Ethan and Hila Klein vs Matt Hoss: Copyright Claim, Fair Use Lawsuit and Court Victory

The conflict began after Ethan and Hila Klein published The Big, The BOLD, The Beautiful on February 15, 2016, a nearly fourteen-minute reaction and criticism video about Matt Hosseinzadeh's 2013 skit Bold Guy vs Parkour Girl. Hosseinzadeh threatened legal action, submitted a DMCA takedown notice on April 23, 2016 and filed a federal copyright action three days later after the Kleins challenged the takedown. The Kleins publicly announced the lawsuit in We're Being Sued on May 24, prompting a Philip DeFranco defense fundraiser that ultimately recorded $170,765 and the creation of the Fair Use Protection Account. Hosseinzadeh later added DMCA misrepresentation and defamation claims and publicly defended his lawsuit. On August 23, 2017, Judge Katherine B. Forrest granted summary judgment to Ethan and Hila on all claims, holding that their specific reaction video was fair use, dismissing the counter-notice claim and ruling that the challenged lawsuit commentary was either protected opinion or substantially true. The court explicitly cautioned that it was not declaring all reaction videos fair use. Hosseinzadeh's attorney criticized the result, but no later reversal was identified. The case continued to be cited in later commentary about online reaction content, including KQED in August 2026.