COPYRIGHT AND PARODY

Universal Music Group flexed their corporate powers and took down the Nicki Minaj Anaconda Fart Remix music video.  Derick Watts & The Sunday Blues, the South African comedy team behind the video put up a video in response to the debacle.

“The video still exists on the internet, mainly from the Internet Leechers who downloaded it from our channel and uploaded it to theirs.”

‘Internet Leechers’, says the guy who leeched off the actual Anaconda footage, which features a clear “Copyright 2014 Young Money/Cash Money Records, Inc.” at the end of the official video. Nicki Minaj, and her dance troupe of jiggly butts all appear in the video.

Who was in the wrong?

Aside from the fart noises, the Nicki Minaj Anaconda Fart Remix features footage from the actual video. Granted fart noises are funny, but the video is not original in the sense that the creators didn’t film their own footage.

This wasn’t a ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic style parody. Nor was it a Bart Baker parody. It was just fart sounds over top the Anaconda footage.

Creators have the write to protect their work regardless if you’re a small fry, or a big corporate entity. There’s a lot of skirting the line, and blurred lines with online comedy parody videos, but there’s no denying a good parody is a creative work of art in itself.

Now I’m wondering, were the fart sounds licensed audio, or original recordings ?

Successful Parodies: