Disney Is Making Damn Sure That None Of You Watch An Unauthorized Version Of Samuel L. Jackson Reading 'Stay The Fuck At Home'

from the copyright-yo-psa dept

Lots of famous folks have been making (often amusing) "Stay Home" public service announcements. One great one showed up last week, in which Samuel L. Jackson read a copy of a new "poem" by Adam Mansbach, the author (a decade ago) of the infamous Go the Fuck to Sleep. This time, it was Stay the Fuck at Home. As with the original, Mansbach wrote it, and they got Samuel L. Jackson to read it -- though it debuted on the Jimmy Kimmel show (filmed with everyone at home, of course). You can see it embedded below (hopefully starting at the right part):

As you can see, this was in the middle of a much longer clip from the show (an interview of Jackson by Kimmel). Many, many people snipped out just the reading and posted versions of it to Twitter and YouTube. In fact, the first version I spotted was a tweeted version that only had about half of the reading. A bunch of versions showed up on YouTube as well... and, of course, Disney had to step in and shut that shit right down with a copyright takedown (ht to Plainsite, who first spotted this).

While there was some confusion as to how Disney held the copyright on this, it's because it was originally aired on Jimmy Kimmel's show which is on ABC, which is owned by Disney. So, pretty straightforward, and you might argue, a legitimate use of copyright. The clip's copyright is held by Disney, and so it's not a bogus takedown.

But that doesn't make it smart. After all, the whole damn point of this is to make it be seen by as many people as possible. That's the nature of a Public Service Announcement. And the Kimmel clip buried the reading in the middle, whereas many people making clipped versions of it made it that much easier for people to see it. And, I should remind you, the whole damn reason that the original Go the Fuck to Sleep became popular in the first place was because of "piracy" sharing the original around (oh, and also, the original artwork was done without licensing some of the artwork).

But, hey, it's the middle of a pandemic and Disney's going to Disney everything up, I guess.

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Filed Under: copyright, covid-19, jimmy kimmel, psa, samuel l. jackson, stay the fuck at home, takedowns
Companies: disney


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  1. icon
    Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 7 Apr 2020 @ 7:45am

    "...Disney's going to Disney everything up, I guess."

    So now Disney is a verb as well? As many words, including verbs have multiple meanings, when this notion makes it to the dictionaries, I wonder how many 'definitions' will get listed? Will it have to be capitalized in all uses?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Stephen T. Stone (profile), 7 Apr 2020 @ 9:45am

    To paraphrase a famous film that Disney doesn’t own (yet): They were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn’t stop to think about whether they should.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2020 @ 10:08am

    Re:

    The only definition that matters is the 80% use-case as demonstrated in the article.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    That One Guy (profile), 7 Apr 2020 @ 10:22am

    Even the scorpion is shaking their head in disgust...

    Has someone make a public service announcement, something that you want as many people as possible to see/hear.

    Issues takedown on 'unauthorized' versions to limit the number of people who will see it.

    Oh Disney, you just can't help yourself...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 7 Apr 2020 @ 10:26am

    Re: Re:

    I didn't see any 80% use-case mentioned, or demonstrated in the article. They didn't even write it. The only claim they have is on Samuel L. Jackson's performance of it on 'their' TV show.

    Now if the posters gave some commentary or criticism, or compliments on the public service announcement aspect of the performance the poster's would have a fair use claim, and it would be Disney's (that's the noun) responsibility to check for fair use before sending the DMCA claim.

    Therefore one meaning of 'to Disney' (that's the verb) could be to fail to make the fair use analysis, but to be fair, many copyright maximalists fail in the same way. Another would be the way they make use of other peoples works in their own productions (public domain, but don't you dare try to use that same public domain). How many more can we come up with?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 7 Apr 2020 @ 10:30am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Oh, I forgot to mention that even 100% usage could still be fair use, if it has the accompanying commentary.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2020 @ 10:40am

    Now I wish Martial Law was declared

    I only wish it was so that someone could kill off Disney during the emergency. It would benefit the world for it to die and be replaced by less evil companies.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    fairuse (profile), 7 Apr 2020 @ 10:43am

    The Evil Corp Policy

    I will never let go of the kingpin box -Touchstone movie scene.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    Stephen T. Stone (profile), 7 Apr 2020 @ 10:54am

    You say that like the U.S. military wouldn't be protecting Disney and its assets.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2020 @ 11:50am

    Re: Re: Re:

    too bad that PSA's are not generally intended to be Viewed and Seen by the public...

    Or are Disney PSA's considered Private Service Announcements?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2020 @ 12:04pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The 80% use-case of the verb "Disney", i.e. to be a complete asshole by way of copyright maximalism. See also: Nintendo

    The remaining uses of Disney as a verb are many and varied but completely eclipsed by the above.

    Following now?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2020 @ 12:40pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Disney...building an empire creating things based upon public domain and fair use, while denying the rest of us should be able to do the same.

    Does anybody happen to know if Disney owns Getty?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2020 @ 1:06pm

    No different to the clueless Senators we've got! Not an ounce of sense or decency. Nothing more important than money and control!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2020 @ 3:35pm

    Does this mean Disney may have violated Mr. Mansbach's copyright on the poem? Did they get his permission to do a public performance?
    But as important, it would be interesting to see the contract between Sam Jackson and Disney to see what rights HE retained in his performance of it?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. icon
    Norahc (profile), 7 Apr 2020 @ 4:52pm

    Re:

    Does this mean Disney may have violated Mr. Mansbach's copyright on the poem? Did they get his permission to do a public performance?
    But as important, it would be interesting to see the contract between Sam Jackson and Disney to see what rights HE retained in his performance of it?

    Silly AC....copyright protection is only for Disney and the big studios, not for us mere peons.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    ROGS, 8 Apr 2020 @ 10:26am

    Where I live, Disney provides a few jobs, and subsidiary industries. That seems important, whether I agree or not with such asshattery.

    But I do wonder who it was exactly that named a US military ship after a corporate media songstress:

    https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200407/11120644252/navy-deploys-uss-barbra-streisand -after-firing-captain-expressing-his-coronavirus-concerns.shtml

    Those f@cking NAZIs! And Babwa.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. icon
    nasch (profile), 9 Apr 2020 @ 6:33am

    PSA

    After all, the whole damn point of this is to make it be seen by as many people as possible. That's the nature of a Public Service Announcement.

    Are you suggesting that Disney is interested in this because of the "public service" aspect of it? I'm sure they are not. They want the money, and they want the control. They want everyone watching the official Jimmy Kimmel video with ads on it that go into their pockets, and the little thing at the end with Kimmel encouraging people to watch more. Other videos don't help their bottom line, and they don't give a crap about spreading the message that people should stay home.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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