Josh Floyd started his YouTube channel “Recap & Chill” three years ago, but turned his hobby into a full-time job and business in 2021 after determining he could make more money from the channel than from his previous job. As of May 31, 2022, the Recap & Chill channel had over 26,000 subscribers.  

Josh’s content consists of TV show and movie recaps that are targeted towards an audience looking to catch up on previous TV show seasons or movies before watching the next season or the newest movie release. For example, his videos include season recaps of popular shows such as Ozark, Bridgerton, Euphoria, and Better Call Saul.  In Josh’s video Must Watch Before MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, he does a voice-over to a collage of short clips from Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Spiderman: No Way Home, and WandaVision that summaries the storylines of those movies and show so that people planning to watch the new movie Multiverse of Madness can get a quick refresher instead of going into the new movie feeling lost.  In Josh’s most popular video Must Watch Before NO TIME TO DIE, he followed a similar format and covered the most pivotal points from previous movies Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre.  Commenters on his videos are appreciative of Josh’s content, often noting that after watching his videos they feel ready to watch the next season or newest sequel.  

Josh’s dream job was to actually make tv shows or movies, but through YouTube he found a platform where he can get paid to talk about movies and tv shows.  Going forward he hopes to diversify his content past recaps and incorporate more reviews and essays.  Eventually he would love to grow his brand, become a critic, and get invited to press screenings while being part of the North Carolina Film Critic Association.   

Josh uses the copyrighted works of others in his videos.  He is permitted to do so if his use is considered “fair use” under the law.  There are four primary factors set forth in the Copyright Act in Section 107 that are considered to determine whether a use is fair use:

• character of the use - whether it is transformative, commercial in nature, or for nonprofit educational purposes

• nature of the copyrighted work 

• amount and substantiality of the copyrighted work used 

• effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work

When considering Josh’s videos, a key fair use factor is the amount and substantiality of the portion of the copyrighted work he uses.  In cases where a person uses long, uninterrupted portions of the copyrighted work, it is much more likely that it will be considered copyright infringement compared to using smaller clips.  Josh uses small portions of entire seasons of television shows to create his videos, and he also does not include the audio from the clips he uses.

Another key factor is if there is market harm.  There can be some circumstances where the owner of the copyrighted work argues that someone using their original work competes with their own original work because it acts as a substitute.  In the consideration of recap style channels, their viewers have most likely already seen the original work and are not diverting gains from the original. On the contrary, the production studios may be more likely to benefit from these videos because it gets the viewers prepared for the next installment.   

Throughout his career on YouTube, Josh has encountered a few issues with copyright and has developed opinions on YouTube’s policies.  We asked Josh about his experiences dealing with copyright law, DMCA issues, and YouTube’s Content ID system:

YouTubers try to abide by the rules of fair use in order to use material that is protected by copyright without permission.  Josh’s issues have been limited because of the way he formats his content and he has not had any copyright strikes against his channel.