Value Judgment: 'This Land' parodists sued by Guthrie tune owners

Value Judgment is a daily weblog written by two independent voters on the eastern seaboard of the United States. VJ will focus on the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaigns, including strategy, tactics, and substance. The authors supported Howard Dean in the Democratic primary. Accordingly, his activities will be a prominent topic on this site.

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July 26, 2004

'This Land' parodists sued by Guthrie tune owners

I saw the jibjab thing for the first time on Friday. Very funny, and I think Kerry comes out of it looking better.

A Jibjab showdown

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.

"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; 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.

This is a no-brainer. It's clearly a satire, and the original will survive long after this election without being 'damaged' by this popular reworking of it.

Posted by V at July 26, 2004 01:55 PM

Comments

Overwrought and extremist intellectual "property" "protection" is a danger to democracy. This stupid whining is the latest example of a wacko copyright regime run amok.

Ticks me off.

And yes, the JibJab thing is a riot. I giggled much more than I expected to...

"..you can't say nuclear! That really scaaaares me..."

Posted by: J at July 26, 2004 02:00 PM

TRO believes that the Jibjab creation threatens to corrupt Guthrie's classic -- an icon of Americana -- by tying it to a political joke

I truly doubt Woody would agree.

Posted by: Night Owl at July 26, 2004 02:51 PM

A copyright notice from a Woody Guthrie recording:

"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."

Posted by: Squelch at July 26, 2004 06:59 PM

I'm with you. The law may not be, however. While parody is protected under copyright law, satire is not.

Posted by: JD Lasica at July 26, 2004 07:04 PM