This Land

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » July 12, 2004, 7:06 pm

Flash animation.

http://www.jibjab.com/thisland.html

Niffoni · Post by **Niffoni** » July 12, 2004, 7:43 pm

hehe. Sweet.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » July 12, 2004, 8:00 pm

very funny

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » July 12, 2004, 9:37 pm

Now that had me laughing

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » July 12, 2004, 11:25 pm

That was great!

Sargeras · Post by **Sargeras** » July 13, 2004, 2:50 am

http://www.jibjab.com/swfs/mv_la_movie01.swf

Right click, Save Target As... <--- If you want to DL it, it opens a new browser window for a cookie, just close it

Denadeb · Post by **Denadeb** » July 13, 2004, 3:35 am

That was pretty good.

Sirton · Post by **Sirton** » July 13, 2004, 5:27 am

Hahaha that was good

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » July 26, 2004, 2:18 pm

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - 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."

Bush: "You're a liberal sissy!"

Kerry: "You're a right wing nut job!"

Both: "This land will surely vote for me!"

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.

So far there isn't a lot of money involved. The brothers who made the movie, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, have been distributing it pretty much for free (a paid-download option was available, but abandoned as most folks went for the free-on-the-Internet route). But the two are getting a lot of media attention as more news organizations and talk shows feature the flash bit (I think CNN was first, by the way, when we featured it on "In The Money" in early July).

"We're just trying to catch our breath," said Gregg Spiridellis, before sending me on to his lawyer.

Right now lawyers for both sides are just hurling threatening letters at one another. If the dispute ends up in court, it'll be interesting.

TRO: "You've hurt our music!"

Jibjab: "You've got no humor!"

Both: "This judge will surely side with me!"

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » July 26, 2004, 3:31 pm

I wish I could be surprised, but after the company that owns the rights to Strawberry Shortcake went after Penny Arcade for one of their comics I'm just not shocked at all by this crap.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » July 26, 2004, 4:43 pm

I think they should have a right to allow or not allow someone to use their song no matter what the purpose.

Post by **Sylvus** » July 26, 2004, 4:45 pm

Even if the fair use exemption of the Copyright Act says that they can use it?

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » July 26, 2004, 4:48 pm

Sylvus wrote:Even if the fair use exemption of the Copyright Act says that they can use it?

They don't have a right to those rights about copywrites. Right?

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » July 26, 2004, 5:02 pm

Midnyte just hates Wierd Al!

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » July 26, 2004, 5:21 pm

When was the tune originally made? Doesnt copyright law say after 80 years a copyright is free domain?

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » July 26, 2004, 5:28 pm

They'd better sue Canada too. We used to sing a Canadianized version of this in elementary school!

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » July 26, 2004, 5:33 pm

Sionistic wrote:When was the tune originally made? Doesnt copyright law say after 80 years a copyright is free domain?

Not quite as simple as that.

Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured either on the date a work was published with a copyright notice or on the date of registration if the work was registered in unpublished form. In either case, the copyright endured for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured. During the last (28th) year of the first term, the copyright was eligible for renewal. The Copyright Act of 1976 extended the renewal term from 28 to 47 years for copyrights that were subsisting on January 1, 1978, or for pre-1978 copyrights restored under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), making these works eligible for a total term of protection of 75 years. Public Law 105-298, enacted on October 27, 1998, further extended the renewal term of copyrights still subsisting on that date by an additional 20 years, providing for a renewal term of 67 years and a total term of protection of 95 years.

Current copyright laws extend 70 years past the death of the author, but those are for copyrighted material published after the 1978 law, so doesn't apply here.

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » July 26, 2004, 5:48 pm

the song they are fighting over isa this land is your land... does anyone else see the irony of the message vs the fight besides me...

Niffoni · Post by **Niffoni** » July 26, 2004, 5:54 pm

The irony is not lost on me...

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » July 26, 2004, 7:25 pm

Dregor Thule wrote:They'd better sue Canada too. We used to sing a Canadianized version of this in elementary school!

I think I know that one!

"Follow the only road"(1) - adaptation of "Follow the yellow brick road", no?

(1) Source: Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » July 29, 2004, 10:09 am

Jesse Walker at Reason comments on the lawsuit.

http://www.reason.com/links/links072904.shtml

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » July 29, 2004, 10:58 am

Should Britain sue the US for using "God Save the Queen" as "America, the Beautiful", too???!!!!111!!!one!!!!???!!!questionmark??!!!!!one!!???!

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » July 29, 2004, 8:40 pm

More developments that might impact any potential lawsuit.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001779.php

Turns out Woody Guthrie lifted the melody of "This Land is Your Land" essentially note-for-note from "When the World's on Fire," a song recorded by country/bluegrass legends, The Carter Family, ten years before Guthrie wrote his classic song. Here's a short snippet (380k mp3) of the song (the song can be found on the box set, The Carter Family: 1927-34). You don't need to be a musicologist to hear what we're talking about.

Now we've got nothing against Woody's borrowing. In fact, it's a part of the "folk process" that Woody himself championed. I can't imagine that The Carter Family minded.

But in the letter threatening copyright litigation over JibJab's animated political parody, "This Land," Ludlow's lawyer goes out of his way to attack JibJab for copying "the entire melody, harmony, rhythm and structure of the [sic] Mr. Guthrie's song."

Er, sorry there Ludlow, but actually, the entire melody, harmony, rhythm, and structure of "This Land is Your Land" doesn't belong to you. And I'd like to think Mr. Guthrie would never have claimed credit for them, if he were still alive to ask.

It will be a lot harder for them to make the case if the tune didn't orginate with Guthrie.

By the way, go through the link to the EFF site and you can hear the original (or at least older

) song.

Eugene Volokh comments.

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004 ... 1091136717

On top of that, JibJab only took a few lines from the song -- "This land is your land" / " this land is my land" / "this land . . . me" (from "this land was made for you and me"). Copyright law doesn't protect short phrases, and these thirteen words are close to the short phrases boundary. I suspect that the words used in this combination and this order are indeed copyrightable -- thirteen is probably enough (a few cases suggest that even a few words might be enough, though that's not clear). But that the taking is only of thirteen words, albeit important words, and not the lyrics -- if indeed the theory about the tune coming from the Carters is correct -- would definitely strengthen JibJab's fair use defense.