CBS issues copyright claim on YouTuber’s 38-hour ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ review
Quinton Hoover has made a name for himself by making incredibly long and introspective YouTube video essays. On his “Quinton Reviews” channel, he’s amassed an audience of over 880,000 subscribers. They are willing to sit through eight hour reviews of “iCarly” and 20 hours of “Sam and Cat,” breaking down the shows in intense detail.
But on April 4, in a slightly delayed April Fool’s Day video, Hoover broke his record. He uploaded a 38-hour video review of the once-popular (at times politically incorrect) sitcom “Beverly Hillbillies.”
Started in 1962, it’s the story of a man named Jed Clampett and his family who strike oil on their land, thus turning from broke mountaineers into multi-millionaires. Throughout nine seasons, their lack of understanding of the upper crust of culture causes hijinks to ensue.
With its final episode airing in 1971, the show isn’t exactly a property popular with today’s zillennials. So in Hoover’s review, he collaborated with his dad, Russ.
A collaboration with Dad
Russ did most of the narration and explanation of every episode in the series. In early 2022, right after the pair had started work on the scripts, Hoover’s dad was in a serious head-on collision car crash. He “nearly died more than once,” according to a post from Hoover on his YouTube community tab.
“To us, this was how we coped,” Hoover told Passionfruit. “If you can imagine spending 10 months stuck in bed trying to recover, the boredom and common isolation would become deafening. So having Dad work on scripts, and once he was home, recording, way just how he got through this.”
But Hoover’s dad had little understanding of YouTube’s incredibly complex and draconian copyright system. This led him to include full sections of the show with voice-over descriptions used as commentary. In most Quinton Reviews videos, Hoover only lets the video play with little to no audio from the show used.
Though the first season and part of the second of the Beverly Hillbillies are in the public domain, the rest of the episodes that Hoover’s dad had used were in murky copyright waters at best.
Copyright is richer than oil
The week after the YouTube video was published, CBS issued two copyright claims on parts of the video featuring public domain episodes. Hoover appealed these under the public domain.
But on April 11, CBS claimed footage from an episode in the latter half of season two, which isn’t covered in the public domain. Paramount Global Content Protection sent Hoover a sternly-worded email (which has been seen by Passionfruit).
“We disagree with your assertion that the video qualifies as fair use,” it reads. “As a resolution, we propose that you agree to withdraw your appeal, remove the video, and agree not to repost it in its current form.”
The email never outwardly expresses a legal threat. But, according to Hoover, “the energy is very much that they do not want the video up in its current form.” So rather than risk a long and difficult legal battle against a corporate giant, he decided to leave Beverly Hills. He took the video down.
“If they took us to court, it would ruin my life in one way or the other,” Hoover said. ...
Related reading:
- How to Respond to DMCA Takedown Notices When They Come
- Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About the DMCA Process, and How To Stay Safe as a Creator
- Demystifying Influencer Laws: A Legal Guide for Content Creators
This article has been updated to reflect clarifying remarks from Hoover.
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