EFF on JibJab’s ‘This Land’ Cartoon
I meant to link to it, because it was pretty funny, but then it got slashdotted, and then they were charging donations to access it, so I said, eh, whatever. But now they’ve straightened out their hosting issues, just in time to be threatened by the lawyers of the company that owns the copyright to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” and the EFF has taken them on as a client. So check it out: Update on JibJab’s ‘This Land’.
July 29th, 2004 at 5:53 pm
Intellectual property (as in, ‘we own this song you’ve known since grade school’) is out of control. Why, right there in the damn Guthrie song is the verse about a sign that says “No Trespassing… but on the other side, it didn’t say nothing, that side was made for you and me.” Not hard to figure out what Woody would think of corporations claiming they can own every idea imaginable, from a seed (Monsanto) to a phrase (Faux News: Fair And Balanced) to the truth itself (director John Landis wanted to use Bush footage like Michael Moore in his new movie Slasher, but was ‘horrified’ to find that the networks charge $90 a second for it). Intellectual Property is one aspect of corporate control most people overlook, but it is VERY insidious. See the essay:
Against intellectual property
From Information Liberation, Challenging the corruptions of information power
by Brian Martin, Freedom Press, London 1998. which may be seen at
http://www.deoxy.org/aip.htm
When corporations tell you ‘downloading is theft’ and so on, remember that the copyrighting, patenting, buying and selling of ideas is only a couple of centuries old. Civilization managed to come a long way without it.
Tom Buckner
October 9th, 2004 at 10:52 am
I can’t get “This Land” or “It’s Good to be in DC” to download fully to view the video……is something (someone) blocking this..or is my computer not able to handle it….Thanks.
November 1st, 2004 at 11:25 pm
Watched it on Googles at a retail store, but unable to bring it in at home to share with my husband??
December 19th, 2004 at 6:20 am
yihuikhmh