Waxy threatened with lawsuit over "House of Cosbys" videos

Andy "Waxy" Baio has been threatened with a lawsuit for hosting a parodical video about Bill Cosby called "House of Cosbys." In the video, a Bill Cosby fan clones the comedian several times, and each Cosby comes out more degraded than the last. It's clearly parody and clearly fair use, but the originators of the series shut down their effort when Bill Cosby's lawyers threatened them.

But Andy isn't backing down -- instead, he's vowing to defend this in court. He's also collecting videos of well-funded TV shows parodying Cosby, and has already compiled a list that includes Family Guy, the Simpsons, South Park, Saturday Night Live and MAD Magazine -- none of which have received the legal threats that Cosby's lawyer seems to reserve for independent creators.

More than anything, this strikes me as a special kind of discrimination against amateur creators on the Internet. Mad Magazine, Saturday Night Live, South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and countless other mainstream media sources have parodied Bill Cosby over the years (see growing list below).

But because it takes so little effort to threaten a small web-based artist (or the blogger who hosts their work), the Net is constantly targeted regardless of just cause. Justin Roiland, creator of House of Cosbys, and Channel 101 were forced to remove House of Cosbys because they couldn't risk the possibility of an actual lawsuit.

Here is what all the fuss is about, happy viewing...

House of Cosbys #1 - High Quality Quicktime

House of Cosbys #2

House of Cosbys #3

House of Cosbys #4

House of Cosbys #5 (warning: offensive content; unofficial, fan-made response to cease-and-desist)

Listen Up, Theo (House of Cosbys music video, not safe for work)

Curiosity Cosby Blooper Reel