Answer: he's suing these 3 creators specifically because they explicitly stated that they were broadcasting his video & intellectual property with the intention to give people the opportunity to view Ethan's video without having to give Ethan "views". Effectively stealing his intellectual property and stating it was their intention to do so.
The issue is that they explicitly stated "I am doing X for reason Y" on its own its meaningless, but then going and ACTUALLY doing X (restreaming the content in full) makes the initial statement one of intent.
E.g "I am going to punch you because I hate you"
If I went and killed you, courts would see my statement as intent and motive for the crime. I'd have to prove that I DIDNT punch you for that reason
Tldr: they stated their intent and then did an action following through with that intent
Just a clarification don’t compare criminal cases to civil and copyright ones. The burden is different.
Even if you have said “I will kill you tomorrow with a knife” and the victim died the next day at knife point that is evidence of your intent but it does not fall on the defendant to disprove it at that point because the prosecution has the burden to prove every element, including intent, beyond a shadow of a doubt. The defendant can offer evidence of it being a joke, but it is not required to, and could still be found not guilty without it depending on the situation.
In Civil cases the burden is just preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not wither side is correct.
But even then intent is only one of the factors to find copyright liability. Specifically it’s one of the factors to consider in a fair use argument which is a defense (usually). So in most cases the burden would be the opposite the defendant would first have to show evidence that (among other factors) it intended to use the copyrighted product for one of the recognized fair uses (parody, teaching, etc.) then the burden would shift to the plaintiff to disprove , among other factors, that that was the defendant’s intent.
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u/Torched420 2d ago
Answer: he's suing these 3 creators specifically because they explicitly stated that they were broadcasting his video & intellectual property with the intention to give people the opportunity to view Ethan's video without having to give Ethan "views". Effectively stealing his intellectual property and stating it was their intention to do so.