Promotional value of copyright infringement
Jed | June 25, 2007The following clip and the story surrounding it highlight why letting lawyers run your business is probably an awful idea.
Basically, these guys made a music video (a pretty awesome one at that) about the Die Hard films, and used clips from the films in the video. So clearly, they don’t own the copyright to these clips and they’re probably beyond fair use. So of course, the lawyers at 20th Century Fox were quick to shoot off threatening cease-and-desist letters and used the DMCA to force Youtube to pull the video off the site.
The reasons this was a bonehead move are two-fold.
- The video in no way threatens the financial success of the new movie, or sales of the old movies.
- But more importantly, this video promotes the Die Hard movies - I don’t know anyone who isn’t filled with a strong desire to go watch the movies again after watching this video. These guys are helping out the studio!
But of course, lawyers don’t care. All they see is more busywork to help them justify their existence high salaries. Yahoo, more takedown notices!
Luckily (and surprisingly), someone at Fox’s marketing department has a brain and realized the value of this video. They contacted the band and worked with them to make the video even better (they even paid them!). The NY Times has a good story about it.
Anyway, here’s the video: “Die Hard” by Guyz Nite
Of course, now I can’t get this damn song out of my head:
- “We’re gunna die, die, die, die hard…. we’re gunna die, die, die as hard as we can”
- “No one dies harder than John McClain, even when his wife’s stuck on a plane”
- “No one dies harder than John McClain, saving all those people on that train…”
Strangely, just today I saw a guy on GW Parkway with a bumper sticker that read “Yippee Kay Yay M____”. A sign perhaps, or just really smart guerrilla marketing?
