Liberal fascism goes recursive, Tim Cavanaugh writes at Reason, joking that “The thousand-year reich of Downfall parodies has ended in ruins. Constantin Films, the German producer of the 2004 film Der Untergang, has compelled YouTube to start taking down the popular Hitler-rants-about-funny-thing-X clips”:
The legal merits of Constantin’s argument are clear: They do not exist. Downfall parodies take less than four minutes of a 156-minute film, and use them in a way that is unquestionably transformative. Maybe Moturk49 was somehow making a ton of money from his or her Xbox-related parody, but it seems unlikely. In any event, the Supreme Court’s 1994 decision in the “Hairy Woman” lawsuit established that the commercial nature of a parody does not render it presumptively unfair, and that a sufficient parodic purpose offers protection against the charge of copying.
Not that that will matter. The issue is YouTube’s kneejerk takedowns. The site is free to do what it likes; nobody will bother going to court over something so ephemeral as a Hitler joke; and though YouTube is obviously the best and most popular forum for any video, it’s not like there’s some inalienable right to run your content there. Still, the use of immediate takedowns is a blunt instrument that YouTube and its owner Google will, I hope, learn to refine in the future. Meanwhile, brand-new Downfall parodies, including the inevitable Hitler-issues-DMCA-takedowns version, are available elsewhere.
I had my own run-in with a YouTube takedown notice in late 2008; here’s what I went through to get my “Mugging for the Camera” video on how the MSM can demonize gun owners restored.
And speaking of liberal fascism going recursive (in oh so many ways), “Minnesotans for Global Warming” video parody titled “Hide The Decline” was recently the subject of a takedown notice on YouTube as well; I knew there was a reason why I didn’t upload my own video with that title back in November to YouTube.
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