Everyone's a Critic: Copyright Considerations for YouTube and Twitch Reaction Videos (Part II)

In Part I of this blog post, I explained what a reaction video is, how it could constitute copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, and how the possible legal exception for “criticism” or “review” might apply to a reaction video. In Part II of this blog post, I further analyze this exception through both a Canadian and U.S. legal lens (no pun intended). Canadian and U.S. Perspectives on Criticism and Fair Use/Fair Dealing Support for the position that a reaction video would be “criticism” or “review” under the Copyright Act is that a reaction video has already been the subject of a high-profile U.S. court case recognizing it as criticism. In fact, the court actually went as far as to recognize a reaction video as falling under the U.S.’ similar (but not parallel) “fair use” exception for copyright infringement. In Hosseinzadeh v. Klein,[1] a 2017 decision of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the plaintiff, YouTuber Matt Hosseinzadeh (MattHossZone) sued Ethan and Hila Klein (h3h3productrions) for creating a reaction video about one of his amateur comedic short films. In the video, the Kleins recorded themselves heavily criticizing and mocking the video’s storyline and dialogue.…
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