The Dumbest Lawsuit in Flash Game History

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Today we dive into the story of Xiao Xiao, an animated stick figure series that became the topic of discussion online after its creator sued Nike over copyright infringement, which eventually stirred the question: can you really copyright a stick man?
Patreon: / slow_start
Second Channel: / @slow_start2
Notable Sources:
www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl...
www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/...
web.archive.org/web/200511220...
dbpedia.org:8891/page/Zhu_Zhiq...
www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/...
Music:
Happy-Go-Lively - Laurie Johnson
Cool Vibes - Kevin Macleod
Miitomo Shop - Miitomo Music
Jazz Ass - Shifty
Casino Background Music - Music for Video Library
Corduroy and Cheese - Piotr Pacyna
Casino Jazz - Pink Banana
Water Township Song (Bamboo Flute) - Nice Chinese Music
Fight Like Hell - White Bat Audio
Curious Notion - Terry Devine-King
Sport Racing Metal - Infraction
Covert Affair - Kevin Macleod
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:55 - The Impact of Flash
2:02 - The Stick Figure
3:11 - Stick Figures & Violence
5:04 - Enter Xiao Xiao
7:27 - The Mystery of Zhu
8:09 - The Rise of Xiao Xiao
9:29 - The Nike Commercials
11:00 - Pursuing Legal Action
12:09 - Taking Nike to Court
14:00 - Chinese Copyright Laws
15:19 - The Court's First Verdict
16:46 - Nike's Appeal
17:44 - Analyzing the Lawsuit
18:34 - Zhu's Disappearance
19:00 - Conclusion

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Опубликовано:

8 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 248

@slow_start Год назад

Thanks for watching guys. You can grab Atlas VPN for just $1.83/mo + 3 months extra before the deal expires: get.atlasvpn.com/slowstart 👍

@slyceth Год назад

bro you blasting me with teh 4k

@Stettafire 8 месяцев назад

ScamVPN

@CatFish107 5 месяцев назад

No, try making money some other way.

@NovaCosmo Год назад

Ngl I'd watch a whole video on flash games in general, how the community took off and how they evolved into the modern indie/mobile game industry. There's definitely an interesting nostalgia deep dive and cultural history to explore there.

@slow_start Год назад

Agreed!

@gracekim25 11 месяцев назад

Ooo yeah I’d love to learn how it started. There’s a lot i don’t know 😅

@Marci124 5 месяцев назад

It would be hard to make such a video and not have it be 85% about Newgrounds. Its history is also a video in itself.

@thatsHECKAtight 4 месяца назад

You’re in luck because someone recently did just that. “The history of flash games” or something like that. Worth a watch

@ApostateOfMind42 Год назад

As a retro computing dude, I appreciate your gratuitous use of that wonderful Viewsonic monitor. Once again, you knocked it out of the park with the video. I do like seeing your face more in the narration, it brings more personality to the video. The small comedic bits are a wonderful addition. Bravo again slowstart.

@slow_start Год назад

Thank you so much, as always, Apostate ;) So glad you're enjoying the small changes I've made to my format as well!

@illegalopinions4082 26 дней назад

I only recently found out that they still produce monitors lol

@bamdadkhan 9 месяцев назад

the most disturbing part of this video is that now you even have to censure stick figure gore..

@MrJans3n Год назад

I'd be a very different person if I didn't grow up with Flash content. ESPECIALLY the stick stuff.

@sleepykong8316 11 месяцев назад

Dude!!! How does this channel only have 50K, this stuff is great! Keep up the good work dude it will absolutely pay off!!!

@JimDeFran Год назад

I used to browse sites like Newgrounds and AlbinoBlackSheep when I was way too young to be doing so. I remember seeing Xiao Xiao 3 for the first time when I was like 5 years old (I don't remember if I found it myself or if my older sister showed me). I was entranced by that short. I watched it all the time and I became a huge fan of the series and stick-figure content in general. Never knew about the lawsuit but then again, I was so young it would have just went over my head. It's really too bad to hear that the creator of a very special series from my childhood was actually a huge dick haha.

@CocoHutzpah Год назад

I miss the creativity of those days. I would never trade the speed and reliability of the internet today compared to 2000, but I'd definitely trade today's content for yesterday's art.

@ApolloVIIIYouAreGoForTLI Год назад

I think the funniest part of this video is theres actually such a thing as Chinese copyright law...

@JR1ckDoodles Год назад

LETS GOOOOOOOOO

@CTGReviews 11 месяцев назад

@@JR1ckDoodleswtf

@swisserty 9 месяцев назад

? Sound racist bro

@CTGReviews 9 месяцев назад

@@swisserty it isn’t racist it’s just joking about the fact that there are a ton of Chinese bootleg stuff that usually never gets caught by the law

@JR1ckDoodles 9 месяцев назад

@@CTGReviews Yea, I just feel like Chinese companies get away with copyright infringement the most.

@MarcusGronkowski Год назад

Wasn’t this video already uploaded? I remember watching it on this channel a few months ago

@gamorean4903 Год назад

It’s a remaster

@slow_start Год назад

Almost completely rewritten with over 10 minutes of new information and context!

@jovishark 9 месяцев назад

this is the greatest video detailing flash importance ive ever seen, and not just because it includes clips of games and things that I ENGAGED WITH personally. my nostalgia aside. youve somehow found a way to make a video essay that isnt boring or obnoxious, and youve found a billion perfect clips and screencaps that show off the best and worst parts of these eras. i love your style so much!

@slow_start 9 месяцев назад

Thank you so much for this wonderful comment! It's really heartwarming to hear, as I loved covering this story so much but it is one of my lesser known videos. Appreciate ya!

@Limes935 Год назад

Hey, I think you are making some great videos and I am really enjoying your content. One small thing I think you could change, however, would be the volume of the sound effects you use. Right now they can be a bit distracting and I think turning them down to 75% or even 50% would be a nice touch. Otherwise I think you are doing great and your channel is definitely going in the right direction.

@slow_start Год назад

Definitely noted! Thank you for the feedback!

@AlejandroFerrariMc Год назад

0:15 that self-reference got me LOL I'm so glad I found this channel, filled with interesting stories and accompanied with your superb narrating skills. 5/8 would watch again.

@gracekim25 Год назад

Ah I miss flash games….the only stickman game I’ve played is um Henry stickmin😂

@slow_start Год назад

That's a goodie!

@In.New.York.I.Milly.Rock. Год назад

Bro really looked at his old content and was like "I can do better". Chad energy.

@hbcreates8355 Год назад

even though the last video was great, this one certinatly shoes vast improvement and such. 10/10

@slow_start Год назад

LOL. You're too kind man, glad to see you've stuck around :')

@slow_start Год назад

@@hbcreates8355 I strive to keep improving, so thank you for saying that!

@purplehaze2358 Год назад

Imagine trying to sue a major company over the use of a doodle archetype that literal children draw while bored.

@FlymanMS Год назад

Based ikr

@SnoFitzroy 6 месяцев назад

so did you like, ignore Zhu's argument completely?

@darknes4150 5 месяцев назад

@@SnoFitzroy the argument of "no guys im really popular on the internet trust me" hes a hack

@htpkey 5 месяцев назад

@TwoPairSA 15 дней назад

Zhu disappearing is the weird part for me. Like, I'm not surprised he stopped making Xiao Xiao. After the lawsuit (well, the second one) he knew that his "character" (that he thought of as his) was able to be monetized, but not _just_ by him. However I am surprised by his total disappearance, I would've figured he would have just made a character a little more detailed (and copyright-enforceable) and gone back to doing the same big fight style of video. I sure hope the dude wasn't so demoralized by the loss that he just quit art altogether. That'd be a bummer.

@15MUGEN Год назад

I'm glad you use that shifty song so often, I've liked it for a long time

@slow_start Год назад

I'm glad you don't find it annoying! I try to sneak DnB into videos wherever I can get away with it ;)

@dan_loeb Год назад

my understanding was that xaio xaio meant short short or to say, a very short animated short film.

@chairshoe81 Год назад

this is truly the lawsuit of flash game history

@jimh781 7 месяцев назад

Fun fact, part of my online monikers, Etrius, comes from a Stick Page animation called the Castle Series, probably the most lore rich and thrilling narrative I found, idk if its ever been ported so it may be lost with flash.

@MrMiller27 Год назад

Funny, I was hoping to see a new video when I looked on here today and lucky me haha 🙏🏻 can’t wait dude.

@Vaniity_Velvet 9 месяцев назад

Copy-Right laws in China exist* But they exist almost exclusively at the betterment of Chinese People. Implying it's never actually fair. In the rest of the entire world this entire case would have been thrown out for how stupid it is, but Zhu is a Chinese Man suing a Western Company in China. This exact same case has played out hundreds if not thousands of times over the last 30 years in China and most of the time they are just as idiotic and somehow the person with no real case at all wins.

@ALE199-ita 5 месяцев назад

the reason is simple, China has removed the individual from the collective, there is no "Person in China", China views the people as part of the nation, if the people do well, china does well, if the people get humiliated, china gets humiliated. America and litterly most nations in the world have the individual and the state seperate, if an American does something stupid like scam millions with fake blood testing invetion, nobody will look at america as "The nation that allowed that to happend" more like "This person who happends to be american, did that horrible thing" in China if someone does something bad, let's just say that either china sides with you or makes you disappear before you cause china public image to take an hit. so in the first case it was very much skewed to Zhu, he's chinise, he made something popular in china, saying "Oh yeah this lawsuit is stupid" makes whole of china looks stupid as resault so they had the sham trial to claim "No, it's the dirty capitalist westernern that steal from us proud chinise, they must apologize!" unfortunatly with the second trial that they thought they'd win again, they forgot that US lawyers are not stupid and the second time around they played China game and china well they just couldn't win no matter how sham the trial was.

@kaitlyn__L Год назад

That angry Nike-mouthed smiley is utter perfection

@JLFB4316 9 месяцев назад

13:48 Attacked his life points directly LOL

Год назад

"i guess some things never change" indeed lol

@bebussound7991 Год назад

Another upload lets go! This channel is going places

@slow_start Год назад

Thank you dude!

@ebanksstudios Год назад

I was expecting this to be the other way around

@sirmateo75 Год назад

Nick, you have incredible comedic timing and your videos are professionally done. Well done, amigo. I subscribed and look forward to future videos. Cheers! 👍

@slow_start Год назад

Thank you Matthew for taking the time to send such a kind comment! This kind of feedback keeps me inspired to push my content further. Much appreciated!

@prestoyobesto Год назад

Your videos are amazing. Super high quality and entertaining. I hope you succeed and keep growing fast. (fast start)

@slow_start Год назад

Thank you so much!

@JDVR69 Год назад

Another great video. Loved it!!

@lostinthemasses Год назад

Holy shit dude, I used to watch all the stickdeath videos back in 97-99.

@eliotguerin192 7 месяцев назад

Stick figure death theater is a deep memory from my childhood, and I’m so happy you dug it up! 😂 My dad actually showed me the site at first. He was 43 and I was 8 but it was right up my alley

@rodrigomarcondes5857 28 дней назад

Who else remembers an old gif where a stick man figure would try to open a door by throwing bigger and bigger attacks at it? I remember it was everywhere back then

@averagewhiteguy2 Год назад

I'm glad the appeal went through. Chinese copyright law is notorious for looking the other way when their own people steal intellectual property from others, but is very, VERY strict against non-Chinese nationals.

@FlymanMS Год назад

Well duh, it’s Chinese law afterall

@averagewhiteguy2 Год назад

@@FlymanMS What first world countries do you know of that hardly ever prosecute their own people for copyright infringement, but go out of their way to prosecute other people for it?

@conorfromouterspace Год назад

@@averagewhiteguy2 idk but it's based

@averagewhiteguy2 Год назад

@@conorfromouterspace I would agree, but I hate the Chinese, so I won't call it based.

@LucMantique 9 месяцев назад

@@averagewhiteguy2 White people always get their way while people of color are oppressed and stolen of their creative property.

@fgk44 5 месяцев назад

To be fair, if anyone tries to use my intellectual property (or something that looks oddly similar) for commercial gain, I would be pissed. But, if they're doing it without the intention of commercial gain, I'll most certainly allow it.

@tytotheler92 11 месяцев назад

Dude these are great. Good work.

@slow_start 11 месяцев назад

Thanks a ton!

@amentco8445 8 месяцев назад

The only Renaissance that short content has brought is one of massacring attention spans even further.

@slow_start 8 месяцев назад

lol, agreed!

@TheNerdstalgicPodcast Год назад

Videos like this is why i love this odd place we call youtube ❤🎉

@slow_start Год назад

too kind!!

@TheNerdstalgicPodcast Год назад

@@slow_start your welcome, you pulled me in with shrek and I've been catching up with the rest of your stuff, all fantastic and im excited to see what comes next

@renpy333 Год назад

GOOD VIDEO! I REALLY LIKED THE EDITING!

@slow_start Год назад

Thank you!

@ryedergrenier3561 Месяц назад

I remember making stick videos. I completely forgot about that. Thanks for the memories

@lunarmodule6419 Год назад

What a story! Interesting! Thank you

@slow_start Год назад

Thanks as always, Lunar!

@devilinthewoods3809 2 дня назад

I'm glad all the stick figure drawings I did as a kid were thrown in the trash. I'd hate to get sued for that.

@mister54336. Год назад

Here's another topic you can talk about flash games from newgrounds There's one fan-game that is a tribute to DmC games, its called Fear Unlimited (including it's prequels called issue 1 and 2) it had a different story and its very dark, try give it a shot and see what you think.

@AlphaFlight 10 месяцев назад

Those sound super autisticaky

@nitehawk86 5 месяцев назад

"set the bar for what stick animation is capable of" Only people around in the early 2000s can really appreciate that brilliant statement. :)

@DylanPorto45 Год назад

i was like damn Zhu (the producer) made stick games?

@WolfHagenSdW 2 месяца назад

Brings back damn many memories..... Maybe time to light one up and dig out the Albinoblacksheep stuff.

@jcampo89 4 месяца назад

“Bongiorno… I’m in-a-France watching-a Big Mouth” . Bro’s in France speaking Italian.

@kositarjanko9127 Год назад

Nice vid! 😊

@arandomidiot1593 Месяц назад

I commented the thing about the floating head before you even got to that point lol

@Rushon-pj8sk 10 месяцев назад

xiao xiao was genually cool

@zuntata7860 Год назад

YOUR CHANNEL BOOMIN

@JuanRodriguez-ce8vs 6 месяцев назад

China suing for copyright infringement... I find the irony delicious.

@PyroNexus22 Год назад

Is this a remake of the video you had already made?

@slow_start Год назад

That's right! But with over 10 minutes of additional content :)

@PyroNexus22 Год назад

@@slow_start thanks for replying! I knew it looked familiar.

@TaleOfTheToaster 5 месяцев назад

I think I’ve never seen a video which so precisely demonstrates the cut off point of me getting involved with the internet, I must’ve been around 2005 or 2006 looking at the library of works that already existed on Newgrounds and definitely caught some brand new episodes of Super Mario Bros Z at the time, but I clearly missed the stick man era, fascinating

@joshzuker8308 11 месяцев назад

Man, I used to love Stickpage lol. It's a shame Zhu decided to go down that path.

@bunnerkins Год назад

RING RING RING RING RING RING RING BANANAPHONE DO DO DADO DADO

@BLXSTVERSE Год назад

He should have called Saul

@knight_lautrec_of_carim 24 дня назад

soo many memories were unlocked by this video

@TriWaZe 8 месяцев назад

I loved Xaio Xaio as a kid. Didnt even know of this lawsuit though. Crazy

@ErectedGasCan Год назад

Stickman games and movies were the shit when i took my first steps into computing on Win 95 and 98 in school. 🤘🏼 Also the crazy frog sound before it was crazy frog.

@Atheist7 6 месяцев назад

13:42 Dread "EXHIBET C".... so damning!!! LOL!

@Thetechnolady007 10 дней назад

xiao xiao was my childhood flash game pleaseeee, one of my faves

@arandomidiot1593 Месяц назад

It's not just Newgrounds and Stickpage. Xiao Xiao is archived on Flashpoint as well.

@binkbonk4444 6 месяцев назад

can somebody please tell me what the tmnt poster is, i am losing my mind over it. i could make out that it's a department of social services poster and it's the " say no to drugs. say yes to pizza " picture but there's more to this one

@Cyb3rDReI 6 месяцев назад

i'm going to start saying "stick figure argument" when discussing things like frivolous lawsuits bc it reminds me of strawman argument and it's got a very funny backstory that i'll get to explain to folks if they ask what i mean lol

@GozUnlimited Год назад

China has copyright laws??

@light_bar_ 4 месяца назад

Yep

@ElijahKlar 14 дней назад

Omg i remember the hiding your fart one you showed

@Shinji_Dai 4 месяца назад

Just hearing the name Macromedia sent my brain through a nostalgia trip.

@Tyoxy 8 месяцев назад

Cool video!

@slow_start 8 месяцев назад

Glad you found this one, and thanks so much!

@gregorybattis9588 4 месяца назад

What flash game is that at 1:35? I remember playing it a millennia ago.

@raph3alakalilnemo683 Год назад

😭😭me and my friends used to play xiao xiao9 every DAY! 😂 finding out the whole backstory to it is a trip! Your videos,presentation,skits and subject material are phenomenal bro your making some of my favourite stuff on RU-vid rn😤🔥

@slow_start Год назад

Thank you so much dude!

@snufkinsnufkin2528 4 месяца назад

How can Nike trademarka swoosh, it's just a tick✅

@bootyblck Год назад

i saw the OG video. W remake

@slow_start Год назад

Thank you dude! I thought it was worth doing!

@freddy32095 Год назад

another banger

@wowsew Месяц назад

Bro made the first john wick with stick figures

@MECHA-TED 5 месяцев назад

I remember playing xiao xiao 3 all the time as a kid

@robertgiovine2543 6 месяцев назад

Tbis channel is criminally underrated. Amazing content.

@ErickTG Год назад

I loved xiao xiao 3 when I was young, it took forever to load

@walli6388 Год назад

I thought China didn't have Copyright law back then.

@Rokomarn 9 месяцев назад

They only enforce it against non Chinese

@docb1844 5 месяцев назад

How do I upload my “STIK DETH 4 EVA” tattoo???

@ami4705 5 месяцев назад

What's really bizarre to me is how Nike, a company with hundreds of millions of dollars, is fighting so hard to get a mere $16k. Surely their lawyer fees far outweighed anything they gained?

@VampyKitsune 27 дней назад

BRO I REMEMBER TERKOIZ

@BenCaesar 2 месяца назад

WHY IS THERE A JARJAR figurine in your collection 😂😂😂😂

@PsychologyStud 4 месяца назад

I used to LOVE xiaoxiao as a child lol.

@Legoguy9875 5 месяцев назад

Never would've thought that such a dumb copyright dispute would come from one of my favorite genres of animation atm. Very interesting, but also quite frustrating. I am happy that stick figure animations continue to thrive despite that though, even beyond the death of Flash. Alan Becker and Gildedguy are two of my favorite animation channels, and they continue to release amazing content.

@Mightydoggo 5 месяцев назад

God, I loved flash games I was hanging around on newgrounds and Armorgames *way* too much for that age. lol Still vividly remember games like Electric man with its dope music, Stick war, or my favorite of course: Stormwinds. I loved everything about that game, the soundtrack, the steampunk aesthetic, the engaging gameplay loop. I still want an actual game like that.

@immyopic3319 7 месяцев назад

Ahhhh, I remember the days of Web 1.0. It was the glory years of the internet before the smelly dumpster fire that it is now.

@Thesamesam5 10 месяцев назад

Rip flash…

@LukewarmBong 27 дней назад

Xiao Xiao was the SHIT back in the day! I couldn't get enough of it

@slow_start 26 дней назад

I was obsessed man

@zero8xkira 6 месяцев назад

Not including court costs, didn't he still walk away with $20,000?

@spartan005u8 8 месяцев назад

Born in 1999, Thanks to flash games I never finished school work. Helping contribute to the school blocking anything related to "video games"

@sugarwater8859 2 месяца назад

Good video :)

@Nylak-Otter 6 месяцев назад

Flash got me started in animation when it first came out. I was already familiar with digital art programs by then and had a good tablet, so it was just the next logical step in my side hustle of commissioned art. I started with stick figures like everyone else to learn the basics and had some group Flash games on Newgrounds, (I was a teenager, not an animation student), and moved on from there. Good times. But seriously, everyone animated stick figures. You can't copyright a stick man. We all did it. There were always subtle personal differences. The Nike Stick Man had the detached head and it was also a 3D figure (the lines have highlights, and weren't solid black like Zhu's were, which you didn't mention; it wasn't animated in Flash). I feel like you're too young to have personal experience with this era, and now I feel old. 😂

@cbnz2929 9 месяцев назад

I guess these stick figures were more of a "boy on the early 00's internet" thing.

@rowan5891 7 месяцев назад

I remember watching animations like these on the 3DS flipnote app. I don't think Zhu ever posted anything on there but I remember seeing some stick man animations that definitely resembled his. RIP Flipnote ✊😔