Kricfalusi versus Warner Bros.

(Source: AWN)

If you want to learn about animation from an acknowledged expert, you could do a lot worse than checking out John Kricfalusi's blog (go here). The Ren and Stimpy creator is a huge fan of Warner Bros.' classic Looney Tunes shorts, and he has the knowledge to back up his hero-worship. Warner Bros. agrees: the studio even asked him to provide featurettes and commentary for Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volumes 2 and 3. Which makes his current battle with the studio all the more strange.

The Canadian-born animator posted a series of essays about animation on his blog, using clips from his favourite Warner Bros. cartoons to illustrate his points.

However, studio lawyers objected to Kricfalusi hosting the clips on YouTube, claiming it violated their copyright. The studio sent Youtube a take-down demand, which the site immediately complied with.

Kricfalusi retaliated with a post entitled, "Warner Bros. Cartoons hates their fans!" In an open letter to YouTube, the animator said:

"These cartoon clips I post do nothing but promote Warner Bros. (and other cartoons) ... People who discover the cartoons on my and other fan sites will want to run out and buy ... copies of them on DVD.

Warner Bros. even advertises on my site to sell Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes related merchandise!

My blog and the blogs I link to are the best advertisements for old cartoons in the world.

While Warner Bros. stops promoting their own great properties ... the only way left for young fans to discover these classsic films is through Youtube and our fan blogs.

My blog is historical and educational content so is also covered by "fair use" protection.

I urge you to do the smart and right thing by restoring the low rez clips on Youtube and giving Warners back its free publicity and letting the world know more about their great historical legacy.

Do not bury Bugs Bunny and his pals."

The studio, which calls Kricfalusi "an authority on Warner Bros. cartoons" appears to agree with him over "fair use," but their main objection is over the YouTube hosting.

"We certainly don't object to legitimate fair uses," a WB spokesman said. "Mr. Kricfalusi's blog provides a link to our copyrighted cartoons posted on YouTube, which means they are available to be viewed by anyone without any of the educational and historical perspective that Mr. Kricfalusi's commentary provides. In fact, that commentary is only available to those people who specifically link to it through Mr. Kricfalusi's blog. The fact that someone is providing commentary about a copyrighted work and links to that work residing on another site does not justify the display and distribution of that work standing alone on that other site."

Kricfalusi also disagrees with Warner Bros. over ownership, claiming that since he uses old prints of the cartoons, they are public domain properties.

The studio said, in rebuttal, "We do not issue takedown notices for any works in which we don't have a copyright claim, and in this case we have one."

Off-hand, this seems like one of the dumber intellectual-property battles I've ever seen. Obviously, Warner Bros. would be insane to stop Kricfalusi from promoting their classic cartoons online. Why doesn't the studio allow Kricfalusi to post the clips on their site? That would allow WB to say, "Hey, if you want to see the complete high-rez version of this classic cartoon, this is what to look for!" That way, everybody wins.

Of course, I'm probably being hopelessly utopian, but hey, that's me.

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds