Hitler Rants Video About DMCA Takedowns Is Taken Down Itself

from the recursive-loop dept

The super popular "Hitler rants..." meme is now under fire by Constantin Film, the German production company behind Downfall, from which the original clip is taken. According to TechCrunch, Constantin started filing DMCA takedowns on many of the popular YouTube variants of the oft re-subtitled clip. Particularly ironic is the fact that the director of the movie enjoys the clips himself -- but of course, since the producer holds the copyright to the movie, the director has no real say in the matter.

In a mind-blowing meta way, the most amusing video caught in this mess is the takedown of the video that parodies these takedowns themselves:

Since this video, which uses the same Downfall clip in question, can be considered parody, then it should be covered under fair use. Since its creator filed a dispute after it was taken down, for now, the video is viewable on YouTube (and on Vimeo, as in the link above), awaiting review from Constantin on the copyright claim.

That said, Constatin has a lot of work to do if it truly wants to remove all instances of this video online. There are thousands of variants available and, in looking through a list of the some of the most popular videos, not even all of those have been taken down yet. Even so, when a popular variant is taken down, the video can be posted to other sites, as in the case of "Hitler Finds Out About the iPhone 4g Leak," the video that supposedly was the first of the videos to be taken down.

It's not clear what Constantin is looking to gain by issuing these takedowns. Constantin is killing the very promotional vehicle that has been driving sales and rentals of Downfall itself. Each viewing of these videos has played a part in pulling the 2004 movie out of oblivion -- without these millions of views, very few, if any, people would have ever heard of the movie.

Filed Under: dmca, hitler, hitler rants, takedowns
Companies: constantin film