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owner of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land," had threatened copyright litigation against JibJab.. JibJab decided to sue first with the help of the EFF.

Arlo Guthrie, folk singer son of Woody Guthrie, was recently interviewed on NPR regarding the JibJab controversy ('This Land' Parody Riles Rights Holder). For those who don't want to use Real, I've transcribed the relevant parts:

Q. So how did your father feel about the use of his songs? Did he regard them as his private intellectual property or were they for the public use?

A. Well, I think, both. He was one of those guys that wrote a lot of songs and he said on numerous occasions that he wasn't really concerned about the money part of it, the publishing, the business part. He was more interested in getting the ideas out. And, having said that, he did set up in motion, he did give these songs to the Richmond organization, a lot of them anyway, to safeguard them and to protect them over the years. So I think there is a little bit of both.

Q. Your father was a political musician. What do you think he would have said about people using his music for political purposes?

A. Well, I really can't speak for him. I can just tell you that when I saw it a few weeks ago I thought it was one of the funniest commentaries if not one of the most directly inspired... I called my sister, I called my friends, I sent everybody a link to the site so that they could go see it. And we've all been laughing about it since then. I think my dad would have absolutely loved the humor in it.
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