JibJab Wins - 'This Land' is Public Domain 628
The Importance of writes "JibJab, creators of the hilarious parody of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land' featuring Pres. Bush and Sen. Kerry, were first threatened with a lawsuit and then, with the help of EFF, went to court first in a pre-emptive strike. Well, EFF discovered that the song has actually been in the public domain since 1973 because it was first published in a songbook [PDF] in 1945 and the copyright was never renewed. The case has now been settled. Here are some addtional links."
How many others.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Lets hope this case serves as inspiration to others to dig up other gems for the public domain.
If it's been PD since 1973... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How many others.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Protected speech already? Oh wait... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think it wasn't parodying the "This Land" song, it was satirizing the political campaign. One could probably make a case for the reverse - but what do you think is more likely?
"I think I'll make fun of Dubya and Kerry. This old song could be useful."
-or-
"I think I'll make fun of this old song. Dubya and Kerry could be useful."
Re:so they didnt win (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Only out of politeness... (Score:5, Interesting)
The amish want their kids to make the choice to follow their ways with full knowledge; they don't want people in their community who feel that they weren't given a choice and would feel resentful.
re-emphasizes the censored (Score:4, Interesting)
While I was walking that ribbon of Highway
I saw a sign that said "no trespassing"
but on the other side, that sign said nothing.
Well, that side was made for you and me.
Excellent question! (Score:3, Interesting)
Nice quote from the songbook... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:If it's been PD since 1973... (Score:5, Interesting)
What happens to people who paid royalties since then. Can they sue to get their fees back, or are they SOL?
Just offhand, as a random law student (I know, I know, IANAL...yet...), they might be able to get some money back through something like unjust enrichment -- on the grounds that they didn't actually get anything when they paid their money. Who knows, maybe a claim of fraud might work too. The problem with that is that unjust enrichment is usually considered an equitable principle, and that means that whoever they paid their money to could argue laches, which is basically the equitable version of a statute of limitations; people who paid money back in the 80's might still be screwed.
But good luck to whoever sues, since that way we'll finally get a court decision. Litigation's way too expensive these days, and that's impairing the development of the law as a whole.
WRONG! (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know where on God's green earth you got that from, but you couldn't be more wrong. Both parody and satire are protected forms of speech. I don't have the cases in front of me, but the New York Times v. Sullivan case, the Hustler v. Fallwell case, et al, bare this out. In fact, when the satire is aimed at a public official, there is a much higher standard that is used in finding whether or not the work was defamatory in nature ("actual malice").
On a side note, there is a unique case coming up through the Texas courts involving something called "Libel by fiction" (ie - "If what i said is fiction, it's can't be a truth I'm asserted, therefore 'wrong'").
For the non-legal types, here [cnn.com] is a good CNN article that pretty much somes it up in plain english. Note that the finding of the lower courts in Texas is not the law is the vast majority of jurisdictions, so let's hope that Texas gets this one right at their Supreme Court level.
Re:What a Poor Settlement! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:so they didnt win (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How many others.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Read Free Culture [free-culture.org] for some interesting bits on this... it doesn't help that stuff is in the public domain if there are no publicly-available copies. The studios were allowed to check their own films out of the Library of Congress, indefinitely and without charge, so there aren't any copies there, so the only remaining copies are dissolving to dust on studio shelves.
For what it's worth... (Score:3, Interesting)
Okay, so I'm a self-promoter. But hey, I put some good time and effort into writing it, and I'm proud of my work.
Re:Only out of politeness... (Score:3, Interesting)
Or alternately, they keep thier perfect society by dumping their malcontents and mentally ill on us.
Re:What a Poor Settlement! (Score:3, Interesting)
I never understood why this logic has not been applied (legally at least) to Happy Birthday [fact-index.com] which was music originally published in the 1890's (as "Good Morning to All/You"), had the alternative lyrics published or alluded to a number of times from 1909 onwards, but wasn't copyrighted until 1935 by one of the original authors (who didn't even write the changed lyrics!) and is still under copyright until something like 2030, allowing the current holders to sue the Girl Guides and force restaurants to come up with those silly hand clapping songs.
Other Remade Guthrie Songs (Score:3, Interesting)
They are called Mermaid Avenue (samples [amazon.com], review [pitchforkmedia.com]) and Mermaid Avenue Volume II (samples [amazon.com], review [pitchforkmedia.com])
They are both pretty good cds, especially volume 1.
I wonder what the copyright implications were one these, since they were unreleased. Does anyone know? Also, what was his daughter's opinion about the jibjab song?
Re:...or is it the beginning of the end? (Score:2, Interesting)
This code is my code
This code is your code
From the application space
Down to protected mode
From the install's scripting
To the linker and loader
This code was made for you and me
Re:Only out of politeness... (Score:5, Interesting)
The Amish are doing us a service. They are keeping "old" technology alive that might very well be useful when establishing a colony on a new planet. The Amish have the kept the line of really good draft horses not only alive, but thriving. They're a valuable resource to humanity.
"This Land is Your Land" is Libertarian (Score:3, Interesting)
The "This Land is Your Land" parody was clearly Libertarian. The most blatant giveaway was the otherwise inexplicable Indian land rights bit, which had nothing to do with the Bush/Kerry debates, and is one of the more ridiculous planks in the Libertarian platform. Other, more subtle Libertarian bits included:
* The huge crowd of people on each side at the closing (big government, a point that the Libertarians take major issue with)
* The negative demonstration of ICBMs and aggression in Vietnam -- that's all anti-interventionist, a pretty fundamental part of the Libertarian mindset.
Re:Only out of politeness... (Score:1, Interesting)
What about previous buyers? (Score:4, Interesting)