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JibJab Sues for Fair Use of Right to Parody
An anonymous reader writes "A few days ago, Slashdot mentioned that JibJab was threatened by a copyright lawsuit. Well, it looks like JibJab decided to sue first with the help of the EFF. Lots more info here." (Here's the Bloomberg News article.) Update: 07/31 20:43 GMT by T : Seth Finkelstein has posted the court info on his website.
More political humor: It's tough to be a Republican.
The Right Wing Conspiracy meetings are on Thursday nights at 7pm
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
"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."
Clear enough for me.
This song is my song, it is not your song
I got a shotgun, and you don't got one
This song is Private Property
but unfortunately, i'm not familiar with american copyright laws.
unfortunately??
You posted AC just in case there is a god and he reads slashdot?
But it would take him 15 minutes to sing it to you.
but in the same vein. If I had any artistic talent, I would set up a Alient vs. Predator website, "Election 2004, Bush vs. Kerry, regardless of who wins, we lose"-stolen from the Alien vs. Predator tv commercial.
The real question is, "Is Blaise Pascal in heaven?"
"The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces." --Aldo Leopold (Paraphrased)
We used to sing this song with jacked up lyrics back in grade school. The copyright owners can kiss my ass, I'm gonna sing this "illicit version" from now on, until I die, just cause they pissed me off with this lawsuit threat.
This land is my land,
It isn't your land,
I've got a shotgun
And you don't got one.
If you don't get off,
I'll blow your head off.
This land is private proper-teeee.
Or maybe this.
This song is our song,
It isn't your song,
It wasn't intended
to have an owner
I don't care if you own it
That doesn't mean you control it
this song was made for you and me
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
Tune: "This Land Was Made For You And Me"
P ublication date: July 31, 2004, on Slashdot.org
Tune (c) 1940, Woodie Guthrie
As of 2004, the rights to Guthrie's tune are administered by The Richmond Organization, located in New York, NY.
The following is a parody of the dispute between The Richmond Organization and Evan and Gregg Spiridellis of Jibjab.com surrounding JibJab's 2004 hit "This Land," which parodies the US Presidential Race between Republican candidate George W. Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry and which uses Guthrie's tune "This Land Is Made For You and Me."
"This Song We Sing For You and Me"
Lyrics by David W. Richardson
Chorus:
This song is your song, this song is my song,
From A. P. Carter, to his "Little Darling,"
From the Babtist Hymnal, to the "Lovin' Brother,"
This song we sing for you and me.
A man named Guthrie, he had a vision.
He wrote a folk song, and shared it with us.
He sang a tune that was familiar, thinking
"This song I sing for you and me."
(Chorus)
Two men named Evan and Gregg Spiridellis
Sat down to write a song about Bush and Kerry.
They borrowed music, from Woodie thinking
"This song, he sang for you and me."
(Chorus)
"Stop!" said the Richmond Organization.
They own the rights to Guthrie's music.
Evan and Gregg, they called it humor, saying
"This song, we sing for you and me."
(Chorus)
The two famous brothers, they filed a lawsuit
To preserve our rights to use Guthrie's work.
The judge will say that it is okay, saying
"This song, you sing for you and me."
(Chorus)
But it may happen that they lose and then their song will die....
Since this can happen, I put pen to paper
And write these lyrics, daring them to sue me, for
"This song, I write for you and me."
(Chorus)
These lyrics are copyright (c) 2004 David Richardson (davidwr.geo -at- yahoo.com), posted to Slashdot.org under the Creative Common License Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0, as found on http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/.
Slashdot.org is not responsible for the content of this post.
Sources:
John Dowdell's commentary on this issue
Woodie Guthrie Lyrics
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.