Many of the Hitler “Downfall” parody videos on YouTube that have besieged the site in recent years have been taken down after complaints by the German production company that owns the right to the 2004 film, The Open Video Alliance reported Tuesday.
Constantin films, owners of the rights to the film “Der Untergang” (“Downfall”), upon which the parody videos are based, filed the copyright claim.
The parodies, which have become a popular viral meme on the internet, all focus on a single scene from the movie when Hitler screams at his generals upon learning that Germany is about to lose the war.
As the character playing Hitler lashes out in German, the subtitles in English from the original movie are replaced to indicate a completely different reason for the Fuhrer’s rage.
It is unclear how many parodies have been taken down and how many remain on YouTube, but many could still be seen Tuesday, including “Hitler reacts to new Star Trek movie 4,” “Hitler is informed and rants about the Apple iPad,” and “Hitler finds out Tony Romo dumped Jessica Simpson.”
“Hitler Gets Banned from XBox Live” which had over 4 million views was one of the videos taken down.
“There are hundreds of Hitler Downfall videos, and it is unclear what will become of them. The burden of filing a counternotice or a claim of fair use to restore the video falls on individual users, so it will be difficult to reverse this action,” the Open Video Alliance said on its website.