Hitler 'Downfall' Parodies Removed From YouTube

Hitler 'Downfall' Parodies Removed From YouTube

www.military.com< br />

NEW YORK - Adolf Hitler, for years a vessel of frustration in a popular Internet video, has been quieted.

"Downfall," a German film released in 2004 about Hitler's last days, has been adopted for wildly popular YouTube parodies that have spanned mock rants about topics as varied as playing Xbox video games to Kanye West to Apple's new iPad.

Every spoof is from the same scene in the film: A furious, defeated Hitler, played by Bruno Ganz, unleashes an impassioned, angry speech to his remaining.

(visit the link for the full news article)

"When does parody stop? It is a very complicated issue," Moszkowicz said. "So we are taking a simple approach: Take them all down. We've been doing it for years now. The important thing is to protect our copyright. We are very proud of the film."

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the league was "delighted."

"We find them offensive," said Foxman of the videos. "We feel that they trivialize not only the Holocaust but World War II. Hitler is not a cartoon character."

. . .

"We have not been able to see any increase in DVD sales," he said. "There is no correlation between Internet parodies and sales of a movie, at least not that I am aware of."

Moszkowicz said he didn't know why the videos were only recently taken down and suggested that it could have been "something on the YouTube end."

YouTube, which is owned by Google, declined to comment Wednesday about the takedown of the videos.

Some have argued that, being parodies, the videos are protected under "fair use," the legal doctrine that holds that the use of some creative works for purposes such as parody and education may be considered "fair."

Yeah . . .


In my opinion, Youtube should back off. There is no reason to take them down.

As for offensive . . . some people need to grow thicker skin.

Thoughts?

www.military.com< br /> (visit the link for the full news article)

I haven't been happy with youtubes behaviour for a while.

People need to start using and developing alternatives.

I thought it was a bit much after awhile, only really watched the Ipad one though

As for them taking it down, I guess they can it's their site, but it's a parody, they aren't breaking any laws....... so it's really just a b***** move on their part.

Originally posted by Republican08
I thought it was a bit much after awhile, only really watched the Ipad one though

As for them taking it down, I guess they can it's their site, but it's a parody, they aren't breaking any laws....... so it's really just a b***** move on their part.

I thought most of them were pretty funny.


Damn youtube.

The owners must get up every day and decide to destroy something beautiful.

They need to watch themselves. User made content like this made youtube what it is. Are they suddenly too elitist for their own users and the content they make?

These parodies were funny, and harmless.

Well, like others have said- parody is legal and fair use.

I made a parody of it too- about his aborted Bachelor Party.

I made Hitler look ridiculous- my intent.

The funny thing people do not understand is-
someone like me can make a parody of Hitler and still hate him-
I wrote an entire screenplay about Hitler that imagines Hitler getting
the justice and suffering he deserved... thus, it is not one dimensional.

My one very big question...

Why is it okay to satirize Hitler on stage (the #1 Broadway show EVER in the very Jewish city of New York) and not on the Web?

Double standards?

Boy, the world is a very paradoxical, illogical, messed up place.

I wish there was some 3600 year cycle with a rogue planet that would hit the reset button and make us less competitive, angry... petty.

Oh wait, there is- only 2 and a half years until Earth 2.0

HDF

reply to post by Lemon.Fresh


I don't care how good the movie "Downfall" was, I'll never buy a copy after this move. The makers of the movie are acting like Nazis themselves by forcing You Tube to get rid of them.

I always thought they were funny and I never saw anything offencive in any of them.

Abe Foxman and his ADL do more to give Jews a bad name than any other organization I know of. The ADL is the closest thing we have to a Nazi movement in the modern world.

Originally posted by Lemon.Fresh

Originally posted by Republican08
I thought it was a bit much after awhile, only really watched the Ipad one though

As for them taking it down, I guess they can it's their site, but it's a parody, they aren't breaking any laws....... so it's really just a b***** move on their part.

I thought most of them were pretty funny.


Damn youtube.

Oops, don't get me wrong man, I thought they were pretty funny too, but after the billionth one it's like c'mon guys, get original again!

I saw a few and thought they were really funny. Too bad youtube is being a jerk. I need to find an alternative site that is not so conformist.

reply to post by Lemon.Fresh

As for offensive . . . some people need to grow thicker skin.

word

reply to post by HighDefinitionFilms




You actually made me lol when I read your Earth 2.0 joke. Not bad at all...

I 100% agree. I don't think people that make movies of something area necessarily for OR against it; any produced video is about getting people to view it and making a statement, or entertainment.

I am about to boycott youtube for this.

thats such a shame,everytime something big came in the news i always checked to see if somebody did it in the hitler parady
like belial259 said,user content is what made youtube what it is,the webs changing but not for the better.
we all know hitler was an evil man,it's just a bit of fun..

The article clearly states that Constantin Films requested that the work be removed and youtube complied. I can't find anything wrong with youtube respecting the filmmakers of Downfall. I'm no lawyer but I do believe that the many uses of the clip were satire and not parody (as defined by the fair use law) and therefore violated copyright. If anything, I'm sure there were many clips that did not appropriately give credit to the filmmakers and that is plagiarism.

reply to post by Hellmutt


My favorite...

Originally posted by earthdude
I saw a few and thought they were really funny. Too bad youtube is being a jerk. I need to find an alternative site that is not so conformist.

Don't use google videos same company that owns youtube. I am also sick of youtube or google. They made me force to use their google gmail system and it pissed me off. I have already 4 other e-mails I use and sometimes i forget them.

reply to post by Lemon.Fresh


I used to love this meme but after a while I felt it got kinda old and everybody was doing it.

Sucks that their being taken down, youtube is always on the war path to remove the things that made it good in the past. I understand the desire to protect copyrights and artists but if it means deleting the majority of the sites good content what will be left, just thousands of webcam vids and videos of people's cat being funny

When the Mystery Science Theater starts disappearing that's when I'll leave youtube for good.

Originally posted by Cobra5000
The article clearly states that Constantin Films requested that the work be removed and youtube complied. I can't find anything wrong with youtube respecting the filmmakers of Downfall. I'm no lawyer but I do believe that the many uses of the clip were satire and not parody (as defined by the fair use law) and therefore violated copyright. If anything, I'm sure there were many clips that did not appropriately give credit to the filmmakers and that is plagiarism.

A satire is a piece of writing in which the subject is exposed to ridicule of some kind, usually in attempts to provoke or prevent a change. Satire can use any point of view.

A parody is a form of satire that mimics another piece of work in order to ridicule it. Parodies exist in all forms of media, including music and movies. A parody is generally written in a humorous manner, for the effect of comedy.


Often times, satire and parody overlap.

According to the Supreme Court, you would be correct in calling it Satire . . .

BUT . . .

even satire that does not target the original work can be considered fair use if, for instance, there is little possibility that consumers would view the satire as a commercial substitute (§ 107(4)), or if only a small amount of the
copyrighted work was used (§ 107(3)).

Source


I highly doubt that the makers and viewers of the Hitler videos view those videos as a commercial substitute to watching Downfall.



Furthermore, Moskowitz, the head of film and TV at Constantin Films says " . . .There is no correlation between Internet parodies and sales of a movie, at least not that I am aware of."