The Fight

You voted, and FIGHT won. At 9 p.m., Hermes files a counter notification against Apollo's removal request. His reason: fair use, one box ticked on the form.

The form wants his full legal name, his home address and his phone number. For a god whose only rule is never leave a trace, it is his whole identity, in writing. He signs it under penalty of perjury and agrees to answer in court, and YouTube forwards all of it to Apollo.

Now Apollo has ten business days. If he shows that he took Hermes to court, the clip stays down. If he does nothing, it comes back.

Here is the trap: fair use is not a box you tick. Only a court decides it, case by case, and credit alone never turns a copy into fair use. In the US, the law lets a court award up to thirty thousand dollars per work, and up to one hundred and fifty thousand if the copying was willful.

At 9:12 the next morning, an email from Apollo's lawyer: withdraw your notice and delete the channel, or we file. 9:12: the exact minute someone sent Apollo the link, on Day 2.