A few days ago YouTube started taking down those Hilter parody videos. You know, the ones where folks layer on their own English subtitles as Hitler vacillates so expressively (in German) between anger and despair. Quality has varied, but a number of submissions have been both timely and amusing. Well, the movie studio that owns the content (Downfall) is working through YouTube’s Content Identification system to remove all of them. Uploaders can dispute the match and ownership, but that’d probably result in another takedown under the DMCA. One could fight that, too. And then, possibly, end up in court. I’m no legal scholar and can’t even guess if this sort of work truly falls under fair use… but I have my doubts. As to why the studio is exerting their rights, who knows. But while they’ve been getting a ton of free publicity, I doubt it’s actually converted into DVD sales. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the German Actors Guild (if there is such a thing) takes offense at trivializing their member’s art and is ultimately behind this.
Regardless, this gives me the opening I was looking for to resurrect the Hampster Dance (’99), an original web meme. Before there was a YouTube or viral video, and before Disney would care (or realize) their soundtrack was played double time over a bunch of probably-also-swiped rotating hamsters. But our attention spans are short and the animated GIFs of the Hampster Dance were quickly replaced by the far more sophisticated Flash-based microwaving of Joe Cartoon’s gerbil. We must never forget.