LOS ANGELES — Nothing ignites the YouTube community like a good ol' copyright infringement claim. Their latest obsession: a legal dispute between a "hated" parkour/pickup artist and a husband-and-wife team whose thing is to critique others' videos.

In this case, the pickup artist (Matt Hosseinzadeh, or MattHossZone, aka "The Bold Guy," 175,000 subscribers) says Ethan and Hila Klein (aka H3H3 Productions, 2 million subscribers across two channels) used too much footage from one of his "Bold Guy" videos in their takedown.

Now, not only are lawyers involved, but Team Internet is taking sides, too. And it's not just because they're no fans of "The Bold Guy" — they believe fair use across the YouTube universe is at stake.

Since the Kleins announced that they were being sued (see the video, above), thousands have donated more than $166,000 to a GoFundMe campaign — created by outspoken YouTuber Philip DeFranco — to H3H3's cause.

The duo didn't respond to Mashable's interview requests, but they've been posting their gratitude online.





Hosseinzadeh, a 38-year-old from Sherman Oaks, California, told Mashable in an email interview that he took legal action after he noticed the video back in March.

"Initially I emailed the Kleins to ask them to remove my content from their video," he said in an email. "They rejected my request and told me to contact their lawyer if I don’t like it. I had to then hire a lawyer to continue the conversation. The Kleins have circulated this story where my lawyer appears out of the blue making demands, but that simply was not the sequence of events."

Hosseinzadeh maintains his copyright claim, arguing that the Kleins 13-minute comedy segment "used a majority" of his work, including the original music, dialogue and the choreography.

"You can essentially watch my film by watching their video," he said. "That frustrates the entire point of copyright. Critiquing or commenting on a film should not, and almost always does not, use virtually the entire work."

The YouTuber filed the lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court last month, but news of the suit only became public knowledge after H3H3 informed their 2 million subscribers on their two channels.

The duo, who have been uploading videos for the last three years, have published more than 300 comedy videos, and bring in about $6,000 a month in crowd-funded donations in addition to their YouTube revenue. They argue that the lawsuit would burden them financially, but could also set a poor precedent in the video sharing community when it comes to copyright claims.

According to the lawsuit, the Klein's controversial video was removed from their YouTube page after their counterclaim was denied because of pending litigation.

'The most hated guy on the Internet'

But Team Internet has already cast MattHossZone as their villain.

One Imgur user even called him "the most hated guy on the Internet."

Image: imgur

Others have poked fun at him (or called him far worse insults) on Twitter.

Matt Hoss aka Bold Guy is a total jerk for suing h3h3. As if you couldn't tell from watching his stupid videos. #MattHossZone #sleazebag — Eric Lightman (@Elightman) May 25, 2016

Hosseinzadeh was taken aback by all the backlash, particularly what he views as skewed media coverage.

"They are saying I sued the Kleins because they criticized me which couldn’t be further from the truth," he said. "I’ve been harshly criticized for years, it’s part of the business, for me, This lawsuit is strictly about the unauthorized, excessive use of my work ...The Kleins aren’t fighting for fair use, they’re fighting for themselves."

"The Kleins aren’t fighting for fair use, they’re fighting for themselves."

Hosseinzadeh's lawyer, Tim Bukher, said the Internet has wrongfully turned him into a bully.

"He has not received any outreach for his side of the story which has been distorted by the only side that the news media has bothered to consult," Bukher said.

Why Team Internet cares

But why exactly are YouTubers so heated over this seemingly minor lawsuit?

Because fair use has arguably become the hot button issue among YouTubers, especially in the last year. Many feel YouTube has a broken copyright system, because it legally protects itself but puts users at risk.

SEE ALSO: YouTube wants to make it easier for creators to make money while fighting copyright claims

Just a few months ago, The Fine Brothers learned this lesson the hard way after announcing they were going to trademark their "react" reaction videos. The Internet lost its collective mind, and the Fine Bros. lost 2 million subscribers.

As a result, the creative duo apologized — and discontinued the program.

YouTube has its own content detection system known as Content ID, which helps rights holders to identify content that is comprised partially or entirely of their intellectual property and manage or monetize it. But complaints over how YouTube handles copyright as a whole have become increasingly common, and YouTube says it's been working to improve its support system.

In November, YouTube pledged financial and legal resources to help combat unwarranted copyright claims and takedown notices. In April, YouTube also announced it will roll out a new system that will help creators earn revenue even as a Content ID claim is being disputed.

"We strongly believe in fair use and believe that this improvement to Content ID will make a real difference," YouTube said in a recent blog post. "We're also paying close attention to creators’ concerns about copyright claims on videos they believe may be fair use. We want to help both the YouTube community and copyright owners alike better understand what fair use looks like online."

YouTube did not respond to request for comment on the H3H3 and MattHoss case.

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