I never thought I’d be writing a blog post where I would be protesting the removal of Hitler videos, but stranger things have happened.
I’m actually angry that Constantin Film, producer of Downfall (a great German movie that depicts Hitler’s madness during the last hours of his life – worth seeing if you like history) has idiotically ordered the takedown of all of the parody videos that have basically been free advertising for them.
I’ve actually referenced these parodies in previous posts – recently with Conan and Michael Jackson. You can’t view them anymore though, because YouTube had to comply with the DMCA takedown notices. See the story here.
This is stupid on so many levels. First off, this should be Fair Use under Parody – YouTube admits as much and is encouraging users to fight back on these takedown. It’s stupid that YouTube can’t fight on your behalf, but they have no choice but to comply with the studio – thank you DMCA! Secondly, these videos have been free advertising for your movie. I can’t tell you how many people have watched these parodies and then asked “What is this movie, I should actually check it out”. Lastly, the Movie’s Own Director loves the parodies, saying “you can’t get a better compliment as a director”.
Of course, this situation wouldn’t be complete, if it didn’t have its own parody-a pretty classic one at that (warning: offensive language).
These videos will be back up soon enough. As much as these studios would like think they control all of this, you can’t stop fair use.