Technology has yet to catch up with the new forms of entertainment that it has itself enabled.
Parodies using excerpts from Oliver Herschbiegel's 2004 film, "Downfall" have been removed from YouTube on orders from the movie's copyright owners, Constantin Films. The dialogue for the movie is in German, and enterprising satirists have used short portions of the movie, replacing the English subtitles with their own. The results are usually scenes of Hitler ranting in anger at his staff, with the translations indicating he is furious over, say, Kanye West's behavior at the MTV awards, or that the iPad can't multitask.
The problem lies in the way that Constantin Films had the clips removed.
Using YouTube's content ID system, the film company was able to identify any clips containing "Downfall" footage and have them removed. But the content ID system is unable to distinguish between straight presentation of movie clips and clips altered for the purpose of commentary or satire, which is allowed under fair use copyright law. Constantin Films effectively muzzled YouTube users in one fell swoop.
Constantin Films certainly has the right to remove any unaltered clips of its property from YouTube, as that does constitute infringement. But think how easy it would be for a corporation, or a government, to use the content ID system to remove videos that they simply didn't want to be seen. The First Amendment could take a real beating with the flick of a switch. YouTube needs to develop a better technology to manage content so that everyone's rights can be protected, not just those of media companies.
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