Inevitably, Hitler reacts to the Hitler parodies being removed from YouTube…
Oliver Hirschbiegel commenting on the Hitler parody memes made from his 2004 film, Downfall, for a January NY Magazine piece:
“Someone sends me the links every time there’s a new one,” says the director, on the phone from Vienna. “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.” Some of Hirschbiegel’s favorites are the one where Hitler hears of Michael Jackson’s death, and one in which the Fuhrer can’t get Billy Elliot tickets.
Apparently he’s at odds with the film’s producer and distributor, Constantin Film. Click through to see any of the videos that made him laugh so hard and you’ll see only the following message: “This video contains content from Constantin Film, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.”
Electronic Frontier Foundation board member Brad Templeton suspects the removals come via YouTube fingerprinting rather than DMCA takdowns. His own Hitler Orders a DMCA Takedown was specifically constructed to violate no law. It was pulled yesterday:
YouTube does allow uploaders to file a dispute over a Content ID takedown, and I did file a dispute. Upon filing the dispute, it appears the video became immediately playable (though embedding was disabled until I turned it back on.) The uploader is not told this, however, as the YouTube status page still reports that the “dispute is still awaiting a response from Constantin Films” and that the video is “blocked worldwide.” We will see how long it takes for Constantin to respond. They don’t make the dispute form easy to find, and in fact I got no notice via e-mail that I can see to tell me of the takedown. When I visited the page logged in to YouTube, it still showed me the video even though nobody else could see it, and uploaders have to work to learn that their vids are gone. Due to the dispute filing it appears you can now play the video directly on YouTube. The approach of immediate re-enabling is the right one (though the scattershot takedown itself is more troubling.)
EFF’s “Guide to YouTube Removals” details YouTube users options for responding to takedowns.
Via Ars Technica.
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