H3H3 Wins Summary Judgment

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From Plagiarism Today:

Yesterday, much of the internet rejoiced as word came down that Ethan and Hila Klein, better known as H3H3, had emerged victorious in their lawsuit against Matt Hosseinzadeh, better known as “The Bold Guy”.

The case has been one of the most intensely-watched lawsuits in recent copyright history. Not only because it deals with issues of fair use, criticism and Youtube, but also because it pitted two of the internet’s most beloved YouTubers against an antagonist seen as trying to stifle their free speech.

. . . .

On February 15, 2016, the Kleins posted a video on YouTube entitled “The Big, the BOLD, The Beautiful” (link points to reupload). The video was a criticism of a video by Hosseinzadeh, which featured him as his character “The Bold Guy” attempting to pick up women.

The Kleins’ video featured short clips of Hosseinzadeh’s video interspersed with their reactions, criticisms and various jokes that mocked the original work.

On April 23, 2016, Hosseinzadeh filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice against the video, requesting its removal on copyright grounds. YouTube complied but the Kleins quickly responded by filing a counter-notice-requesting that YouTube restore their video. Without a lawsuit, the video would have been restored within two weeks.

Three days after that counter-notice Hosseinzadeh filed a lawsuit against the Kleins, which prompted the duo to post a video about the case entitled “We’re Being Sued.”

. . . .

[O]n May 24, 2016. Three days later, Hosseinzadeh filed an amended complaint adding defamation allegations to his lawsuit based on the content of that video.

Shortly after this, there was an outpouring of support for H3H3. This led fellow YouTuber Philip DeFranco to launch a GoFundMe in support of the Kleins, which raised more than $170,000 for their defense. That amount was then dedicated to the Fair Use Protection Account (FUPA), which was set up to protect all YouTubers, not just the Kleins, from attacks on their fair use.

. . . .

Yesterday, the judge ruled on those motions for summary judgment and sided completely with the Kleins, ruling their use to be a fair use, dismissing allegations of misrepresentation with the Kleins’ counter-notice and even dismissing Hosseinzadeh’s defamation claims.

Link to the rest at Plagiarism Today

PG says that GoFundMe and similar sites can be of great assistance in raising funds for litigation and other unexpected problems.

Unfortunately, attracting attention to a legitimate GoFundMe campaign can require either a strong public platform or a lot of work publicizing the campaign.

24 thoughts on “H3H3 Wins Summary Judgment”

  1. I be guessing ‘the bold’ had never heard of that gal that tried that with a public picture of coast erosion that just so happened to include her ‘little’ house. Prior to her doing the take-down there had been ‘4’ viewings of the picture in question, mere days after the news came out it was hundreds of thousands.

    ‘De bold’ didn’t learn from the errors of others. We wait for his next entertaining blunder.

  2. I couldn’t get through that “parody”–it wasn’t funny, it wasn’t clever, and the woman never makes any comment worth listening to, so can’t figure out why she’s there other than a “straight wife.” But glad they won. I guess. 😀

    • It’s not a parody, it’s a critique/commentary/analysis. I agree that the wife didn’t seem to contribute much. To me, she actually seemed pretty awkward and uncomfortable in front of the camera. He’d probably make better videos if he found a way to do them alone or found a better partner to banter with.

      • I am using THEIR term as showing on their youtube page for the video: Published on Aug 23, 2017
        Please enjoy our creative property, a parody of MattLossZone’s Bold Guy 🙂 This is the video we were sued for, please enjoy this re-upload.

        I don’t think it’s a parody, either, but I just used their description. I think it sucks as an analysis or humorous critique, too.

        • I didn’t notice that, though after watching (part of) the video, it doesn’t surprise me that they made that mistake.

          Unfortunately, the standards for “critique” or “analysis” on YouTube are pretty low. There are some good/entertaining ones out there, but there’s a lot of, “Can you believe this? These people are so stupid!” videos out there too.

  3. I couldn’t get too far into the video; I was mostly bored. I did think the guy had a point about the weirdness of sleeveless hoodies, though. Sleeveless means you’re willing to be exposed to the elements. Hoodies are for when you want protection from them. Dude, get a hat, don’t ruin a perfectly good hoodie 😛

      • Oh, I forgot about Arrow! I could make an exception if the hood is up to help conceal identity, and the sleeveless part is for armor and keeping extra weapons close at hand.

        But the YouTube guy was wearing a red hoodie and had nothing like that going for him 🙂

        Double-checked: there is apparently now a red-hoodie Arrow. Perhaps his evil twin or something. So you could be right …

        • Season two the red hoodie was a guy: Arsenal.
          Seasons three and four it was a gal: Speedy.

          Season five he took on four understudies; Mr Terrific, Ragman, Wild Dog, and Artemis.
          And that’s not counting Diggle, the three Canaries, and assorted one shots and crosovers.

          Five seasons and well over 100 episodes.
          And still going strong.

          Lots of hooded types.

        • I never understood the hood-as-disguise thing for superheroes. The part of your face that a hood covers is your eyes. You need your eyes to see. Why would you limit your field of vision like that, especially if your whole superhero thing is sight-related? Seems like a mask or something that covers your lower face would make a lot more sense. It’s like superheroines with long, flowing hair covering their face. Being able to see in a fight is more important than fashion. Although I’d give the show/comic a pass on this if they have the hero/heroine miss at a critical moment because of their limited vision. But just pretending that wouldn’t be a problem seriously irks my practical side.

          • If you try to look for logic in superhero costumes, you’ll go crazy.

            A long time ago, I was at a con panel with Marv Wolfman and George Perez, who were writing and drawing Teen Titans at the time. Two comments struck me about the costuming. The first was a question about how Starfire’s costume stayed on. They both laughed and one of them said “Velcro?” to more laughs and admitted there was no way it should stay on.

            Then one of the odder members of the audience went on a long, rambling question about Starfire’s life (and probably sex life; I tuned most of it out). Wolfman said, “It’s a comic book” and declined to go into the insane detail requested by the fan.

            Forget about it, Shawna. It’s comic books. 🙂

            • Haha yeah, I know, but part of me can’t help it. I don’t read a lot of modern/recent comics, but from what I’ve seen, it looks like things have been improving a little in the area of more realistic/practical costumes. Except Spider-Gwen. She wears a full-face mask *and* a hood. What?
              At least these issues are usually *somewhat* better in the live action versions. I’m really not one of those fans who demands unreasonable details, but wildly impractical costumes pull me out of the story because I can’t stop noticing how they ignore the laws of physics or other basic elements of reality. And yes, I know how that sounds when we’re talking about comics, but it’s a suspension of disbelief thing. (And that’s not even getting into the fact that most of these unrealistic costume issues are fundamentally sexist–unrealistic choices made to show off a heroine’s body to their presumed male viewer rather than making her look like a strong, competent hero who could actually fight a battle to the death without worrying if she’s going to fall out of her top at any moment.)

              • It’s a genre convention.
                Right there with the endless gun ammo in action flicks where automatic guns fire non-stop for five, ten minutes off a single clip.

                In the Nolan Batman movies they made a point about how the hood protected his head but cut down on his peripheral vision.

                The hoodie thing actually started in Smallville and not only did they wear big hoods to obscure the face, most of the crew in Clark’s posse wore sunglasses instead of masks. But that was mostly nominal because in most scenes the hood was worn back.

                https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=7jr3%2fdvl&id=211DB5B11714F9A463ABF0895A0C68C8DB5C2B91&thid=OIP.7jr3_dvluak0EylV07FyXQEsDh&q=smallville+justice+league&simid=608048219847593916&selectedIndex=1&ajaxhist=0

                In Arrow it sort of works because he works at night and never looks at the cops straight on.

                As overdone as the hoodie thing is on TV, the domino mask convention in the comics is way funnier. In the much maligned Green Lantern movie, they had Carol Ferris remind Hal that she’d seen him naked so why did he think the itty bitty mask was going to make him unrecognizable?

                Of course, Cristopher Reeve made a good case for why Supes gets away with just a wardrobe change and a pair of glasses. Especially since nobody knows Supes has another identity.

                • I think that is what Nolan was riffing off.

                  Funnier still is the rubber batsuit with nipples they stuck Clooney into. Which was a shame because he was the first actor to actually look the part.
                  Affleck is a bit better casting because he not only has the chin and can fake the gravitas but he also has the height and build. Best of all, he’s got the smirk down pat.
                  You can’t be Batman without the smirk.

                  https://tenor.com/view/batman-smirk-gif-5433532

                  I hope he stays in the role for the new trilogy.

              • I completely understand your POV here. It’s just that Superman’s Clark Kent disguise with the glasses conditioned me to assume that every superhero is wearing a magical costume. It’s the only explanation for why they work.

                I love this whole thread though 🙂

                • In the comics, yes.
                  Those magical domino masks cloud the minds of observers. Obviously Zatanna and Dr Strange run online businesses selling enchanted masks. 🙂

            • Starfire is an odd one because that character as crafted is an alien from a race that is the opposite of Vulcans: very emotional, very expressive, with no inhibitions or nudity taboo. And then, to add to the “fun” she metabolizes sunlight to drive her powers. So the more skin she bares, the longer her powers run. 😉

              In recent times they’ve toned Starfire and her costume a *lot*. Mostly because she grew really popular from the TEEN TITANS cartoons.

              In the Teen Titans comics these days she wears a very modest single piece suit.
              In the INJUSTICE video game it’s a bit less modest but no worse than many movie stars and pop singers wear in public.

              https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Za2KXKAdrw4

              We’ll have to see how they dress her when the live action TITANS series (filming in sept) hits the new DC streaming service. I suspect velcro won’t be required.

    • I have a short-sleeved hoodie. The hoodie part is to protect my hair from rain (girls, you know what I’m talking ’bout). I don’t care about cold (I’m in Miami and we get cool days but not cold). I care about not getting my hair drizzled on or soaked. 😀

  4. Oh man, I couldn’t get through that video because the video they were commenting on was so cringey. Yeah, I’m glad they won. Both because they were in the right, and because that guy is clearly a total douche. The couple weren’t as funny as they should have been, which was too bad, and they should have been snappier and not rambled so much. But I think my biggest takeaway from looking at that video is how YouTube has become an endless spiraling vortex of pointless videos and people making videos to respond to those pointless videos.

    • I kinda thought the guy who won the lawsuit is also a bit douchey. I wouldn’t sub to either one’s channel. And “reaction” videos seem to be a big thing. Most of the reactions I’ve seen are awful–neither witty or bright. Often vapid and/or vulgar.

    • Exactly, which is why the OP’s claim that “much of the internet rejoiced” is so absurd. 99% of “the internet” doesn’t even know who these people are or what they were fighting about.

      • Not until this happened anyway, for sure. Though it appears to be #3 on trending right now. Which really just proves how stupid the guy was to sue those people. Unless, I suppose, he’s one of those “any publicity is good publicity” types, though he doesn’t seem intelligent enough for that to have been an intentional strategy.

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