I wouldn’t read too much into the counter-claim. The guy probably just searched “how to beat copyright claim” and copy-pasted the Fair Use stuff in – there’s tons of sites that tell you to do just that.
A potential workaround – cut in the single frames for the duration that you need, and then nest them, and apply the fade (or keyframe transparency) to the nest.
Of course, nesting can cause many headaches, but it might work here.
The way I see it, a podcast is a digitally distributed, time-shifted audio program. People usually use it to get their fix of NPR, or listen to Bill Simmons or Marc Maron.
It’s a pretty established thing. I don’t feel like they’re declining dramatically, but they’re just another option against Spotify or Itunes radio or whatever.
Apple tried to get the video podcast thing to fly back when the 5th gen Ipod came out in 2004, but it never really took off.
Webisode is a pretty dated term for a web distributed video series. Here’s how all the things you could call a web project shake out: