Good morning. Last year's “deinfluencing” TikTok trend has officially been upcycled to “underconsumption core,” a trend all about sharing the ways you resist buying new things and live frugally (see: making dry shampoo from scratch). The real question here, though: Can underconsumption core stand up against the back-to-school industrial complex? Time will tell.

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

Coffeezilla Raises Money for Logan Paul Lawsuit

Stephen Findeisen, aka Coffeezilla, announced yesterday that he’s raising money through Patreon and a merch drop to cover fees in his legal battle with Logan Paul.

Catch up: Two months ago, Paul filed a defamation lawsuit against Findeisen after Findeisen called for Paul to refund investors of his CryptoZoo bitcoin game earlier this year. Findeisen also released a series of videos calling Paul’s CryptoZoo a “scam.”

Findeisen said in a video that the lawsuit was filed hours before he was about to release an exposé on another one of Paul’s crypto projects called Liquid Marketplace. 

Which brings us to now: Findeisen said his media insurance doesn’t cover defamation—which means it won’t cover these legal fees.

Tyler Chou, an attorney to YouTube creators, told us Findeisen will likely need coverage for upwards of $500,000 in legal fees.

What creators are saying: Law creators like LegalEagle and Chou are largely in support of Findeisen.

• “Two people can draw different conclusions from the same facts and that doesn’t qualify as defamation,” LegalEagle said in a video. 

• “I think [Findeisen] has a strong first amendment case here,” Chou said. 

Looking ahead: Chou told us the lawsuit sets a precedent for future defamation claims against creators. 

“I bet you creators like Phil DeFranco and MoistCr1TiKal are checking their media insurance policies right now and they’re going to be a little careful,” Chou said. “There’s a line you might cross in proving ‘do you know that to be true’ and I think creators will be more careful when speaking.”

“But for Coffezilla, this is a David vs. Goliath situation,” Chou added. “Logan Paul has a deep war chest he can use against Coffeezilla right now, and if they go all the way through trial, there will be tons of legal fees.”

Podcasters Earned $350M on Patreon in 2023

Podcast creators on Patreon earned a collective $350 million through the platform in 2023 by selling direct memberships and digital products, Patreon announced last week.

Context: Patreon has invested heavily in podcasting, which is its second-largest content category.

• The platform launched a Spotify integration last year that allows creators to upload exclusive paywalled episodes to the audio streaming platform (and gain discoverability with Spotify’s 626 million users).

• Patreon said 40,000 audio creators now earn an income on the platform.

Yes, but: “I can't tell...is $350 million from Patreon for an entire industry good?” Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw tweeted.

Zoom out: The podcast advertising market is expected to pass $4 billion this year, according to online database Statista.

Nvidia Leaks Show Company Used Videos from Top Creators

Email leaks from employees at tech powerhouse Nvidia showed that the company scraped videos from specific YouTube creators such as MKBHD and Binging With Babish to train its AI models without the creators’ permission, according to a new report from 404 Media.

Nvidia executives reportedly signed off on this strategy—which downloads 80 years’ worth of online video every day.

The creator response? Frustration. “Cool cool cool cool cool cool now leaked NVIDIA Slack messages discussing which YouTube channels to scrape videos from. MKBHD videos? Yeah grab those too,” MKBHD tweeted.

🔥 Press Worthy

• YouTube is letting creators appeal suspensions and demonetization.

• Warner Bros and Fandango are selling movie tickets directly in Roblox.

• Jake Paul raises $14 million for his body care brand W with investment from Paris Hilton and Naomi Osaka.

• Brian Jordan Alvarez releases the first trailer for his new FX show English Teacher.

• The NFL partners with creators and esports company GameSquare to launch in-season livestream series “NFL 4 THE FANS LIVE."

• IShowSpeed faces a temporary YouTube ban after jumping over a car on stream.

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