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This video is downright hilarious, but it also highlights a problem with our current system of content control. This song is copyrighted. The video clips (used from A&E) are copyrighted and probably fall outside of the limited rights afforded by fair-use. So technically, this video is illegal.

But isn’t this also a new piece of art? Whoever thought to put these things together is pretty creative. I think we’d all prefer if artists and other creative-types were free to create mashups as long as it doesn’t impact the pocketbooks of the original copyright owners. For example, A&E isn’t going to lose out on advertising revenue because people are watching this video instead of their show.

In fact, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, there’s tremendous promotional value in these types of mashups. This video will only encourage more people to buy the song and/or watch A&E.

But what usually happens in this situation is that the original content holders get greedy. They want to make money off of every single use of their content. Even though it doesn’t hurt them and might even help them, they don’t like this new world that they can’t control. So they use the out-of-date legal system to maintain the status-quo. After all, that’s what they’re used to, and change is scary. But who loses out? We do.

I’m amazed this clip is still available. I’m very curious to see when it gets taken down, and which side (RIAA or MPAA) pulls out the lawyers first.

As one of my favorite bloggers at Techdirt has said (I’m paraphrasing), “a lot of people are going to have to die for this to change.” That doesn’t mean that these people should be off’d, just that we’re going to have to wait until this whole generation of people retire or otherwise pass on and a new generation that grew up with the internet comes to power. Hopefully by then we’ll see some common sense come into the world of intellectual property.

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The 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?