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Posted: Nov 17 2010 12:12 pm

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/16/south-park-sued-over-youtube/?hpt=P1&iref=NS1

Quote:

Just a few weeks after apologizing for lifting lines from a parody of "Inception," the producers of "South Park," along with Comedy Central and parent company Viacom, have been sued for allegedly infringing on the copyright of the YouTube viral video "What What (in the Butt)," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In a 2008 episode of the series, Butters appeared in a music video that, according to the lawsuit filed by Brownmark Films, is a "nearly frame-by-frame recreation" of the original video, which became a viral sensation in 2007 and since then has had over 33,000,000 page views.

Comedy Central released a statement describing the "South Park" segment as a parody and saying that it's "fully protected against any copyright infringement claims under the fair-use doctrine and the First Amendment and we plan to vigorously defend those rights."

Not mentioned anywhere in the lawsuit (which was posted up on E! Online) is Samwell, the artist who became a YouTube celebrity a few years back, and even poked fun at himself on another hit Comedy Central series, "Tosh.0."

This has nothing on it. If you could Sue for a Parody, what about all of those Scary Movie spoofs? Or the Teen Movie Spoofs? All have stuff from real Movies.

Posted: Nov 17 2010 12:27 pm

I remember Coolio got really mad when Weird Al parodied "Gangsta's Paradise", but there was nothing he could do about it because parody is a protected form of free speech.

Posted: Nov 17 2010 01:36 pm

I didn't know random viral videos could be copyrighted.

Posted: Nov 17 2010 01:52 pm

Um, the most famous viral video of all-time, the Rick Roll, is absolutely copyrighted.

Posted: Nov 17 2010 01:54 pm

So how many theoretical internet dollars is the What What In My Asshole guy prepared to spend on this lawsuit?

Posted: Nov 17 2010 01:59 pm

Blackout wrote:

So how many theoretical internet dollars is the What What In My Asshole guy prepared to spend on this lawsuit?

Well, I don't believe its the guy in the video. In fact in the episode of Tosh.0 he was on, he mentioned about being on South Park and sounded more honored than pissed off. I doubt he even owns the rights to the video. In which case, it would be out of his hands.

Posted: Nov 17 2010 02:11 pm

OK, so are they making a buttload of money from his stupid video somehow? If not why bother suing? I mean other than some quick worldwide exposure that the creators of a viral video may be exposed to ( and the chance to capitalize on said exposure if they actually have any marketable ideas, which is a rare occurrence from what I can tell..) what do viral video creators really get, besides a mention on know your meme and a bunch of stupid msg board spam?

The only people that come to mind when I think "Hrrm, made it big on the internet and then actually did something with it in mainstream media eh? are Tucker Max and Maddox ( who got book deals, and a movie deal for Tucker if I remember correctly..), and to a lesser extant Fred, who I hear got a shitty Nickelodeon Movie.

Who else went viral and actually capitalized on it to make some money? Confused

Posted: Nov 17 2010 02:24 pm

Shane Dawson has t-shirts at Hot Topic, and Fred has had merch at Hot Topic as well, as has Charlie The Unicorn.

Perhaps the most high profile internet to mainstream media crossover is Shit My Dad Says.

Posted: Nov 17 2010 02:25 pm

Blackout wrote:

Who else went viral and actually capitalized on it to make some money? Confused

I can't think of anyone else, but yeah, Tucker Max had a movie made, "I Hope they Serve Beer In Hell" Titled after his 1st Book. Apparently, he has a 2nd book coming out called "Assholes Finish First" If I recall correctly.

I saw his movie and thought "eh"

Posted: Nov 17 2010 02:42 pm

It seems to have disappeared, but there was already a thread on this. Regardless, parody is protected speech. There's no case, and I can't believe this made it past a grand jury.

#edit: This further supports my notion, however, that Trey has indeed been reading Sydlexia.com and stealing our ideas for episodes. If he stole from collegehumor, why not from here?

Posted: Nov 17 2010 02:48 pm

Yeah, the Tucker Max movie was critically panned, and I think even Tucker Max said it sucked.

Posted: Nov 17 2010 04:16 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

I remember Coolio got really mad when Weird Al parodied "Gangsta's Paradise", but there was nothing he could do about it because parody is a protected form of free speech.

I LOVED Coolio getting upset. That asshole sampled the whole song from Stevie Wonder's "Passtime Paradise." In the words of the great Vizzini, "You're trying to kidnap what I've rightfully stolen."

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 17 2010 04:52 pm

The-Excel wrote:

I didn't know random viral videos could be copyrighted.

Everything is copyrighted as soon as it's published, and YouTube is a publishing medium.

...and yeah, this is pretty clear parody. This suit shouldn't win.

Posted: Nov 17 2010 05:51 pm

Nah, it won't go anywhere. Trey and Matt get sued like every other day at this point; I doubt they really care anymore.

Joined: Jun 08 2010 Location: Termina Field Posts: 1541

UsaSatsui wrote:

The-Excel wrote:

I didn't know random viral videos could be copyrighted.

Everything is copyrighted as soon as it's published, and YouTube is a publishing medium.

...and yeah, this is pretty clear parody. This suit shouldn't win.

And what if, for some odd reason, I didn't want whatever I published copyrighted?

Title: Hugh Joined: Sep 23 2007 Posts: 1591

I don't think anything forces you to defend a copyright.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 25 2010 10:57 pm

Mr. Satire wrote:

UsaSatsui wrote:

The-Excel wrote:

I didn't know random viral videos could be copyrighted.

Everything is copyrighted as soon as it's published, and YouTube is a publishing medium.

...and yeah, this is pretty clear parody. This suit shouldn't win.

And what if, for some odd reason, I didn't want whatever I published copyrighted?

You can release it under the public domain, or under a "copyleft" license like Creative Commons or GNU. A published work is assumed to be copyright unless you say otherwise.

Or, as Fig said, you can simply choose not to defend it.

Title: Alexz Aficionado Joined: May 21 2008 Posts: 2889

I saw this post and thought "Again?" Razz