So Elayne put up this video that is associated with a movie that is coming out as a Silly Site. It’s cute and all, but if there wasn’t some coordination with Volkswagen, there may be a bit of a legal problem because of this Superbowl commercial.
I think that “fair use” doesn’t come close to covering it, and it is an ad for a commercial venture, so unless there was a some agreement I expect the Silly Site to evaporate quickly.
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6 comments
I don’t know, Bryan. I’ve depended many times in my career as a doggerelist on the fact that parody is protected, in spite of copyright laws. That first YouTube looks awfully much like a parody of the VW commercial to me.
That is not to say that VW won’t sue; corporations have lawyers to burn, and strong incentives to protect their alleged copyright “assiduously” (I believe that’s the word the law uses). But I would not bet on their winning.
That would work, Steve, if it wasn’t tied to an actual commercial product that is about to be released. It is the commercial tie-in that causes the problem, because that is the first thing a judge looks at – was it used to make money? That is also what VW will be considering.
VW could have them re-do the ending with their SUV and have the car survive the lightning bolt.
It was really well done, with Loki on the dog’s dish and A5G 4RD [Asgard] on the license plate. They may have coordinated it with VW. I hope so, because it is a neat bit of work, as was the original, and I’m not saying that just because I have a grandnephew who would act just like the kid in either commercial.
Amazingly, Bryan, I actually noticed the Asgard license plate. Maybe my memory isn’t failing after all. 🙂
I don’t understand about the commercial tie-in. Most of my few parodies (Mad was always better at parody than I was; I’m sorry she seems to have forsaken the practice) were of songs recorded to make money, and there’s hardly anyone out there with a more rapacious copyright policy than RIAA… they claim rights never established in law, and they have enough purchased members of Congress to have embedded their favorite “rights” in the DMCA. I always thought the problem with commercial tie-ins was if the parodist made money, which I certainly never did. But I’ve never heard of a song parodist getting nailed. Go figure.
There are back-channel deals through the publishers on much of that, often the same company is actually publishing the original and the parody, although under different labels.
Frankly, there is no way of predicting what, if anything, will happen. If there wasn’t a film coming out, I would guess absolutely nothing. I also don’t know if this is “official”, but with the cost of blowing up the car, some one paid some serious money for the special effects.
Well, it’s almost a month later and it’s still there. 🙂
They must have worked a deal, Elayne, or someone isn’t paying attention.