Parody site is threatened by Woody Guthrie's lawyers

Remember the "This Land is Your Land" parody animation a few posts ago? Everyone seems to think it's absolutely hilarious, except for the people who own the rights to the original Woodie Guthrie song.

Their lawyers sent the animators a cease-and-desist letter, which they haven't yet complied with. This is a prettty tricky case. The animation/song obviously pokes fun at Bush-Kerry, but does it comment on Guthrie's song also? If it does, you can try and argue that the JibJab piece is a parody, otherwise it's a satire. As a satire, it has less ability to use elements of Guthrie's song. A column at Reason Magazine explains this difference quite succinctly, as well as looking deeper into Guthrie's song.

But is it really Guthrie's song to protect? According to "Deep Links" at EFF, Woody Guthrie took the melody from the Carter Family, making his claim to copyright much weaker. Check out their short article, which includes a 30-second snippet of the Carter Family song.

Currently, we are waiting for declaratory judgement. EFF has picked up JibJab's case, and is trying to get the issue resolved early. I'll update this blog with a link to it when it comes out. In the meantime, Ernest Miller, another blogger, has a great JibJab section. Well worth the perusal.