Song Parodies and Copyright Law
When a songwriter submits his song to the Copyright Office, he gains several exclusive rights to his work. If someone uses the song without the copyright holder's permission, he can be sued for infringement. An official copyright is not required for a songwriter to have a claim, but he will have a stronger infringement case if he does have a copyright from the U.S. Copyright office. However, an infringer can claim that his song is a parody is permissible because it falls under the fair use exception.
Other People Are Reading
-
Exclusive Rights
-
Section 106 of the copyright law grants a songwriter exclusive control over her song. She has the right to copy it, sell it, perform it and create another song (called a "derivative work") based on the original.
Infringement
-
Generally, anyone who wants to use a copyrighted song, in whole or in part, must seek permission from the songwriter. Failure to do so may result in an infringement claim, under Section 501, in which the infringer may be ordered to pay monetary damages to the songwriter.
-
Fair Use
-
Because a song parody is often an imitation, criticism or mockery of an original song, a songwriter may not want to authorize his song's use. While an unauthorized parody initially appear to copyright infringement, further examination may reveal that it is protected under the fair use exception in Section 107. A court will consider: the purpose of the parody (often expressive criticism) and whether the work is "transformative" (adds something new to the copyrighted song), the nature of the parody (expression and creativity), the amount of the copyrighted song found in the parody and the effect the parody has on the market value of the original song.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc
-
In 1994, the Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc. decision by the Supreme Court stated that a song parody is a fair use exception to copyright infringement. 2 Live Crew released "Pretty Woman," a song that was musically similar to Roy Orbison and William Dees' "Oh, Pretty Woman." The Supreme Court examined the fair use factors and determined that the song was transformative, expressive and would not destroy the monetary value of the original because rap and rock ballads were two different markets.
-
References
- Photo Credit copyright image by cam422 from Fotolia.com
