Katherine B. Forrest, the judge that's been dealing with the lawsuit filed against YouTubers Ethan And Hila Klein, has made a summary judgment siding with the Kleins after Matt Hosseinzadeh sued the couple over copyright infringement.
Matt Hosseinzadeh sued the YouTubers over a reaction video they did wherein he was the subject of mockery. The Kleins who run a channel with over 4 million subscribers tried defending themselves by blanketing the content with fair use. This provoked Matt Hoss to proceed with the Legal Battle which had been going on for a little more than a year now.
Judge's verdict
The legal battle basically questioned Ethan and Hila Klein's use of clips of Matt Hoss' video as fair use. And on the 23rd Of August, the judge ruled that it was.
The Kleins used clips from the plaintiff's video for satirical purposes. The judge argued that the Klein video only consists of critical commentary of the Hoss video. And as the Klein video is not a market substitute of the Hoss video, the defendant's use of the content is deemed as fair use before the eyes of the law.
This high profile case caught the attention of many members of the YouTube community. It perturbed many content creators on the website about how strong a case it would be to defend against copyright infringement allegations with the guard of "fair use".
So this victory isn't significant to just Ethan and Hila, but also to the rest of the community.
However, Forrest has stated that this isn't meant to be a blanket defense against all reaction videos. Reaction videos that offer no commentary whatsoever and is just a recreation of another video will face charges.
YouTube has responded with great joy
When Philip DeFranco, a fellow Youtuber, decided to open up GoFundMe page to offer support to the couple through financial means, the rest of the community responded with heartwarming solidarity. Together, they were able to raise more than $170,000.
All the money and stress expended on this case was paid off by the significant victory for the cause and favor of fair use.
Ideally, they will also be able to recover the expenses that were incurred throughout the year-long process. The vast publicity gained by the case is a measure for YouTubers to be more aware of their rights and their guidelines. This lawsuit has defined a line between what's right and wrong in a place where it's been blurred.
Smaller YouTubers don't have to fear being toyed around or threatened by bigger companies and franchises.
