Many of you are probably familiar with the Lord of the Rings parody “Lord of the Weed”:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Weed_%E2%80%93_Sinnlos_in_Mittelerde
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gsvJSH7nK0
This parody uses about 18 minutes of the footage from the first Lord of the Rings film, audio is not used.
Since the original is now almost 20 years old and you can count the pixels on one hand in the versions on YouTube, I took the trouble to restore the whole synchro in 4K resolution.
No sooner said than done and done (on a few sleepless nights), I wanted to upload it to Youtube too.
Not entirely unexpected, of course, was a Content ID claim. Then I tried my luck (since such parodies are at least a gray area in the USA) and went through Youtube’s copyright system. A dispute was rejected relatively quickly, after 30 days of waiting I was able to try an appeal, which I submitted in great detail, but unfortunately it was also rejected after only one day and now I have the option to delete the video within 7 days or to submit a so-called “counter notification”, which means in practice they can either agree with me or we go to court.
I know the topic is a hot topic, that was already the case with Coldmirror’s Harry Potter Synchros back then, but they have now made it back on Youtube through other people and the Lord of the Weed Original has been on the platform for 16 years .
The only thing I’ve done is improve the quality and I don’t know that the quality of the upload has an impact on fair use.
The way I see it, the video is a “transformative parody” and just about fair use by American standards. I know “but he can do that too!” is not an argument in court, but the other synchros and the original on Youtube show that it can legally exist.
The problem is, of course, that German law is also added in this country, which of course complicates the whole thing, since, as far as I know, German law is somewhat more stringent.
In addition, YouTube specifies the requirements of American fair use law in all of its guidelines.
So my question is:
I don’t have to go to court about this thing now, but I would like to hear a second opinion on the whole subject.
– Edited by Zozzle on 02/15/2021 7:33 PM
– Edited by Zozzle on 02/15/2021 7:34 PM
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