“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim from LucasFilm.”

Greenpeace’s spoof of Volkswagen’s Darth Vader ad has been pulled by YouTube because of a copyright dispute with LucasFilm.

Greenpeaces’ parody was meant to bring attention to what it claims are efforts by the German automaker to stop carbon dioxide emission controls in Europe. In the Greenpeace ad, Jedi tree huggers, including Yoda, take a direct shot at VW, blaming the company for trying to destroy the world with a VW-branded Death Star.

This may be an instance when Youtube and the DMCA do not do fair use doctrine justice. However, one can certainly see an argument that this is not parody but rather satire. The counter may be that the critique and criticism is not just of VW, but of the original VW ad that employs Star Wars characters and content. We’ll see what happens.

Thanks to Timesfreepress for covering the story.

Tags: critique, intellectual property, parody, satire, star wars, youtube