Over the past few days, you will have obviously have heard the commotion around the Fine Brothers channels and their attempt to place licencing on their brand of "react" videos.
Whether or not they wanted to brand any sort of reaction videos of their own, we can look at the over-arching complications of popular YouTubers, especially ones with a specific style of entertainment, trying to assert some form of control over their entertainment demographics.
With channels such as PewDiePie, Jacksepticeye, and the Fine Bros, it is very hard to compete with their level of success. However, Felix nor "Jack" (not his real name), have ever tried to make licence claims on their content, and neither have they been known for being tyrannical YouTubers who file copyright complaint after complaint, even for slightly similar content.
What I want to say is, why did it take the Fine Bros so long to be criticised? For years they have been filing complaints and copyright strikes against any video or channel which has even vaguely resembled their own, effectively taking down any competition. Is this fair use of YouTube's Copyright system?
The Fine Bros have been bleeding subscribers, rightly so, for trying to assert their authority over certain brands they could never control, but we should not wait for such events to happen before we taken action and act over these kinds of predatory channels. If a certain YouTuber with a lot of influence and power is abusing that influence, we should work together as a community of entertained consumers to put an end to such aggressive discrimination and abuse of copyright and licencing systems.
Some may say the Fine Bros wanted to protect their content? Okay, that is fair, but bear in mind that they have held trademarks for their Teens, Elders, and YouTubers react shows for many years. They simply wanted to try and make a profit from anyone trying to delve into the react entertainment industry, thus rather than losing out on the competition, they share in the success of the competition.
But what do you think? Were the Fine Bros in the right? Were they in the wrong? Let us know.