I think we should call it your grave!

This is just nuts. First of all, if you haven't seen the presidential cartoon "This Land", then get on over to Jib Jab and PYAITK. The thing is frigging hilarious.

As you probably noticed, the song in the cartoon is a take-off from Woody Guthrie's old American classic, "This Land is Your Land". Although the song was written back in the 1940s, it appears that Ludlow Music still owns the copyright to it. They have threatened the makers of the cartoon with a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement. The truly scary part is that they may actually have a case. From arstechnica.com:

JibJab's lawyers are arguing that the use of the song is protected by Fair Use, but the Fair Use protections in question usually only relate to parody, not satire. The distinction is usually determined by looking at who's being made fun of. A proper paraody is one which makes fun of the thing being mimicked. So, one would be hard pressed to argue that this short animation isn't protected by Fair Use if it made fun of the original song, but it doesn't. Using the song's general features, it takes aim at Bush and Kerry, and as such, it probably would not be protected.

Here's hoping this one gets smacked down fast.

By the way, those of you who got the reference in the title get a cookie. The rest of you should look at this and this.

We Control the Horizontal and the Vertical

While the merger of AOL and Time Warner and the movie Tomorrow Never Dies have brought the issue of media consolidation before the public eye, many people have no idea just how close we are to a world where the Media Corporation owns every media product we see and hear. Ted Turner, of Turner Broadcasting fame, has written an eye-opening op-ed about the dangers of media conglomeration. It includes the following quote:

Today, the only way for media companies to survive is to own everything up and down the media chain--from broadcast and cable networks to the sitcoms, movies, and news broadcasts you see on those stations; to the production studios that make them; to the cable, satellite, and broadcast systems that bring the programs to your television set; to the Web sites you visit to read about those programs; to the way you log on to the Internet to view those pages. Big media today wants to own the faucet, pipeline, water, and the reservoir. The rain clouds come next.

On a slightly tangential note, this page at the Columbia Journalism Review shows just how much of the country's radio is owned by a little company based out of San Antonio called Clear Channel.

Duke Gives Away iPods

Duke is giving iPods away for free!

To incoming freshman. Loaded with 'school materials'. But free iPods!