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.

Comments

These guys were on Leno this week

[chcorey]

The brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis appeared on Jay Leno earlier this week talking about their website and how popular it has become over the past months.

I give these guys Kudos for having the balls to try to make a living off of making these online cartoons.

In the interview, they said that they make money off of donations and they joked that they'd just have enough money from this "Your land is my land" cartoon to pay one month's rent and maybe a few meals.

I hope they are allowed to continue what they are doing but unfortunately, i'm not familiar with american copyright laws.

The copyright isn't even valid.

[laing]

More info about this on EFF's site:

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

Permission to use already given ?

[dackroyd]

From wikipedia Woody Guthrie has already given his permission.

"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."

There is something wrong where the author of a work doesn't give a damn about people using his material but his descendants get to control it for almost a century after his death.

Re:Permission to use already given ?

[kfg]

A good many of Woody's songs were modifications of other songs. It's called "The Folk Process."

Roll on Columbia and Ramblin' Round were both to the tune of Goodnight Irene by Huddie Ledbetter (that's Leadbelly to you and me).

Woody was not a particular fan of the idea of "Intellectual Property" and violated it regularly and without compunction. All he really cared about was some sort of credit for what he himself had written. Folk music is the original "Open Source."

This Land is Your Land he clearly intended by his own words to dedicate to the public domain.

KFG

Re:Permission to use already given ?

[jc42]

We should probably also note the nice irony that the original version of "This Land is Your Land" was a strongly anti-private-property song, and we now have people trying to block a parody that Woodie Guthrie would have loved by claiming that the song is their own private property.

Of course, several of Woodie's original verses are very rarely heard these days, as people try hard to pervert it into a feel-good patriotic dittie. This is aided by the propensity of most people to learn only the first and sometimes second verses of songs.

Now we will segue into another long thread on the meaning of the term "irony" ...

Another case against copyright extension

[iamdrscience]

I think this case is a prime example of how copyright terms have grown out of control. Woody Guthrie wrote the song almost 3/4 of a century ago and has been dead for over 35 years. The fact that this song is still covered by a copyright is absolutely ridiculous. And the kicker is, it's owned by a company that has nothing to do with Woody Guthrie or any of his descendants!

Re:Its not about IP

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd love to say "Rah rah, Bush Sucks," here, but it's not like the Republicans hold some sort of monopoly on bad IP law. Who was president when the DMCA went through? How about the "Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act" that protected artists by giving the Disney Corporation intellectual control over Steamboat Willy until we're all dead and buried?
This is not about politics. Someone wants to settle for half of some web site's T-Shirt sales and make a quick buck, because it's cheaper to hire a lawyer than it is to generate a Woody Guthrie Revivalist Movement.

Review: Definition of Parody & Link song lyric

[Anonymous Coward]

Just as Michael Jackson's Beat It is to Weird Al's Eat It, the music is not changing but the words are. Yes, Al got permission but he was not required to. If you look up the legal definition of what a parody is you'll find: According to law.com parody is "the humorous use of an existing song, play, or writing which changes the words to give farcical and ironic meaning." Given that JibJab's lyrics (Read them for yourself) did not use the song in it's original state, and unless the definition of a parody has changed, Jibjab should be in the clear.

Re:Good for them

[Jayfar]

And I think 'heaven' is sentimental, hopeful bullshit.

You posted AC just in case there is a god and he reads slashdot?

Re:I hope they win

[phats garage]

Woody Guthry used to include a copyright notice on songbooks he would mail to his fans:

• 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.

  (from www.woodyguthrie.com)

I like to think that he'd approve of jibjabs outstanding version of one of his songs ;-)

"This Song We Sing For You and Me"

[davidwr]

Tune: "This Land Was Made For You And Me"
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/.
P ublication date: July 31, 2004, on Slashdot.org
Slashdot.org is not responsible for the content of this post.

Sources:
John Dowdell's commentary on this issue
Woodie Guthrie Lyrics