On Fallon and the Ownership of Ideas
Added 2017-04-30 15:24:41 +0000 UTC
Hello +$5 patrons,
Your content for this month is a thought-piece I’ve wanted to write to you all for a few weeks now.
As many of you know, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon recently did a segment with Anne Hathaway called “Google Translate Songs.” Audience, friends, and family alike were indignant about the fact that the format seemed suspiciously close to my own. Some people even wanted me to be more publcly angry about the whole situation.
So I figured I would not only share with you all my thoughts on the matter, but also my observations on “ideas” on the internet and internet culture.
I don’t own the idea of translating song lyrics in Google Translate. I got the idea from my friends when they did it with poetry and apparently some people had done it to song lyrics before me on YouTube as well, mostly with the computerized voice of Google Translate. But no one had made it their brand. Due to the circumstances of starting with a viral video I sort of had that brand placed on me immediately. But the idea is not my intellectual property.
In fact, most if not all ideas and formats aren’t owned on YouTube. Many would argue they shouldn’t be. If you all remember, the Fine Brothers at one point tried to trademark “react” and the reaction video format, which technically they had pioneered. The backlash was so severe that they rescinded their TM application immediately. The idea they’d come up with had become so much bigger than them. Just as the idea of telling people how to do makeup is bigger than Michelle Phan, or the format of one dude singing a whole bunch of parts in a song a cappella in different frames on a screen is bigger than Mike Tompkins. These are formats, sub genres, ideas, that aren’t owned by anyone because ideas like these inspire other creators and keeps the YouTube ecosystem healthy.
Does that open up the door for people who are way bigger than an average YouTube creator like Jimmy Fallon to also do what we do? Yes it does. Jimmy’s team, legally, was stealing from no one when they did that segment. Nor when they copied internet born ideas like the Newly Friend Game, the Whisper Challenge, the Star Wars a cappella video, etc. No legal credit for any of those ideas is due anywhere. It’s YouTube culture that holds them accountable.
That’s why the comments section of Fallon’s video made me particularly happy. By the “laws” of YouTube culture was it rather obnoxious that they used my brand for a segment and literally changed one letter to make their title? Yep. But TV executives couldn’t care less about good will with people on the internet or the creators. They’re still going to get millions of views at the end of the day. **Side note if they actually use one of my videos, like John Oliver did, they do have to contact me and get my permission and compensate me, which Oliver’s team did and they were super awesome about it. That’s how TV should interact with creators.
Ultimately I was able to look on the bright side. I saw a nice increase awareness of my own brand and a nice subscriber bump from the whole event. My channel is forever algorithmically associated with the words Google Translate so any time anyone makes a video that uses what has become my brand I come up in suggestions. That’s part of how the algorithm and YouTube audiences attribute ideas to certain creators. So if Jimmy Fallon wants to make what I do “mainstream,” then I can’t be too mad about it! :)
I just have to keep doing what I do and making better and better content. That’s the best response. And if he does it again…try to trend #GetMalindaOnFallon ;)
Thank you all so much for your thoughts on Twitter and elsewhere. I am so grateful for your support and I can’t wait to show you the videos I’m working on right now. We’re taking things to the next level!!
Peace, xxMKR
Comments
Some great thoughts on the intellectual property here. You can either get bogged down in the legalities, which will add stress to your life, even if you are in the right. Or you accept the situation for what it is, and go forward with smile, and keep supporting and improving your creativity. Granted, it becomes much more personal when it affects your livelihood, but you have to pick what battles you really want to fight. In the end, it comes down to your integrity and ethics. In your case, Malinda, you have a strong following and support base, and your actions and response to this issue just reinforce our beliefs in the values and integrity you have. So much so, that your supporters will stand up for you even when you may not expect them to. That speaks volumes.
Bill Karle
2017-05-01 03:38:55 +0000 UTCIn a "who found it first" world, Edison would not have been credited with the invention of the light bulb. We mistakenly give him credit because he was the one to find that a tungsten filament would not burn out. Maybe you, Malinda, did not create the idea of using Google translations, but I think many people would agree with me (I hope) that you were the one that made it work - you are the tungsten filament to our light bulbs. Your charm and class are what illuminate GTS, and what we all enjoy about it. Having seen the segment, I found Anne Hatheway to be a far, disappointing cry from our dear Malinda! Your expressions and performances are magnitudes beyond what was presented in that segment. There are many talented people out there, but to me GTS truly belongs to you, and no one - absolutely no one - could follow quite correctly in your footsteps. Thank you, Malinda, for sharing such fun and joyous beauty. Thank you for sharing such talent and humor with us all. Thank you for showing us all that life (particularly on the internet) is not to be taken quite so seriously, and more than anything else, thank you for sharing yourself with us!
Wenton L. Davis
2017-05-01 02:01:26 +0000 UTCWhen I call Jimmy out, I never say what he, and his team did was illegal, because it probably wasn't. I compare this to when Ellen de Generes made sort of a Kids react, in the beginning of the Fine Brothers era. Back then they had the moral high-ground as YouTubers opposing the big production company behind Ellen, but later, during the "React World Scandal" they had lost their moral high ground because their aim to licence the content to smaller YouTubers. Internet loves the underdog. Also the Jimmy-fallons on YouTube are sort of a threat to the armatures. (No offense). We armature content creators can't compete with the production resources they have. And as they move in to the YouTube platform, they take a big piece of the cake , leaving the rest of us sharing a smaller piece of the cake. My rants over, it is far to late to type in English, so I fear I make just as little sense as if I were typing in Swedish and Google Translated it. But I'll keeep up the fight to make #GetMalindaOnFallon trending
Stefan "MaskinJunior" Ivarsson
2017-04-30 22:01:39 +0000 UTCI wish there were more level-headed people like you in the world. :)
Petr Lizunov
2017-04-30 21:04:35 +0000 UTCThis is definitely a fascinating perspective, thank you for sharing!
Malinda Kathleen Reese
2017-04-30 19:57:23 +0000 UTCI suppose I have a somewhat more extreme view of intellectual property, but I think we share aspects of how we think of it. I actually do not believe intellectual property is anything more than a legal fiction, and is only put in place because certain people think society would work better with it. I consider the ideas concerned to instead be inherent, emergent properties of the universe, and artists such as yourself to be discoverers, similar to how a scientist would discover a biological property of a plant, or a new aspect of physics. As such, I believe that one very negative aspect is that the first discoverer of a property can claim it for themselves (for a limited period of time) and through that legal mechanism completely stop anyone else from doing anything at all with it. I believe such a circumstance is actually detrimental to our cultural advancement. I place plenty of importance on discovery, as an undiscovered property is absolutely useless to anyone who'd actually want to work with it, and this discovery process is one that can take serious, long term effort, which is worthy of reward. But equally important are the people who receive the discovery and run with it. As you have done, you've taken this concept and created an entire series out of it, and both have and will continue to meld this idea in brand new ways with undoubtedly all manner of music. I am actually reminded of the (rather explicitly illegal) example of our own movie industry. Thomas Edison was the original patent owner of film equipment, and as such owned the rights to control all film industry in this country. The founders of the Hollywood studios specifically moved here to circumvent his control (as his lawyers were all very far away in New Jersey) and produce movies according to their own wishes. We would not have a film industry save for people taking an idea they did not explicitly own and absolutely running with it. ..apologies for the rant. My point was that I very much appreciate your viewpoint, and hope *you* continue to take this concept and run with it.
Marlo Delfin Gonzales
2017-04-30 19:51:24 +0000 UTCVery well said, and a very reasonable approach and outlook on this, Malinda! Perspective is important, even these days when instant rage for one's "tribe" seems to be the norm. Thank you!
Steve
2017-04-30 15:50:47 +0000 UTC
