Judge’s First Take Favors Denims—But Will It Survive the Recut? | Copyright Lately

Tentative reactions to a tentative ruling: court’s draft order would hand Twitch streamer Denims a fair use win in Ethan Klein’s reaction-video lawsuit, but the analysis it skipped could matter later. There’s a tentative ruling out in Ted Entertainment v. Saber, and if it sticks, Ethan Klein will lose a fair use fight on the strength of the very reaction-video precedent he helped create as a defendant. Klein’s company, Ted Entertainment (TEI), sued Twitch streamer Denims last June over her four-hour livestream reaction to his Content Nuke documentary, calling it a watch party designed to siphon views from the original. In my coverage of Denims’ motion for judgment on the pleadings last month, I predicted Judge Wesley Hsu would deny her early fair use bid and send the case to discovery. Instead, his draft ruling, released ahead of last Friday’s hearing on the motion, found the stream fair use as a matter of law (read it here). Three of the four fair use factors broke for the defense. Judge Hsu heard forty minutes of attorney argument, then took the matter under submission. And while Denims’ corner of the internet is already measuring her for a crown, no final order has
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