The YouTube community has grown paranoid, overly protective of itself, fearful of even the smallest twitch from non-YouTube entities possibly moving into their domain. It was this mindset that caused this issue to blow up like this, the community immediately assumed that because of this franchise and the trademark they would all be hunted down by the headhunters of the Fine Brothers if they so much as said the word ‘react’ in one of their vid
eos. That is completely ludicrous. America’s Got Talent does not go around suing every show that mentions talent, getting, or America. The American legal system is not stupid, nor do they purely cater to larger corporations. The Fine Bothers 
wanted to protect their intellectual property and they have right to do so. The trademark system is not as terrifying as the community has made it out to be. Here’s some other words which are trademarked: Bubble wrap, chapstick, dumpster, memory stick, ping pong, popsicle, realtor, rollerblades, and even the word ‘yup’. Yup, that’s right, every single one of those words has a currently legally valid trademark in the United States.
I waited for about 5 minutes after I wrote that last little bit, and strangely enough, no one busted through my door and put me under federal arrest for a trademark infringement. In fact, I’m so confident that I bet if I made a YouTube video right now titled with every single one of those words and included just a video of me saying those words, still nothing would happen. And that’s because trademarks are for protection of a corporation’s intellectual property in very select situations. The truth is, if a show like America’s Got Talent doesn’t trademark its name and protect itself, someone else will. 
And when they do, they will argue in court that they legally own the rights to the name of show, demanding that the actual show compensate them for using their legal trademark. The trademark was a necessity born of the fact that human beings are not all that respectful regarding property and the principle of ownership. The business world is a cutthroat environment and companies must take all precaution to protect themselves. The Fine Brothers are simply doing the same thing. What I failed to see in any of the videos calling the Fine Brothers out was any actual, non-dystopian threat to their own content. And in this fact lies the problem. That the YouTube community has grown into a sense of self-righteousness, acting as if they are the defenders of free internet. I’ll explain why frankly this is ridiculous, and how in most cases, the concerns of the community and their demands are just downright unreasonable next time.
