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The Fine Bros back down after internet backlash, rescind all "React" trademarks
- Thread starter Skux
- Start date
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SinCityAssassin
Member
You can't unleash such an undertaking when you're under a firestorm, React World is tainted now. They will likely get back to this when they perceive the maelstrom of criticism and backlash is far away enough to relaunch it as REACT CENTRAL or something.
VanquishUK
Member
Exactly this. If you subtract that 250k from the ~2-4 million views they get per "REACT" video, suddenly it seems that much more substantial.
lowhighkang_LHK
Member
Not just that, but it represents active subscribers. A good portion of subscribers are just people who passively subscribe to things. You only make money off of views, not subscribers. The loss of these types of subscribers are going to affects views.
Honestly, these guys should know that going after creative rights, creative content, copyright restriction on youtube is the fastest way...to get like...all of mother fucking youtube against you. Especially since you're dealing with sub broad terms here. It's not only wrong, but it's a direct threat to every other content creator on youtube. So what's happening is any and everyone with a decently large youtube channel is creating "fuck off Finebros.' videos. In fact, I learned off all this from Boogie's channel. I'm half surprised pewdiepie doesn't send these guys a fuck off shoutout.
FineBros you done fucked with the wrong people.
I doubt that. Finebros primarily operate through youtube. If you have one thousand people 'signed' up in your program, by what capacity can you realistic support and endorse all those videos? If your video is that good to get a front and center stage representation on the finebros main channel, then by default you can succeed and accomplish success on your own without giving a huge chunk of the profits, of which mind you are already butchered by what google takes to begin with.
SolidSnakeUS
Member
Even with this, this is still an interesting Reddit post about the Fine Bros from someone who used to work there. Pretty sleazy shit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/com...o_but_the_finebros_have_cancelled_all/czkn6yc
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/com...o_but_the_finebros_have_cancelled_all/czkn6yc
Norwegian_Imposter
Member
good god guys, firstly it was EA trying to trademark Ghost and ubisoft were the ones opposing it....
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Hoky shit. They made Jimmy fucking Kimmel take down a reaction video?! (The video is now private).
https://twitter.com/thefinebros/status/94074508050313216
And apparently that "reaction" video was one of those man on the street videos he does right now but focused on kids rather than adults.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
I don't think they're going to stop being bullies. Never. Keep the subscription numbers falling.
Norwegian_Imposter
Member
It's down to -30 per minute
Yeah these guys are scumbags but what I do hope this has done is show the fallacy of their product and how actually shit it is.
So do I, so I hope you're not. They're clearly sleazy bastards and before this whole thing had still being doing what they could to have anything involving reacting.
Ellen stole your format? What, showing people shit and filming their reactions? Fuck better go take the N64 kid's video for kid reacting to N64.
Pair of absolute knobends.
PetriP-TNT
Member
I still haven't figured out which part of this whole thing was the questionable thing besides actually taking down other reaction videos
lowhighkang_LHK
Member
Holy shit.
My goodness fuck these guys so hard. I'm speechless. And to think the gaming side was pimping their let's react to kids playing the last of us video bit.
This is what happens with youtube, unfortunately. Doesn't matter if you're a big corporation or not, if you get bigger than somebody else, you can throw your weight around like it's nobody's business.
They got caught and I'm guessing they'll try it again at a later date when the heat dies down.
Holy shit even more disgusting than I thought.
Good news.
I imagine they will still try to licence their shows, but on a smaller scale. Instead of trying to have a monopoly on react videos like their React World programme could have given them,
I reckon they'll reach out through different avenues to create an 'official' UK REACT, AUS REACT, etc. Like their example of America's Got Talent/Britain's Got Talent etc.
This would allow everyone to create react videos as they want to without having to give revenue to the Fines, but also allow the Fine Brothers to expand/licence their particular brand (without having the trademark)
I imagine they will still try to licence their shows, but on a smaller scale. Instead of trying to have a monopoly on react videos like their React World programme could have given them,
I reckon they'll reach out through different avenues to create an 'official' UK REACT, AUS REACT, etc. Like their example of America's Got Talent/Britain's Got Talent etc.
This would allow everyone to create react videos as they want to without having to give revenue to the Fines, but also allow the Fine Brothers to expand/licence their particular brand (without having the trademark)
lowhighkang_LHK
Member
They've been fucking with people for the past 5 years. They only became "big" enough to realize their mistake when they got righteously called out publicly on their monstrous bullshit.
Still can't help but feel their appology reads as if they're still blaming us for them being caught out with their shit or that we're the ones that made a mistake. It just seem like a similar tone to their Update video... might just be me though, I just woke up
That's usually what PR does. Blames the consumer in a thinly veiled apology.
chaobreaker
Member
They should have done this in the first place. It's arguably not scummy at all and gives the fans more of what they want without stomping on smaller YouTube creators who don't want to work with them. Apparently they were doing the latter anyway so I guess this wake-up call was neccesary in the end.
I dunno, they look genuinely ashamed, which while I usually never condone shaming someone to condition better behavior; sometimes it's the only thing that can illicit a response to do the right thing. Especially if it's going to directly affect people's livelihoods in varying degrees. It's much more productive to, instead of using other people in an environment solely to act on oppressing other's ability to create certain types of content, breed a healthy environment for your product to be compared favorably to the others. That's the value of competition, to the creator and consumer.
Fox Mulder
Member
I thought they'd at least try to release another kids react to dumb shit video or something first to lower the backlash.
Yeahhhh, this apology note I'm not buying into. Let the bleeding continue...
What is the status on that, did they really succede? Because that would be atrocious.
captainnapalm
Member
Not surprised they didn't make another video. In Phillip Defranco's video on this issue, he mentioned talking to them and offering them an interview on his show, but they declined, saying they've realized they're not good on camera. People were reading all kinds of ridiculous shit into their facial expressions and stuff.
King dropped Candy, they still own "saga" though.
PetriP-TNT
Member
I still don't get the "it's exploitative" part just because Fine Bros or whoever don't need to do anything (except obviously provide the branding and the recognition and whatever) to get a cut of revenues. That's pretty much how licensing works in general: you (re)invent the wheel and then just roll with it (which that video says too, but with added clause of "it's not real if it's not done professionally with standards")
One can always take the off chance of doing the exact same concept 1:1 and hope that it blows big; or you can take the "deal" and hope that it will blow big with slightly higher chances, providing that they actually help you with whatever (which the original video said they would do) and getting slightly less revenue.
Their apology was Grade A bollocks though?
Except from what I remember, their specific terms forbade you from using any of their logos, brands, advertising, anything. You were essentially paying them a toll to make a reaction video. They would take a cut. If you didn't pay, you got taken down. Because they would own the idea of react videos.
It wasn't a licensing deal. It was a shake-down operation.
PetriP-TNT
Member
That's not what the original video said: it stated that if you join their World thing they will provide you guidelines and templates and materials and whatever. Keep in mind that I did mention that taking down other reaction videos was the only shady part in my original post.
captainnapalm
Member
The Finebros deserved some criticism for some of their actions, but a lot of the criticism they did receive was way offbase and jumping to all kinds of conclusions. There was nothing unethical about the React World licencing concept, and trademarking the name of their react channel and shows was never them trying to 'trademark all reaction videos' - which is why most people hate them.
The Ellen example people raise as proof they're shady was actually Ellen doing a thing on kids reacting to typewriters just a week after they put out a video called kids react to typewriters. I still don't think they were substantially similar enough, but it's not proof they're crazy people who were now intent on going after all reaction videos.
It's also entirely possible they embarked on the trademark route precisely because they realized they couldn't do anything legally about people copying their ideas, so their only option was to trademark, and then also licence, their own shows.
crazyrabbits
Banned
It was a glorified shakedown operation. Everything is unethical about that.
Fox Mulder
Member
it's a huge flaw with how youtube is built really. They're assholes that tried to grab too much, but they're backing down due to pressure. Youtube would have presumably allowed them to keep doing it.
Liamario
Banned
Was thinking the same thing. Very misleading.
Except this was exactly the problem. What the original video "said" versus what they clarified later (and clarify is a pretty lose interpretation considering how vague their description of all this was in the first place) was completely contradictory. The video was a spinjob, meant to make it seem like they were doing the world a big favor. That's what everyone was parodying in the first place.
RumblingRosco
Member
I'm glad this is the outcome. However, I still don't trust them and will still avoid supporting their content going forward - yeah, they made a mistake, but they're so greedy and short-sighted that they only realized it was a mistake after nearly 300,000 people unsubscribed and a bunch of parody videos, forum posts, and podcasts were released further discussing how wrong the Fine bros are.
SinCityAssassin
Member
It was released over a month after that particular youtube video, but I digress.
There's nothing wrong with React World on paper, franchising their own series of shows to other parts of the world to other creators.
But the way they go about this, trademarking REACT with an incredibly broad description which, though it does not encompass all reaction videos, still leaves a lot of room to counter anything remotely similar, trying to trademark a number of other phrases like Kids vs Food or Lyrical Breakdown or TRY NOT TO LAUGH that are similarly generic and broadly described. That's what a lot of the rage and hate is about. When you compound it with their past actions against Jimmy Kimmel, Buzzfeed, Ellen, and other outlets, along with the recent whistle blowing from a former employee, it makes it sound just as bad as it looks.
Remember that this was the basic trademark description for React: “entertainment services, namely, providing an on-going series of programs and webisodes via the Internet in the field of observing and interviewing various groups of people.”
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I feel like the good faith argument goes out of the window when you start reading about how The Fine Bros operates as a company. That Reddit thread had some pretty damning stuff.
Agent Cooper
Member
They look very upset and possibly angry.
I'm sure they'll try something else when this all cools down.
I'm sure they'll try something else when this all cools down.
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