This Land is My Land...

Woo-hoo! Jib-Jab, the wondrous makers of the hysterical "This Land" parody of the Presidential election, have reached a settlement with the publishers of Woody Guthrie's music, thereby allowing the return of the funniest parody around:

With nary a jab thrown, Ludlow Music, the song's publisher, agreed in a settlement Tuesday to allow the cartoon — one of the biggest Internet draws of the summer — to keep using the song.

In return, JibJab dropped a lawsuit against Ludlow that sought an order saying its use of the song was protected because it was a parody and "This Land" was in the public domain.

The creators also agreed to provide a link on their Web site to the song's original lyrics and to donate 20 percent of any profits to the Woody Guthrie Foundation.

"The settlement accomplished Ludlow's goals, which was to bring people back to the immediate message of Woody Guthrie," said Paul LiCalsi, an attorney for the firm.

LiCalsi said JibJab's version of the song wasn't protected under copyright law because it targeted the election rather than the song itself. Protection under the fair use clause of the law requires that copyrighted material be the subject of the parody, he said.

JibJab's lawyers said Ludlow was misinterpreting the law and that the song in the cartoon clearly was a parody.

"'This Land' is known as an iconic song about national unity, and the JibJab parody is predominantly about the lack of national unity at this time," said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which represented JibJab.

Since its July 9 debut on the JibJab Web site, the cartoon has been viewed by about 20 million people, according to Santa Monica-based JibJab.

In other words, humor triumphs over anal-retentive lawyers. Now that's the American spirit!