Let us start with this: The fair use doctrine applies to works of parody. This means that we can take something copyrighted and use it in a parody — it’s protected free speech under the first amendment, even if people disagree with it.
But that doctrine doesn’t apply to Hitler, apparently.
Constantin Film, the company that produced “Downfall,” the movie that spawned dozens (perhaps hundreds) of “Hitler finds out…” video parodies, recently ordered YouTube to take down all the parody videos.
The parodies had used a fuming monologue in the German-language movie by Bruno Ganz’s Hitler after he realizes he is about to lose World War II, changing the subtitles to make it appear like Hitler was ranting about everything from the Amy Bishop case to video game bugs.
The parodies, apparently, drew complaints from groups, including Jewish advocates.
Hank Green from vlogbrothers on YouTube made a great Hitler parody about this exact issue and tweeted it the other day.
@hankgreen: If you were wondering what the definition of “meta” is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBO5dh9qrIQ
Sure, it wouldn’t hold up in court, but it’s not like YouTube users and these people making parodies have the kind of money to actually go up against them in court.
Constantin Film SUCKS!!! This is more attention they have got since the crap film was released!! I don’t plan on viewing any of their products anymore. Screw Constantin Film!!