Best "Downfall" Parody Yet!!!

It was too good to be true. Lots of people had fun making "Downfall" parodies. Now the producer of the "Downfall" film has gotten his panties in a wad. Bear witness:




Hitler, as "Downfall producer" orders a DMCA takedown from Brad Templeton on Vimeo.
Full details at http://ideas.4brad.com/hitler-tries-dmca-takedown - There are hundreds of parodies of this "Downfall" clip. The studio, Constantin Films, has ordered takedowns of some of them, and eventually even had this parody removed from YouTube. In this clip, Hitler is the producer, and his lawyers tell him why he can't do a DMCA takedown and how the EFF could stop him. He desperately searches for other ways to protect the movie.



Made by Brad Templeton, an EFF board member (but releasing the video on his own.) This video educates about intellectual property issues and parodies the actions of the studio using the very clip they are censoring.



Read more about it at HuffPo.

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Supreme Court Rules for Freedom of Speech in Citizens United

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on business efforts to influence federal campaigns.

By a 5-4 vote, the court overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said companies can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to produce and run their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

It leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions.

Critics of the stricter limits have argued that they amount to an unconstitutional restraint of free speech, and the court majority agreed.

Source: Washington Post

And this from Jonathan Adler:

The Court held 5–4 that restrictions on independent corporate expenditures in political campaigns are unconstitutional, overruling Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and parts of McConnell v. FEC, and it upheld the disclosure requirements 8–1 (Thomas dissenting). Justice Kennedy explained that the Court was overruling some of its prior decisions because it was not possible to rule in favor of the petitioners on narrower grounds without chilling protected political speech. According to Justice Kennedy, the Court is re-embracing the principle that a speaker’s corporate identity is not a sufficient basis for suppressing political speech, as held in pre–Austin cases. It would appear this holding applies equally to unions. While disclosure requirements may also burden political speech, Justice Kennedy explained, such requirements may be justified by the government’s interest in ensuring that the electorate has information about spending on elections and campaigns, and the specific disclosure requirements at issue are constitutional as-applied to Citizens United. The opinion also includes a substantial discussion of stare decisis, and why such considerations counseled overturning prior precedents.

Source: The Volokh Conspiracy

Related: SCOTUSblog

Related: NRO Bench Memos

Related: Election Law Blog

Download a PDF of the decision, or read below:

Citizens Opinion

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Special Forces: Untold Stories Navy SEALs in Panama

Visit Support The SEALs to learn how you can help defend 3 of our heroes who are fighting for their freedom against the word of a terrorist.

As part of an effort to show support for the 3 Navy SEALs being charged with roughing up a terrorist responsible for the murder and mutilation of Americans in Iraq, I will be posting on the history and training of America's elite military forces for the duration of their courts martial trial.

This is the first in the series, and is a re-telling of the US Navy SEALs experience during the removal of General Manuel Noriega from Panama in December 1989-January 1990. He was captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the U.S. Noriega was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992.

More information on Operation Just Cause can be found at Global Security. And more information on the lessons learned from the Psychological Component of the operation can be found at Psywarrior.

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