Blue Helm

Apparently, Hitler likes the 1982 Disney film, Tron.

I’ll admit that I liked a lot of the videos on YouTube parodying Hitler in the the 2004 film, Downfall. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something hilarious about one of world’s most villainous tyrants throwing a hissy fit over banal pop culture events such as Tiger Woods’ affair, Susan Boyle and the Twilight DVD.

But, as many of you savvy news junkies out there already know, the film’s distributor, Constantin Film, asked YouTube to remove all Downfall parodies from the site. Many are still up, but it irks me that such a large film production company (or any company) is so completely dim that it would attempt to kill all viral content celebrating one of its products. Sure the videos are parodies, but they still have the potential of driving thousands of people to watch the original clip, if not the original film. How, in this Viral Age, can companies still think they can censor or destroy user-generated content online?

Corynne McSherry, an attorney specializing in intellectual property and free speech issues, has already said that the parodies constitute fair use and aren’t infringing on any copyrighted material. It’s satire, which is protected speech. But regardless, Constantin Film should be embracing the free attention its film is getting from this huge online phenomenon. Don’t bight the hand that feeds you.

Needless to say, Hitler is not happy.