ABC Rips Idea from Web Creators, The Fine Bros

Posted on: February 6, 2009
5 comments so far (is that a lot?)

Hey guys, here is story that concerns the entire online video community. Benny and Rafi Fine (The Fine Bros), who I met through John and Doug from TheMovieBlog, and talked to a couple nights ago at the TubeFilter Hollywood Web TV meeting, have been doing LOST spoofs with action figures for over a year now.

They have gotten over 4.5 million views on their videos. Now ABC, has started their own series called “Lost Untangled” that mimics the same use of figures, over exaggerated voices, and overall similar tone and feel.

The problem is that LOST is owned by ABC, and The Fine Bros were spoofing it, which is totally legal, however they probably have no legal recourse in ABC stealing the idea of what they were doing.

My question is, why didn’t ABC reach out to the Fine Bros, and pay them to create ones for the ABC?

You can see the Fine Bros Lost spoof videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=82EDD56A0B1F6BAA

You can see an ABC’s Lost Untangled video here:

The Fine Bros Blog
http://www.ravenstake.com/blog/2009/02/06/lost-untangled-tangles-up-the-fine-brothers-and-all-web-creators/

TubeFilter News Article
http://news.tubefilter.tv/2009/02/06/did-abcs-lost-untangled-rip-off-the-fine-bros/

Let me know what you guys think of this, and please pass this on to anyone you know that watches LOST or works in online video space.

- Dennis

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13085 Responses2009-02-06+20%3A31%3A56Dennis to “ABC Rips Idea from Web Creators, The Fine Bros”

LiveWire Says:
February 6th, 2009 at 2:08 PM
ABC didn’t steal shit.
Dennis Says:
February 6th, 2009 at 2:14 PM
What are you talking about? The idea was totally taken from theirs.

Do the Fine Bros have any legal rights to it? No.
Can they sue? No.

It’s an ethics thing, as opposed to legal thing.

But where do you think they got the idea? It’s not like its a random video on Youtube, it’s a whole series that was featured several times on Youtubes front page and has millions of views for over a year.
LL Says:
February 11th, 2009 at 6:35 PM
Do we know that ABC and/or the producers of LOST didn’t reach out to the Fine Bros. first? My guess is that even if they did, there were a couple of deal breakers such as controlling rights and most importantly money. How much to pay them, percentage of ad dollars (if it is on the ABC website or the Fine’s site), etc. I’m going to be slightly dissappointed when I watch these things now…but I will probably still watch them. At least I’ll know who the originators of the idea are.
Dennis Says:
February 11th, 2009 at 6:50 PM
Nope, ABC did not contact them. They probably could have paid them a fee to make the videos and promote it, and I’m sure The Fine Bros would be happy to do it and would have done a better job. I think ABC wanted to control it themselves and didn’t want pay outside people.

Legally, there’s nothing wrong with that. Ethically, I think its a smack in the face to them.
monty Says:
February 15th, 2009 at 1:48 AM
I didn’t even know who the Fine Bros. were before this came up. So, one, this is a huge PR boost for them.

Two, they use figures that are licensed by ABC. They are taking other people’s creations and using them. It’s funny, sure. But for them to cry over ABC doing their version of this, is ridiculous. Should the Lost producers and writers be pissed? They created the characters!

The Fine Bros have used other people’s ideas to get noticed. All ABC is trying to do is help viewers understand what’s going on in the show.

This is all ridiculous.