The creators of one of YouTube's biggest channels have sparked fury over plans to trademark and license a popular video format. The Fine Brothers produce a popular series of "reaction videos", in which people watch online clips and respond.
On Tuesday, they revealed a scheme to let other video-makers use assets from their version of the format. But they have faced a backlash from viewers for trademarking "react" - a term widely used by other creators.
[...] In 2015, the brothers applied to trademark terms, including "Kids React", "Adults React" and "Celebrities React", as well as the word "react" itself, which could be used to form new variations of the format. On Tuesday, the brothers announced a licensing scheme called React World, which they said would let other video-makers use the "react" title and assets such as their graphics and music. But the plan was negatively received by the YouTube community because so many people already make similar reaction-based videos online, using the word "react" in the title.
[...] Since their announcement on Tuesday, the Fine Brothers have lost more than 170,000 followers from their YouTube channel. "I can't remember a channel that lost so many subscribers this quickly. At one point they were losing 10,000 an hour," said Jon.
They had over 13.9 million subscribers as of Feb 1., 19:30 UTC.
Update: YouTube stars U-turn on trademarks after online fury
Announcement video that sparked the controversy. From the description:
REACT Community Unite! REACT WORLD is a new and innovative way to license formats around the globe with no upfront cost, and our goal is to cultivate a worldwide community of creators (media companies, other production companies, and individuals) on digital media platforms around the REACT franchise. Since creating React in 2011, we've aimed for our productions to be a time capsule for future generations to look back on to understand what their parents, grandparents, or ancestors were thinking and doing during this incredible time, and by opening up the various React formats to you all around the world, we hope to grease the wheels for us to understand the world better now, to shine a light on topics and issues both large and small, and learn and appreciate one another more. We believe that together, we can build something larger than any of us can do on our own, and help change the world through reaction, opinion, and conversation.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2016, @09:16PM
I'd post my reaction to this, but my lawyer recommended against it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2016, @09:24PM
What does this "jon' know? Who is that character anyway?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2016, @10:03PM
I thought the Fine brothers worked with the Howard brothers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @12:37AM
And who the hell are the howard brothers?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday February 03 2016, @03:05AM
In this context that would be Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Curly Howard, and Shemp Howard. Also known as The Three Stooges!
nyuk! nyuk! nyuk!
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @03:09AM
Why, I outta ...
(Score: 1) by Demose on Tuesday February 02 2016, @09:30PM
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/02/fine-bros-back-down-rescind-trademark-claim-on-the-word-react/ [arstechnica.com]
However, when I initially started watching their subscriber count drop they had well over 14 million.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2016, @09:44PM
170k out of 14M is in the noise.
(Score: 1) by Demose on Tuesday February 02 2016, @10:41PM
After checking subscriber count over time, it would seam that in my mind I inflated the amount of followers they started out with. My apologies, I'm a bit reactionary.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @01:10AM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by N3Roaster on Tuesday February 02 2016, @09:54PM
The important point to note here is that many subscribers do not watch or partially watch new videos. The loss represents reaction from their active subscribers. How many of those are left is harder to guess.
Typica - Free software for coffee roasting professionals. [typica.us]
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday February 03 2016, @03:55AM
That announcement video appears to have been deleted and their sub count is down to 13.7mil.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by CortoMaltese on Tuesday February 02 2016, @09:48PM
I thought this was already posted on Soylent... may be that this was all over the interwebs recently.
Either way this seems to be a problem with the intellectual property system that's currently implemented in most of the world, instead of this two fellas who months ago insisted on appearing on my YT frontage even though I've never seen one of their videos and now probably never will.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday February 02 2016, @10:23PM
Agreed, who is still awake in the Trademark office such that common usage words can suddenly be captured for private use?
The US patent and trademark office has a 40 minute video explaining what you can and what you can't trademark, and apparently it boils down to you can trademark it as long as nobody else has beat you to it.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @06:54PM
IBM would invite you to Think (R) about that.
They also feel that a Value Pack (TM) of Rapid Financing (TM) may be unleashed on you if you don't respect their Power (R) or their POWER (R).
Be careful or they may make Notes (R) about you and you'll find yourself in a lawsuit quicker than 1-2-3 (R).
Agreed, who is still awake in the Trademark office such that common usage words can suddenly be captured for private use?
( http://www.ibm.com/legal/us/en/copytrade.shtml [ibm.com] )
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @07:08PM
IBM probably understands the real limitation of their trademarks, unlike wrong brothers, who insist they own the word now and gets youtube to drive their cause, because the people at youtube do not understand trademark any better than the wrong brothers and other idiots.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday February 02 2016, @10:58PM
Maybe next I will expect them to endorse a creative commons model and donate to the EFF. Or not, back to real life.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2016, @11:39PM
Two Jewish men named Benny and Rafi try to steal from the entertainment commons. What a surprise.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2016, @11:47PM
Funny how the "religious Christians" Like you are always so fast to try to stir up hatred against other people. You would think they would read their own religious texts and realize this is against what they claim to believe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @12:37AM
Um what makes you think that /pol/ is a religious Christian? Seems more like an amoral a$$ hat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @02:06PM
Poster never gave any indication they were a Christian. You are projecting your bias.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday February 03 2016, @06:53PM
They're gonna have a hell of a time catching up with this (allegedly) anti-semitic Christian! [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday February 03 2016, @01:08AM
A trademark can not describe the product. Otherwise, it is a generic term that competitors are free to use.
React is a verb describing the videos. The only way they could trademark it is if there are no reactions in the videos. Even then, other video producers may still be able to use the word 'react' to describe well, reaction videos, because it is a generic term.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2016, @12:29PM
A simple Youtube search will show this.