I heart the Happy Tree Friends, but this video is blatant propaganda.  The threat level rhetoric is through the roof, while fair use is reduced to a short section read at micromachine speed that ends in get a lawyer…

No mention of free speech or the value of critical commentary.  Even mash-ups and remixes are slammed. Who wrote this a room full of  RIAA advocates that took the heart of youtube (remix and memes are the heart not some mythical unicorn called purely original content) and reduced that heart to a poorly written law review article footnote…

I would love to see a remix oft his video that takes the copyright trolls and warns them that sending takedowns without considering fair use may cause them to lose fans, with key phrases like the first amendment, free speech, censorship, everything is remix and building on the shoulders of giants.

Shared by Public Knowledge.

Hear is an idea:  How about a remix challenge.  I am willing to offer a free lunch to best remix of this video that incorporates the values of remix and free speech while educating people on there rights.  Upload a remix and tag it with remixCopyrightSchool or post a link in the comments or email me [email protected] to be considered.  I will judge the results on April 30th and post the winner May 1st.  (If you are outside a city I am in this summer I will send you $  to buy lunch)

Update: the copyright school has a video that tries to explain fair use and it is terrible.  Bad 70′s music. Lots of legal ease. The recommendations are use the public domain or write original content.  Pardoy is mentioned once, but never explained.  It reads like a lawschool text book with no concrete examples.  I the video is design to confuse and encourage people to get a lawyer. It even tells people to go to the copyright office to find the rights holder then go buy insurance and permits.  This is licensing not fair use.

The film is aimed at professional film makers and is useless for 99% of you tube users. (the only bright spot is they mention the American University’ Center for Social Media which has much better resources)

PS I was divided on what to offer as a prize as I do not want to make the challenge commercial and endanger your fair use claim.

Very interesting video. Free speech is never mentioned, fair use is never mentioned. IP generally is mentioned, copyright is mentioned.

The key right is a right of publicity or a commercial endorsement right along the lines of misappropriation.

It troubles me how we are seeing more copyright claims regarding political speech with few free speech counter arguments. If the song were used in a car commercial that is clearly an issue, but political speech should have a stronger free speech argument.

We are creating a dangerous social norm here that limits political speech which is at the core of free speech.

Thanks Denise Crouch for point this out at www.patentlyo.com/patent/2011/04/copyright-versus-free-speech.html