Peanuts and Ponies and Parodies! Oh My!

Generally and theoretically, ‘fair dealing’ in Canada, or ‘fair use’ in the U.S., is meant to foster creativity and innovation, to be a limitation and exception to the copyright holder’s exclusive rights. When it comes to applying fair dealing/use to parodies, however, the exception becomes murky.

A Tumblr blog, “Peanutweeter”, used to have thousands of people following their juxtaposition of classic “Peanuts” cartoons with unrelated, and less innocent, tweets. Unamused, Iconix Brand Group, joint copyright holders with the heirs of creator Charles Schulz, claimed copyright infringement, issued a takedown order and the blog was shut down in June.

But not all copyright holders have reacted in the same trigger-happy way. Children’s show, “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”, has (strangely) managed to attract an adult-male cult following, called “bronies” (bro + ponies).  Bronies take super-fluffy cartoon footage and combine it with more adult, explicative-laced songs or movie dialogue, a practice known as “trackjacking”. Content-rights holder Hasbro Studios has not only allowed most of this content to remain online, but has embraced its unlikely fan base with a promotional tribute video.

The Internet has given rise to tools and distribution channels that enables fans or haters to “remix” shows and movies, fudging intellectual property lines, in volumes like never before. The ball seems to be mostly in the content companies’ courts now, to decide whether they will embrace it as free marketing or clamp down in the name of copyright infringement.