Submission + - UMG uses DMCA to get Bad Lip Reading parody taken 3
Joren writes: "Bad Lip Reading is an independent producer known for anonymously parodying music and political videos by redubbing them with his humorous attempts at lip-reading, such as Everybody Poops (Black Eyed Peas) and Trick the Bridesmaid (Obama). According to an interview in Rolling Stone , he creates entirely new music from scratch consisting of his bad lip readings, and then sets them to the original video, often altering the video for humorous effect and always posting a link to the original off which it is based. Although his efforts have won the respect of parody targets Michael Bublé and Michelle Bachman, not everyone has been pleased. Two days ago, UMG succeeded in getting his parody Dirty Spaceman taken down from YouTube, and despite BLR's efforts to appeal, in his words UMG essentially said "We don't care if you think it's fair use, we want it down." And YouTube killed it.So does this meet the definition of parody as a form of fair use? And if so, what recourse if any is available for artists who are caught in this situation? Are UMG's actions a justifiable attempt to defend their rights under the law, or should this be seen as an attempt to get content they don't like removed from the Internet?"
