[leetcrew]

in general, you are risking a lawsuit if you use anyone's likeness without their permission, especially if you depict them in a negative light and/or for commercial purposes. parodies are protected (if they are sufficiently obvious like south park), and it is usually hard for a public figure to win such a suit unless they can show that you invaded their privacy.

free speech enjoys strong protections in the US, but so does copyright. I'm not sure why the article acts like all the legal processes available are onerous and/or inapplicable. it's not complicated to file a DMCA takedown, and it would almost certainly result in these videos being taken down with minimal review.

of course, you would likely see the same thing as with other copyrighted material. you can push it off the main sites where it gets the most views, but if people really want to upload and view something, they will find a place to host it. you can either accept this, or you can push for more draconian laws that don't fix the problem, but make everyone's lives a little more difficult.