YouTube’s Nostalgia Critic offers an emergency crash course in fair use

Under the moniker The Nostalgia Critic, internet entertainer Doug Walker has been offering up his snarky, often sarcastic thoughts on movies through YouTube reviews for eight years, becoming a true fixture of the site with millions of views to his credit. Like many other content creators, Walker has monetized his videos and thus makes his living from his movie reviews. But, in order to review and discuss films properly, Walker occasionally needs to show brief excerpts from them. Under the doctrine of fair use, that should not be an issue. Creators have the legal right to use excerpts from copyrighted works without permission for the purposes of review, satire, parody, and education. Or, at least, that’s how it should work. But as Walker points out in a new video posted to the Channel Awesome account, certain Hollywood studios and copyright holders are unfairly targeting YouTubers, making false copyright claims and getting videos taken down and accounts deleted. YouTube parodists and critics can appeal these claims, but they often find themselves hopelessly lost in a maze of bureaucracy with little to no legal recourse.