Not Funny! JibJab Parodists Threatened with Lawsuit - UPDATED
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UPDATED BELOWFame is a fickle mistress. One minute you're the hottest meme on the net. Next minute you're a defendant.
Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, at Santa Monica-based JibJab Media now know how true that is. Their little Flash cartoon presidential parody (to the tune of "This Land is Your Land") became one of the year's most-downloaded objects. And now owners of songwriter Woody Guthrie's copyright for the original song are threatening to sue them for copyright infringement. (spotted at boingboing)
It seems the Richmond Organization is insisting Guthrie's song is being damaged by the popular little blob of satire (Bush: You're a liberal sissy! Kerry: You're a right-wing nutjob!):
"This puts a completely different spin on the song," said Kathryn Ostien, director of copyright licensing for the publisher. "The damage to the song is huge."
TRO believes that the Jibjab creation threatens to corrupt Guthrie's classic -- an icon of Americana -- by tying it to a political joke;
JibJab attorney Ken Hertz counters - rightly - that the song is used as political parody, and thus should be protected speech.
If this isn't fair use, it's hard to imagine what is. One can only imagine what Woody himself would have said, who once used this as his standard copyright notice:
"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
Bottom line for me: There's no danger of people thinking the song will be damaged because its very topic is being used in an effective parody: JibJab's piece turns Guthrie's unifying sentiments on their head, slathering the song with the ironic blather of two political candidates whose egos, divisive competition and desire to be elected overshadow any real concern for the electorate.
In short, it works, and it's clearly constitutionally protected political satire. Besides, Woody would have gotten a kick out of it.
Fame is a fickle mistress. One minute you're the hottest meme on the net. Next minute you're a defendant. 
