BreezyLimbo
Banned
Why do you think they need to hire people to be surrogates for their reactions, Kappa.
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Somebody call VH1: "The Fine Bros" are trying to trademark "reaction videos"
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Why do you think they need to hire people to be surrogates for their reactions, Kappa.
Zombie James
Banned
Well meme'd.
I just watched their video where they try to clarify things. For the first, oh, 15 seconds, it comes off like they're really blaming themselves for failing to communicate their intentions and message. Then it quickly spirals into a tone where they sound genuinely annoyed that people are too stupid to figure out what they "actually" meant to say.
Reminds me of Microsoft during the Xbox One launch.
ZackieChan
Member
Haven't watched the video, but given the number of intense reactions in here based on incorrect information and using entirely different legal terms, I'd say that people are misinformed. Not stupid, but the messaging certainly didn't get across what they're doing.
Boogie's video is probably the most informative.
The problem is that they HAVE caused trouble to Ellen DeGeneres before, who just simply did a reaction video.
Are some people confusing the terms? Absolutely. Does that matter? No. The fact is the Fine Brothers are manually flagging other react videos for infringement. Peoples reactions are based on the Fine Brothers actively and consciously destroying other people from making any type of 'react' video.
BreezyLimbo
Banned
And we can infer from that they probably want to use the broader definition of 'react' to take down videos that are simply reaction videos. After all, Youtube tends to comply for the stupidest reasons. Sure it wouldn't hold up in court, but in the court of Youtube only corporations have the power.
All they have to do is show Youtube 'Hey we own this trademark' and bam, that's it.
This will never stop been funny.
ZackieChan
Member
Is there a reddit list of video titles that have been taken down? I'd like to see. I think I'm going to blog about this soon.
Some very interesting insight how content creators can counter this situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsKu1lxWk0I
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=193836308&postcount=600
There may be more, haven't checked actively since reading that post earlier.
TAJ
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Lawyer Reacts To The Fine Brothers.
Neverforget
Member
Sony tried to trademark 'let's play', now fine Bros with 'react'... What's next?
LittleKuriboh will try to trademarked "Abridged"
From what I know, LittleKuriboh's not a douchecanoe.
But is highly possible that you watched a bunch of their videos, they are everywhere.
I can see him making a parody of this for his next episode.
There's a now a "subs lost per minute" counter on the github counter. Currently coasting at about 100/min, expect it to slow while the US sleeps
https://tfbsubscribers.github.io
https://tfbsubscribers.github.io
Fight on my Non US Brothers!
Messofanego
Banned
Haha
unempLLOYD
Member
His receding hairline mirrors their youtube channel's subscriber count.
Jacksinthe
Banned
"What's Next?" Videos.
Silent_Ocarina
Member
I just heard about this. I watched their update video expecting to have sympathy for them, but their tone and attitude made me dislike them even more. Do they really think they own reaction videos? They weren't even the first ones to do it.
Admiral Woofington
Member
Yeah the explanation video was just worst. You could tell they did it with little time to script or without though for much editing but in hopes to get it out ASAP to try and stop the fire.
They fucked up though. Instead of looking like they got little sleep and were desperate to get their point across the video came off as them basically calling everybody an idiot for not getting what they're trying to do.
While probably a majority doesn't get it, enough people do. And it still is shitty.
They fucked up though. Instead of looking like they got little sleep and were desperate to get their point across the video came off as them basically calling everybody an idiot for not getting what they're trying to do.
While probably a majority doesn't get it, enough people do. And it still is shitty.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I say we feel it out and see if they take everything back, or crash and burn. I always liked the videos, but let's face it, I've only watched them via NeoGAF. So if threads for them disappear, I won't ever see another anyway.
Just don't take away my Korean Girls videos.
ZackieChan
Member
Seems like the three creators in that post are using the "something reacts to" trademark, or something confusingly similar. Assuming the trademark is valid, I guess that's the right thing to do from the perspective of Fullscreen.
Looking up fair use is the wrong thing to do in that one video. Especially when he admits to having committed to copyright infringement of someone's music.
What's happening here is that people on YouTube are starting to feel the effects of the law that mainstream entertainment industry creators have had to deal with for a long time. Again, that's contingent on the trademarks being valid, which I don't think they all are. Let's see how the Ryan Morrison thing goes opposing them. It ain't cheap, though.
Also, I work with the lawyer who I believe was instrumental in getting the USPTO to reject Sony's Let's Play trademark the 2nd (and probably final) time. I helped write the blog post announcing it! So don't accuse me of being some kind of blanket corporate shill. I know some of you want to
Vincent Alexander
Member
Not sure if posted already, but Boogie2988 does a very brilliant and level-headed look at this whole thing. I think he nails the whole thing on the head. Please watch if you have 15 minutes.
TheAbsolution
Member
EdibleKnife
Member
Another straightforward, level-headed breakdown from Foldable Human
I had been subscribed since they did LOST videos with toys.
Eppy Thatcher
God's had his chance.
Welp at least we got that TLoU playthrough before they burnt their GAF goodwill completely to the ground.
PopcornMegaphone
Banned
This is a million times better than boogie's video. Thank you for this.
Admiral Woofington
Member
I liked this video.
Fixed2BeBroken
Member
this dude was better than Boogie. I think I might subscribe to this guy. he was on point! thanks for sharing
Seems like the three creators in that post are using the "something reacts to" trademark, or something confusingly similar. Assuming the trademark is valid, I guess that's the right thing to do from the perspective of Fullscreen.
Looking up fair use is the wrong thing to do in that one video. Especially when he admits to having committed to copyright infringement of someone's music.
What's happening here is that people on YouTube are starting to feel the effects of the law that mainstream entertainment industry creators have had to deal with for a long time. Again, that's contingent on the trademarks being valid, which I don't think they all are. Let's see how the Ryan Morrison thing goes opposing them. It ain't cheap, though.
Also, I work with the lawyer who I believe was instrumental in getting the USPTO to reject Sony's Let's Play trademark the 2nd (and probably final) time. I helped write the blog post announcing it! So don't accuse me of being some kind of blanket corporate shill. I know some of you want to
Well, there are multiple things going on. First is the franchising thing, which, whatever, they can license out their logos and so on if they want. Second is the trademarking thing, which leaving aside the issue of overreach given how long reaction videos have been a thing, might not in itself be a major problem if we didn't already have reason to suspect it's going to be abused.
Third, and worst, is the "format" thing. We don't know exactly what they consider their format--the most they give us is telling us to watch one of their reaction videos and it'll be obvious. So we're left to guess. We've seen from their past behavior that they consider something like Ellen's segment or the Buzzfeed video to be very similar to their shows (I've watched both, and the main similarity is the generic idea--multiple people from a particular group being shown something and describing their responses to it, with cuts between the interviewees). Obviously their twitter calls to arms don't mean anything legally, but it's strongly suggestive of their mindset and what they will try to do--they feel that they own the generic idea, not just their branding. In combination with the first two things, it's not pretty. Put all together, it looks to me as though they'll pressure smaller channels that run similar content to come under their banner, using their newly-acquired trademarks and Youtube's overeagerness to take things down as a blunt instrument. They don't even have to actually take down channels as long as they have the implied threat at their disposal.
Is that definitely what's going to happen? Am I perhaps being unfair here? Maybe. On the other hand, looking at the Seniors React thing, it kind of looks like they've already done something like that.
There's also all kinds of tertiary stuff around, like, the irony of them being so uptight about content when their whole model depends entirely on using other people's content, or them deleting comments, or just generally coming off as sleazy jerks, but that's less important. It wouldn't be a big deal if not for the above problems.
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