This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Legal Media
South Park makers sued over music video spoof
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 17 November 2010
Producers of ‘South Park’ are being sued by the people who own the copyright in the video that accompanied the Samwell song ‘What What (In The Butt)’, which became something of a YouTube hit when it was first released in 2007.
The US animation series spoofed the video in 2008 in an episode called ‘Canada On Strike’. Interestingly, in a 2008 interview with the founders of the company who made the video, Brownmark Films, they seemed rather pleased with the ‘South Park’ homage and claimed to have written a thank you note to the show’s makers.
But now their legal people reckon the homage actually infringed Brownmark’s copyright and they are suing everyone involved with the programme, including media giant Viacom and their Comedy Central station. Their lawsuit, filed last week, accused the telly show’s producers of being “wilful, intentional, and purposeful, in disregard of and indifferent to the rights of Brownmark”. The claimants want an injunction to ban future airing of the spoof and maximum statutory damages.
But Comedy Central, in a statement issued to The Hollywood Reporter, reckons it is protected by US fair use clauses in copyright law that allow spoofing. The company says: “Courts have consistently recognised that parody enjoys broad protections under the First Amendment and the Copyright Act. We believe ‘South Park’s’ parody of the ‘What What (In The Butt)’ viral music video … is fully protected against any copyright infringement claims under the fair use doctrine and the First Amendment and we plan to vigorously defend those rights”.
