I think all politicians suck. They are out for themselves and never for us, the people. I lean a little to the left, but who on Earth would want to be associated with the Democratic Party? That’s like wanting to get beat up and have your lunch money stolen on a daily basis. Similarly, who would want to be affiliated with the GOP or Tea Party? Good God, it seems like your choices are either radical this or pathetic that. No thank you.
READ ON, please…
In Ohio, we have an ugly race for Governor. Two guys, Strickland versus Kasich. Neither choice is very good. As is evident, neither can articulate any good ideas, so they both sling mud. Unfortunately, it has decided to use Columbus Film as it’s slime.
For one of Kasich’s smear ads, he hired a local actor to portray a steelworker attacking Strickland’s policies.
Hiring an actor is hardly a new thing, bad, or controversial. Well, someone decided it should be.
Someone from Strickland’s campaign decided THIS should be the issue. Not jobs, not the economy, not gay rights, not terrorism… not anything REMOTELY IMPORTANT TO ANYONE. So they made this web-commercial (that may be airing on TV, but I don’t know)…
Thanks to the blogosphere, someone went so far as to research the actor and found out he had some kind of record. They made some blog entries about “Kasich hiring a felon” or something like that. This crosses a line for me. He’s an ACTOR and he ACTED a part. Who on Earth thinks it’s a good idea to crucify HIM in the name of politics? Which one of these two sides thinks causing this actor to NOT get hired because his alleged criminal record is now all over the web? Who thinks trying to paint some innocent actor who probably didn’t even get union wages as a sex addict by using pictures from his MySpace page with a stripper at a birthday party? Who’s looking out for the little guy? Who’s looking out for privacy? What does this really achieve?
Now in the commercial above, they used footage from two short films from Columbus Filmmakers WITHOUT PERMISSION. The politicians and the campaign are claiming “Fair Use” laws to defend their decision to steal movie clips. I guess they figure “Hey, they’re from Columbus and it would cost them more money to fight us than Hollywood, so screw them! USE THEIR CLIPS!”.
Well, THANKS politicians. I don’t care which party did what. That’s not the issue. The issue is intellectual property and the rights we have over our WORK. We can’t let fat cat politicians step all over us and use our clips in whatever way they want.
This is MY my VIDEO to all the politicians. Get off your lazy asses and do something for the PEOPLE, not yourselves, you worthless sycophants.
I guess if they can claim “Fair Use”, then so can I, right? Is there anything wrong with my artistic decision to show both candidates with random word phrases like “PEDOPHILE” and “TERRORIST”? I’m not saying they are these things, nor do I intend to imply such outrageous claims. I guess if they want to sling mud, I prefer to bring a gun to their little knife fight.
Why not go out and make your own videos with their commercials and FAIR USE it all up and go for the throat? If our once and future governor(s) can steal clips, then so can we!
These two idiots running for Governor are spending MILLIONS in TV advertising, and they want to claim “Fair Use” on using a poor independent filmmaker’s clips? Yeah, even if by some miracle it’s legal via a loophole, that doesn’t make it right.
************* EDIT **************
Some people want to claim that I am being two faced about asking that the Sonnyboo Sucks video removed (which is already being removed) while claiming Fair Use for my own video…
I guess I should be clear.
Do I think I violated copyright? HELL YES. That’s the entire point of my video. According to the OhioDems, what I did is not violating copyright because of Fair Use Laws. It’s a parody and they are unable to stop the video or attempt to do so.
If my video should be removed, so should the one by the OhioDems for using clips without permission. My video is a CLEAR parody and not to be taken seriously. What’s their excuse?
The real point of this is, if Fair Use were valid in the way everyone is describing, it would be legal to compare a politician to Darth Vader, then you would be legally able to use clips from the Star Wars movies in your political ads. No one does this because they would get sued by Lucasfilm, and the SOLE difference in this scenario is that they are using clips from a local poor independent filmmaker because they know they have more money than him.
THAT IS WRONG.
Using people’s films out of context and in a way they never intended is damaging, and I concede the Fair Use Laws make it not so black and white LEGALLY, but it’s pretty clear that it’s UNETHICAL and SLIMY, especially when you have so much money to spend on smear ads.
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