Hitler Parodies Booted Off YouTube: Death of a Web Meme?
YouTube has recently begun removing videos that feature content from Constantin Films’ 2004 film, Der Untergang (“Downfall”), despite the fact that many of these videos are parodies and thus constitute fair use of the material. The Downfall, or Hitler-parody, meme has been, arguably, a viral spat of publicity for Constantin Films in the past few years. The meme takes a now-infamous scene from the movie (the scene in which Hitler reacts to the news that Germany is about to lose the war) and puts satirical subtitles over the action (the movie is in German). Hitler parodies have been made for everything from “Hitler finds out Tony Romo dumped Jessica Simpson,” to “Hitler is Fired from Whataburger,” to, more recently, “Hitler Responds to the iPad.” According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), these videos are being removed because of YouTube’s automated Content I.D. system, which allows copyright owners to disable any videos that contain its content–regardless of whether the vid
