I'm not going to comment too much on this, but this is hilariously wrong. I learned from this EFF post that the maker of the oft-parodied Hitler film The Downfall sent a bunch of takedown notices (or something similar using filtration technology) to YouTube, prompting removal of a swath of Hitler meltdown scene parodies.
Not only are many of these parodies clear cases of fair use, the parodies even included one by EFF's Brad Templeton,
"which depicted Hitler as a producer at Constantin Films. He hears about all the videos and orders DMCA takedowns. His lawyers (generals) have to explain why you can't just do that, and he gets angry. I have a blog post about the video, including a description of all the work I had to do to make sure my base video was obtained legally."
Nice: life imitates art parodying life!
Hitler, as "Downfall producer" orders a DMCA takedown from Brad Templeton on Vimeo.
As Brad Templeton's first commenter asked, "Will you do a new Hitler parody about YouTube taking down Hitler parodies about YouTube taking down Hitler parodies?"
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Apparently the EFF is the SS if I understood Hitler's German correctly...
That is fucking outstanding!!!!
It should be noted that it's Constantin Films attempting to have the videos removed; the director himself is apparently quite taken by the trend. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downfall_(film)#Criticism]
Right. Unfortunately for us, for copyright purposes, the director is not usually considered the "author" or maker of the work, and doesn't have control over what the studio does with its copyright entitlements.
I think it's funny.