With something as fun as a cartoon Bush and Kerry hurling musical epithets at one another, you knew lawyers would have to get involved.
And, unfortunately for JibJab.com, they have.
You know the Jibjab thing I'm talking about, right? The flash animation movie swirling around the Internet with President George Bush and Senator John Kerry singing to the tune of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." [...] The bit is hilarious. Unless you are The Richmond Organization, a music publisher that owns the copyright to Guthrie's tune through its Ludlow Music unit. [...] TRO believes that the Jibjab creation threatens to corrupt Guthrie's classic -- an icon of Americana -- by tying it to a political joke; upon hearing the music people would think about the yucks, not Guthrie's unifying message. The publisher wants Jibjab to stop distribution of the flash movie.
Of course the creators behind Jibjab don't agree. "We consider it a case of political satire and parody and therefore entitled to the fair use exemption of the copyright act," said Jibjab attorney Ken Hertz....
I'm moderately amazed that the music publishers are even thinking about making this threat. The 2LiveCrew/Pretty Woman case (more properly known as Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music 510 U.S. 569 (1994)), is so directly on point, surely the courts would just tell the publishers to get lost. In this case, there's not even really any money at issue.
Really, music publishers in general, and this one in particular, need to get (1) a sense of humor; (2) a sense of proportion, and (3) a life. Possibly in that order.
Posted by iain at July 27, 2004 11:40 PM
