House of Cease and Desist

Waxy.org has been sent a cease and desist for hosting the House of Cosbys videos, and the out-of-print “Cosby Talks to Kids About Drugs” album. They’ve taken down the album because that’s pretty clearly illegal, but they’re leaving the videos up.

House of Cosbys was an animated show made for a site called Channel101. That site also received a cease and desist, and while they wanted to keep hosting the show they were forced to take it down after their web host was also threatened, and in turn threatened to shut off their site. It’s pretty obvious that the show is parody and thus protected as fair use, just like the many other times Cosby has been parodied in the mainstream media (there’s a list on the Waxy post). But when you’re small you get bullied, and that’s exactly what’s happening here – this is how fair use gets eroded. If you don’t have the money to defend against a lawsuit, fair use doesn’t really protect you.

All this aside, if you have somehow missed the House of Cosbys train, you should take a look. It’s pretty funny: House of Cosbys on Waxy.org.