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EFF Assails YouTube For Removing "Downfall" Parodies

Posted by kdawson on from the end-is-near dept.

Locke2005 writes "In what promises to be one of the quickest threads to become Godwin'ed, YouTube has pulled scores of parodies of the 'Hitler Finds Out' scene from the movie The Downfall. Ironically, I had never heard of this movie before this — and now I want to watch it." Here is the EFF complaint. David Weinberger has posted some details on Google's Content Identification tool, which is being used in the shotgun takedowns.

2 of 294 comments (clear)

  1. sounds like a bad business decision by ffflala · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sure, hardly anyone posting a youtube vid will be interested in licensing the scene. It's short sighted to consider only that aspect, and think of it as lost revenue. This meme is a big one. If properly nurtured, it could ensure future rental revenue in the way that only cult movie status can.

    I also only --and legally-- rented the movie after watching the Xbox Live parody. The movie was a large international success upon its release, but it didn't make my radar. The parodies are can be so funny because the banality of the fake subtitles is so incongruent to the remarkably powerful acting.

    My thought process went from "this is hilarious" to "wow what a great scene... I need to watch this movie".

  2. Re:Unfortunate by mcvos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I read an interview with the director of Der Untergang where he said that he liked all those Untergang parodies. Not every filmmaker has his pivotal scene become such a big internet meme, and he was very flattered by that, and tried to watch every one of them.

    Clearly he's not the one who calls these shot.