July 31, 2004
JIBJAB:
We despise the use of the Internet to disperse lame jokes, but this is hilarious.
MORE (via Matt Murphy):
Sue You: This Song Is Our Song (Rachel Metz, Jul. 29, 2004, Wired)
When was the last time you saw John Kerry on his knees before world leaders, clad in S&M gear and with a ball gag in his mouth? Or eyed President Bush looking sheepish in a red dunce cap?Posted by Orrin Judd at July 31, 2004 9:59 PMChances are it was sometime this past week on national TV and maybe 10 times before that on the Internet, thanks to JibJab, a site that is posting animators Evan and Gregg Spiridellis' latest creation, This Land.
The film features Kerry and Bush dissing each other like boys on a playground to the tune of Woody Guthrie's classic song, "This Land Is Your Land." It's made it around the world, with enthusiastic viewers commenting about the film on the site's blog from as far away as the Netherlands, New Zealand and Guam, and its historical value has been noted by the Library of Congress, which on Tuesday e-mailed the Santa Monica, California-based Spiridellises asking to add the animated short to its archives.
But while about 25 million viewers have been clogging JibJab to chuckle at the film's South Park-like Flash animation and juvenile insults (Bush labels Kerry a "liberal sissy," and Kerry responds by calling Bush a "right-wing nut job"), the Spiridellises aren't exactly laughing their way back to the drawing board.
In the wake of their short's popularity, which began soon after its July 9 Web release and has been punctuated by appearances and mentions on almost every major U.S. news show, the brothers found themselves in a legal skirmish with Ludlow Music, which, Ludlow attorney Paul LiCalsi said, owns the copyright to Guthrie's famous tune.
My sister sent me this link less than 2 weeks ago. This week I heard it being played in the office where I work. Now it's here.
Strange how quickly things propagate and where it ends up.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at July 31, 2004 10:18 PMLet the Great Copyright Infringement Trial Lawyer Fishfeed begin!
Posted by: Matt Murphy at July 31, 2004 11:06 PMDosn't sound to me like these guys have much money. Lawyers are like most blood-sucking parasites, they usually lose interest in anemic hosts and fall off into the underbrush to await something better.
Posted by: Amos at July 31, 2004 11:44 PMThere are other speciies of lawyer, however, which specialize in silencing its host. The left-leaning variety is predominant because other left-leaning species, like the hollywood airhead and academic blowhard, will only attack the right-leaning variety for engaging in censorship. So the left-leaning variety has a Darwinian advantage in not needing to defend itself, the way the right-leaning variety must.
Amos: I'm not a copyright/trademark lawyer, but I believe there are aspects of copyright/trademark law that require the holder thereof to sue or risk waiver of the property right. Hence the International Olympic Committee sues owners of 'Olympic' coffee shops sporting five-ring logos ('aspirin', after all, was a brand name before a court ruled that the name had passed into the public domain through common usage).
Raoul: I agree with you in general. In this case, however, I think its all about the money.
oj: 'volokh.com' had an interesting thread on this subject a few days ago. Turns out that Woody Guthrie, in his liner notes for the song, invited people to use the song for any purpose whatsoever. Thus an issue in the case will be whether Guthrie licensed his song to the world without compensation. Given that Guthrie was a communist, he should be applauded for acting on principle. So what gives with his heirs?
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at August 1, 2004 1:03 AM