube creators from unfair copyright strikes/lawsuits. Thus, this marks a huge win for fair use.
A quick summary on how it all started:
Basically, Matt Hosseinzadeh, also known as "Bold Guy" on YouTube, sued h3h3 productions because they uploaded a video reacting to his cringy "parkour video". It's really a video of Bold Guy hitting on a girl while she's exercising. The original video is out now and while watching it, I noticed that the place they were running around and doing "parkour" in was on the old CSUN campus! Small world.
Bold Guy saw h3h3production's reaction video and he did not like what he saw. He then sent a threatening email to Ethan Klein stating that he will sue him for copyright infringement, defamation and DMCA misrepresentation.
Katherine B. Forrest gave her final opinion of the video in question saying there is "no doubt" the video's only purpose was to criticize Hoss' video nor was it a "market substitute" video for Hoss. She then declares that the "defendants' use of clips from the Hoss video constitutes fair use as a matter of law."
With that, Matt Hoss fails to convince the judge and is therefore DENIED.
For more details and to see their reaction to the win, click here to watch the full video of Ethan and Hila explaining everything. The link to the official court opinion/decision can be found here.
How this lawsuit was a win for all future content creators.
A major problem with YouTube is how easy it is to "flag" (remove) a video because of copyright infringement. Every time a video has been removed, the channel owner gets a "YouTube strike". Just like in baseball, three strikes and you're out. Many YouTube channels were unjustly receiving copyright strikes.
Two of my favorite YouTubers, I Hate Everything (IHE) and ralphthemoviemaker dedicate their channel in making movie reviews and reacting to them. They had their fair share of videos taken down due to copyright. I Hate Everything actually had a dispute back in 2015 with Derek Savage, director of "Cool Cat Saves The Kids" because Savage didn't like IHE using clips of his movie to properly review it.
With this lawsuit, it will further protect the YouTube community from getting strikes or possible lawsuits from angry companies, directors or other YouTubers. Even though Ethan and Hila are grateful for all the support, we should be thanking them for standing up for all of us.
YouTube community celebrates this victory.
As soon as the news broke out, all of the YouTubers that supported h3h3 productions sighed a breath of relief and showed their love.
It's funny how two simple words can express the relief we all felt that Wednesday.
"The King of YouTube" agrees that this case will benefit and protect creators' careers on YouTube.
Philip DeFranco was actually the one who helped push the YouTube community together to raise over $100,000 to help Ethan Klein fight this lawsuit. His news channel can rest easy now whenever he wants to show clips to his audience.
To Ethan and Hila of h3h3productions, I thank and congratulate you for this victory and all the money and time you've sacrificed. Seeing you guys go through this tough year and a half was heartbreaking but now we can celebrate how not everything sucks on YouTube!
