This was actually quite brilliant:
The 2004 German movie 'Downfall' features a scene of Hitler losing his temper and ranting at his generals. That scene has been re-used countless times for parody videos on all kinds of subjects (think of Islamic Rage Boy from J&K)
Now the makers of Downfall have insisted that Youtube pull down all these parody videos, because of copyright infringement on their original source material. In response, yet another parody video was released on the net, commenting on the decision to censor all of these videos.
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here's more on the same from the san jose mercury news:
Der furor — studio killing Hitler video parodies: If you're at all in touch with the Internet meme scene, you're likely familiar with the "Hitler reacts" parodies — the hundreds of viral videos created over the past several years by taking a four-minute bunker scene from the 2004 German-language film "Downfall" and swapping in new subtitles to have the dictator madly ranting about everything from new tech products to politicians. (If all this is totally foreign to you, here's a sort of meta-example in which Hitler reacts to becoming a meme.) It is a measure of the concept's power that among the many questions raised by the recent wayward iPhone prototype episode, one was, "How will Hitler react?" (Here's how, and it involves some impolite language.)
Sadly, it looks like the fun is over. Across YouTube, Hitler parodies are starting to disappear, replaced by a notice that the content was blocked by Constantin Films on copyright grounds. And in the path of the great rumbling combine that is YouTube's Content I.D. automated filtering system, there is no time for considering any fair-use issues first. Says the Electronic Frontier Foundation: "Because the Content I.D. filter permits a copyright owner to disable any video that contains its copyrighted content — whether or not that video contains other elements that make the use a noninfringing fair use — a content owner can take down a broad swath of fair uses with the flick of a switch. It seems that's exactly what Constantin Film has chosen to do." And in a meta-meta example, one of videos pulled was EFF board member Brad Templeton's creation showing Hitler ordering the takedown of the parodies.
So where was the harm? The videos certainly weren't cutting into "Downfall's" DVD sales, and they probably stirred more continuing interest in the source material than Constantin ever could. The director had no problem. "Someone sends me the links every time there's a new one. I think I've seen about 145 of them! Of course, I have to put the sound down when I watch. Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I'm laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn't get a better compliment as a director," said Oliver Hirschbiegel. The writer and producer had no problem. "I find those parodies tremendously amusing! Obviously, the film and this scene in particular is a real fire starter for people's imagination. What else can you hope for as a filmmaker? This is moviemaking heaven! My favorite one is when Hitler is having his tantrum over his losses in the real estate crisis," said Bernd Eichinger.
But lawyers — not creators, professional or amateur — rule the day, and they keep finding ways to make it just a little less bright. Maybe the Hitler gag had about run its course anyway, but as with the original bunker, it's an ignominious end.
The dialogue at 2:48 made me ROFLMAO!
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