Arlo Guthrie's thoughts about the "This Land" parody by JibJab

[Towncrier]

There has been a lot of legal wrangling since JibJab released their very popular parody which made use of Woody Guthrie's song "This Land". I found the following comment by Woody's son Arlo very interesting and thought that I would share it with you:

Arlo Guthrie on "This Land" parody

Arlo Guthrie did an NRP appearance this week to talk about his father, Woody Guthrie, and his attitude to copyright. Woody's song "This Land is Your Land" was brilliantly parodied by JibJab in an election-season Flash movie, and the publishing company that controls Woody's rights has brought legal action against JibJab -- and EFF has responded by filing its own legal action against the rightsholders. Arlo implies that Woody would have wanted it that way:

Well, I really can't speak for him. I can just tell you that when I saw it a few weeks ago I thought it was one of the funniest commentaries if not one of the most directly inspired... I called my sister, I called my friends, I sent everybody a link to the site so that they could go see it. And we've all been laughing about it since then. I think my dad would have absolutely loved the humor in it.

 

[Bob Slydell]

I kind of figured Arlo and Woody would have loved it.

 

[kasar]

That's nice, I'm glad they see it for what it is. I was afraid, before opening the thread, that they were going to sue for royalties or something.