p2p news / p2pnet:- This summer Music publisher Ludlow Music tried the copyright trick on web animation studio JibJab Media over its This Land lampoon starring George W and John Kerry.

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) took up the cudgels on JobJab’s behalf and found the Woody Guthrie song was part of the public domain, which is definitely the way Guthrie would have wanted it.

Exit Ludlow.

Now, “I can hardly believe this,” says a post on the Berkeley Intellectual Property blog, but, “JibJab, the folks who fought so hard for their fair use rights when they put out their ‘This Land’ video, sent a cease and desist letter to The Black Lantern, who had used a few seconds of the ‘This Land’ video in making a video paired with The Legendary KO’s mp3 ‘George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People.”

The C&D missile came from Goldring, Hertz & Lichtenstein.

The BPI item goes into the ins and outs of this at length, but concludes with:

1) JibJab should have known better. They know fair use. They rely on fair use every day.

2) Goldring, Hertz & Lichtenstein, L.L.P., JibJab’s attorneys in this matter, should have known better. They too know fair use (and otherwise seem like decent folks) and should have told their client these claims were baseless and harmful to JibJab’s own interests, in both the short and long term.

JibJab was getting much better fair use advice when EFF was providing it, adds the BPI post.

No kidding.

Stay tuned.

(Thanks, Morg)

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

See:-
copyright trick - EFF wins JibJab case, August 25, 2005
blog - The Chilling Effects of a JibJab Cease and Desist, October 6, 2005

This entry was posted on Monday, October 17th, 2005 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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