This Suit Was Settled for You and Me

The JibJab case, which I wrote about on this site last month, has come to a happy conclusion. The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

Music publisher Ludlow Music, Inc., has officially backed down on its threats against web animation studio JibJab Media Inc. over the widely circulated "This Land" animated parody lampooning President Bush and Senator Kerry….As part of the settlement of the case, JibJab will remain free to continue distributing the "This Land" animation without further interference from Ludlow.

The more JibJab's lawyers looked into the issue, the weaker the publisher's case appeared to be. It seems the copyright on "This Land Is Your Land" might have expired way back in 1973, when the publisher failed to renew it. Ludlow disputes this -- it believes the copyright didn't have to be renewed until 1984 -- but it apparently preferred not to have the matter decided in court.