Hmmm... I wonder who's really behind it..?
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Posted on 08/05/2004 8:37:32 AM PDT by elfman2
NEW YORK -- The creators of a popular Internet cartoon that satirizes U.S. President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger John Kerry are being sued by the copyright holder of Woody Guthrie's classic folk song This Land is Your Land for using the tune without proper authorization.
Ludlow Music asked Jib Jab Media (at jibjab.com) to remove its parody and present an accounting of all incomes derived from the cartoon, complaining it has caused substantial harm to the value of Guthrie's song. Acting on behalf of Jib Jab, the Electronic Freedom Frontier responded that use of the music is protected by the fair use doctrine of U.S. copyright laws.
The cartoon features a cut-and-paste Bush and Kerry trading sing-song insults while dancing to a version of Guthrie's tune. "I'm a Texas tiger, you're a liberal wiener," sings Bush, sitting atop a horse while lassoing Kerry in a hot dog costume. "You have more waffles than a house of pancakes. You offer flip-flops, I offer tax breaks. This land will surely vote for me."
Kerry responds: "You can't say nuclear, that really scares me. Sometimes a brain can come in quite handy," while giving Bush a brain transplant. He continues, "but it's not going to help you, because I won three purple hearts!"
The cartoon mimics the end of Dr. Strangelove in a shot of Bush riding a flying missile while yelping, "It's true that I kick ass!" It also features a sad-faced Indian in ceremonial headdress bemoaning that, "This land was my land," as the desert landscape behind him fills up with icons of American commerce.
The lawsuit is only the latest twist in a roller-coaster month of extremes for Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, who are the sole owners and creators of Jib Jab. Since posting the cartoon on July 8, the brothers have become media darlings. The publicity spike caused millions of people to download the cartoon and prompted Jib Jab's servers to crash repeatedly. The cartoon is now hosted by Atomfilms.com.,
In a recent radio interview, Woody Guthrie's son Arlo said he enjoyed the cartoon and even referred friends and relatives to the site. "I think my dad would have absolutely loved the humour in it," he said
"As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there And that sign said - no tress passin' But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin! Now that side was made for you and me"
There’s a MUCH better story here on Wired, but they’ll sue us if we post it.
The song has gotten more play in the last couple of weeks than in the last 20 years, and the copyrighter complains.
Understandably, the copyrighter is within his rights, but it is a rather petty complaint. The song probably hasn't been in the top 100 during the last decade, but the website has renewed it. The copyrighter should be praising and thanking the website rather than complaining.
http://www.Jibjab.com
Peter, Paul, and Mary will be suing Conspiracy Guy next. :)
I may be wrong about this, but I thought copyright laws didn't extend to cases like this involving what is clearly a parody of the original song.
Ouch! I hurt myself laughing and the other people in the office are looking at me strangely. Well the second part has nothing to do with laughing because they look at me that way anyway.
"Woody Guthrie's son Arlo said he enjoyed the cartoon and even referred friends and relatives to the site. "I think my dad would have absolutely loved the humour in it,"
Good for him!
PP&M made it a hit but I thought Dylan or Baez wrote it ?
Satire and alteration of song lyrics is a time-honored defense against copyright infringment.
I think the parody exception requires the parody to be a parody of the original work.
Fair use...now go away Guthrie, you socialist
I'm not sure. I know music use is kind of tricky. The words can be copyrighted separate from the tune/melody.
I know 'songs' give many live TV programs headaches. I remember on the Tonite Show, for example, that every time the audience sings 'Happy Birthday' that NBC has to write a check to the songwriter. Even sung by an amateur but televised can cost the tv production money.
Parody or not, they still have to pay royalties for using the song.
I think you're right. Weird Al Yankovic has based his entire career on this!
That happened in Wallace & Grommit's "The Wrong Trousers". The theatre and the VHS releases had "Happy Birthday". The recent DVD release replaced it with "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". However, if you go to the directory's commentary sound track, they still have "Happy Birthday" being played.
Exactly. Guthrie's main intent is to get a judge to put an injuction on them until after the election. I'll bet $20 towards FR that Guthrie's lawyers are either being paid by the DNC or are politically active DNC members.
LOL
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