[Infowarrior] - “Downfall Meme” gets taken down

[Richard Forno]

Hitler “Downfall Meme” gets taken down

http://openvideoalliance.org/2010/04/hitler-downfall-meme-gets-dmcad/?l=en

A recent wave of takedowns notices affecting many of the Hitler “Downfall” parody videos has resulted in their removal from YouTube. (EDIT: These videos were blocked by YouTube’s Content ID system, not taken down via DMCA notices. For more on the difference between these two, see the EFF’s Guide to YouTube Removals.) The copyright claim is being filed on behalf of Constantin Films, the German production company that owns the rights to the 2004 film Der Untergang (Downfall), from which the clip originates.

Downfall parodies are a well-established part of online culture and follow a familiar format: phony subtitles are presented along with Hitler’s final soliloquy in his besieged bunker (you might  need to watch for yourself). The Downfall format has been used to mock everything from social networking sites, to politicians, to the iPad, to self-important hipsters. The list goes on, but as of this week Downfall videos are disappearing fast. Both “Hitler Gets Banned from XBox Live,”—which had over 4 million views before it was taken down—and the meta-parody “Hitler Wants to Make a Meme,” are currently unavailable due to Constantin’s copyright claim.

The Downfall meme is so well-established that it has literally become standard curriculum for digital moviemaking courses, as evidenced by this class’ page which counted 14 videos before the takedowns were issued (currently, only two of these videos remain playable).

For more on the genesis of the Downfall meme, see YouTOMB researcher Alex Leavitt’s study.

There are hundreds of Hitler Downfall videos, and it is unclear what will become of them. The burden of filing a counternotice dispute or a claim of fair use to restore the video falls on individual users, so it will be difficult to reverse this action. We’ll be following this story as it develops.