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Topic: Hitler parodies removed from YouTube (Read 1408 times) |
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Blunderov
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Hitler parodies removed from YouTube
« on: 2010-04-23 03:41:15 » |
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[Blunderov] "Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the league was "delighted."
The Anti defamation league appears to be intent on claiming Hitler as their own exclusive intellectual property. There is no mention, as usual, of all the Romanies, homosexuals, handicapped persons, Jehova's witnesses and political dissedents who were also murdered by the Nazis. It is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. Six million of these were Jews.
As Kazakstahn discovered to its cost when taking on Ali G, there are times when it is best to STF. The Anti-defamation League may confidently look forward to a greatly increased virulence of The Parodies. 
There is no political patent on Hitler and The Hitler Parodies have made this refreshingly, if somewhat inconveniently, clear.
http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?
Hitler parodies removed from YouTube
Jake Coyle
22 April 2010 at 03h23
New York - Adolf Hitler, for years a vessel of frustration in a popular Internet video, has been quieted.
Downfall, a German film released in 2004 about Hitler's last days, has been adopted for wildly popular YouTube parodies that have spanned mock rants about topics as varied as playing Xbox video games to Kanye West to Apple's new iPad.
Every spoof is from the same scene in the film: A furious, defeated Hitler, played by Bruno Ganz, unleashes an impassioned, angry speech to his remaining staff, huddled with him in his underground bunker.
The scene takes on widely different meaning when paired with English subtitles about, say, a late-season collapse by the New York Mets. Most any subject could be - and was - substituted, made even funnier by the scene's intense melodrama, artful staging and timely cutaways.
It was the viral video that refused to die - until it did.
On Tuesday, the clips on YouTube, many of which had been watched by hundreds of thousands, even millions, began disappearing from the site. Constantin Films, the company that owns the rights to the film, asked for them to be removed, and YouTube complied.
Martin Moszkowicz, head of film and TV at Constantin films in Munich, said the company had been fighting copyright infringement for years. Jewish organisations have also complained about the tastefulness of the clips, he said.
"When does parody stop? It is a very complicated issue," Moszkowicz said. "So we are taking a simple approach: Take them all down. We've been doing it for years now. The important thing is to protect our copyright. We are very proud of the film."
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the league was "delighted."
"We find them offensive," said Foxman of the videos. "We feel that they trivialise not only the Holocaust but World War 2. Hitler is not a cartoon character."
Moszkowicz disputed the idea that all the attention to Downfall, which grossed $5,5-million (about R39-million) at the US box office and was nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar, had helped the film.
"We have not been able to see any increase in DVD sales," he said. "There is no correlation between Internet parodies and sales of a movie, at least not that I am aware of."
Moszkowicz said he didn't know why the videos were only recently taken down and suggested that it could have been "something on the YouTube end."
YouTube, which is owned by Google, declined to comment on Wednesday about the takedown of the videos.
Some have argued that, being parodies, the videos are protected under "fair use," the legal doctrine that holds that the use of some creative works for purposes such as parody and education may be considered "fair."
The site's policy about content that infringes on copyright is that it will remove videos if the copyright holder requests it. Using "Content ID" technology, the site is able to digitally search through its enormous archives and automatically remove any videos in violation.
That's a process that typically takes days or weeks.
However, YouTube promotes the ability to monetize such videos and allow the copyright holder - if it chooses to allow the user-uploaded videos to remain - to earn a percentage of advertising from the clips. YouTube claims that the majority of the more than 1 000 media companies using its Content ID technology opt for this route.
"Content ID has created an entirely new economic model for rights holders," YouTube said in a statement.
Many Hitler clips were still online on Wednesday, and new parodies were popping up featuring Hitler ranting about his removal from YouTube. 
For years, the meme has held an unusually steadfast position in Internet culture. While most online parodies come and go overnight, new Downfall spoofs have been continually created for years. It's not known exactly how many have existed but estimates run in the hundreds.
They have served as a kind of soapbox for real and mock anguish, a way to comically vent about anything and everything.
The film's director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, told New York magazine in January that he was constantly sent the parodies and he very much liked them.
"The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality," Hirschbiegel told the magazine. "I think it's only fair if now it's taken as part of our history and used for whatever purposes people like. If only I got royalties for it, then I'd be even happier."
The loss was felt across the web on Wednesday as if a grand, beloved tradition had been stifled. 
In one of its most commented-on posts, the blog Techcrunch lamented that a voice had been lost, writing: "Memes on the Internet don't get any better than the Hitler one." - Sapa-AP
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MoEnzyme
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Re:Hitler parodies removed from YouTube
« Reply #1 on: 2010-04-23 04:27:55 » |
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Quote:| "When does parody stop? It is a very complicated issue," Moszkowicz said. "So we are taking a simple approach: Take them all down. We've been doing it for years now. The important thing is to protect our copyright. We are very proud of the film." |
Bullshit. Its not a complicated issue at all. Downfall parodies are one of the most obvious examples of the very concept of parody which is probably at least part of the reason they replicate so easily.
I don't think there is any way that this isn't fair use in terms of real copyright law. Youtube is certainly welcome to choose their own ways to regulate content on their own site, but to claim that Downfall ranting parodies actually violate copyright law is simply untrue and insulting to the intelligence. If they wanted to be honest they would say something like this, "We think that there are some things that should never be parodied, and in our opinion this is one of those things." They may succeed in stifling it on Youtube, but I'm guessing this meme won't die and their attempts to kill it have only granted it greater longevity if temporarily diminished replication. -Mo
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I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
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