Recently, a popular channel called the Fine Brothers (known as Fine Bros) on YouTube released a video explaining its new company: React World.
The brothers, Benny and Rafi Fine, are known for making reaction videos where kids, elders and teens watch something popular and share their opinion on it.
With the React World company, someone could make a video like theirs and receive part of the profits of the video. However, if you try to make a video similar to theirs on your own, they would go after you with copyright lawsuits.
Because of the outrage this caused among Internet users, the prospect of copyrighting a style of video has become an important topic. Should one be allowed to copyright their own style of video and then have legal recourse against others who create similar videos? It will become an increasingly important question in the near future as YouTube and other video sharing services continue to grow.
This is not the right way to go about things at all. One should not be able to copyright a video style.
It is not a good idea because it impedes the creativity of video creators. If this was a common practice, there would soon be only a small amount of mega-producers of content who control the field.
This same issue has caused trouble in the realm of film and other media forms but not on the Internet. Currently, anyone can post videos and have a chance for their work to be successful.
The copyrighting of video types such as reaction videos is a terrible precedent to set.
While the danger of people stealing works as their own is still an even bigger threat with the popularization of YouTube, there has to be a better way to fight this than just grabbing an entire style and holding it for yourself.