JLR Files Copyright Lawsuit – An Uphill Battle Over Short Clips and Fair Use
Jonathan Lee Riches filed a pro se copyright infringement complaint on October 30, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (Case No. CV-26-10093-PHX-MBM). He sues Helen Brennan (operator of the YouTube channel Hella Excited Utterance) and her co-host Matthew Filipczuk (“Dali”).
Riches claims the defendants copied portions of two of his registered works without permission: a long CrimeCon 2026 livestream titled “JLR INVESTIGATES TRAVEL” and a shorter video called “JLR SANTA MONICA CORNDOG.” The alleged uses include roughly 47-second clips in commentary videos, a still frame of Riches eating a corndog used as a thumbnail on a video about his Tucson disorderly-conduct case, and Filipczuk’s X profile picture taken from one of the livestreams.
After Riches sent DMCA takedown notices, YouTube removed the videos. Brennan, through attorney David Helm, filed counter-notifications asserting that the uses qualify as fair use under the Copyright Act for purposes of criticism, commentary, and identification of a public figure. YouTube indicated the videos could be restored unless Riches provided evidence of a lawsuit seeking a court order to restrain the alleged infringement—this complaint is that filing.
While the registrations give Riches a foundation and the Corndog work qualifies for statutory damages, the case faces a clear uphill battle. The portions used are short, especially compared to an 11-hour livestream. Courts routinely treat limited clips and stills in reaction or commentary videos about online personalities as transformative fair use rather than substitutes for the original. The profile-picture claim is particularly thin because it shows Filipczuk himself. Pro se status, jurisdiction arguments involving an Australian defendant, and the timing of the registrations relative to the alleged uses add further practical hurdles.
In short, the lawsuit preserves Riches’s DMCA leverage for now, but the fair-use defense is well-positioned and the limited nature of the copying makes a strong outcome for the plaintiff far from guaranteed.
