Sassy Saints review copyright claim
On 27 September 2024, a YouTube creator — Lots of Love, Cindy — posted a video review of a nail kit made by the British company Sassy Saints, providing her opinion and experiences with the product.[1] In late January 2025, the company issued a copyright strike against the video, claiming unauthorized use of its copyrighted content, and threatened further legal action.[2]
Background
[edit | edit source]Sassy Saints is a British company offering a range of beauty kits targeting the home market, with their stated mission being "to bring salon-quality treatments right to your home".[3] Cindy purchased one of their nail manicure kits and produced a video review describing her experience with the kit. She talked about how the kit required some getting used to and provided viewers some tips on how to use the kit more effectively.[1] She had a generally positive experience with the kit until she tried to remove the nail polish, which she found very difficult, as the amount of nail polish remover included in the kit was insufficient and store-bought alternatives failed to remove the polish.[1]
Copyright claim
[edit | edit source]Sassy Saints told the creator that "unauthorized use of our copyrighted content in your video is clearly against intellectual property laws". The company described the violation as "unauthorized commercial usage of our goods and brand name without authorization", demanded that she "remove the illegal video ASAP", and warned that "such legal action, including potentially DMCA activation and enforcement, will follow violation" if she did not.[2] Cindy said she believed the review was protected as criticism and review, noting that she had filmed the entire video herself and used only a short screen recording of the company's website to show delivery costs.[2] She filed a counter-notification with YouTube, and the review video has since been restored to her channel.[2][1]
Sassy Saints' response
[edit | edit source]Sassy Saints took no further action, as evidenced by the restoration of the YouTube video on 21 February 2025.[4]
Consumer response
[edit | edit source]Louis Rossmann covered the strike in a February 2025 video titled "Sassy Saints threatens to sue fashion youtuber over review of a nail kit; do they own it or do you?", criticizing the idea that a company can control how a customer uses a product they have bought.[5] Commenters in the thread where the creator asked for guidance described the claim as a "bullying tactic" and said product reviews need to be able to show the product and its branding.[2]
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 CINDY (2024-09-27). "Sassy Saints Nail Kit - I Don't Know How To Feel". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2026-02-17. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Fine-Slice-3315 (2025-01-31). "Copyright Strike I reviewed their product?? (no freedom of speech?)". Reddit. Archived from the original on 2025-03-20. Retrieved 2025-03-20.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ "Sassy Saints". Sassy Saints. Archived from the original on 2025-03-26. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
- ↑ xinyuediaries (2025-02-21). "Sassy Saints Nail Kit - I Don't Know How To Feel". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2026-10-29. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
- ↑ Rossmann, Louis (2025-02-26). "Sassy Saints threatens to sue fashion youtuber over review of a nail kit; do they own it or do you?". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2025-02-26. Retrieved 2025-03-21.
External links
[edit | edit source]- Lots of Love, Cindy - YouTube channel