COPYRIGHT: ISSUES : COPYRIGHT: LAW: Copyright Corner: Parody as Fair Use:
An Interesting and Entertaining Aspect of Copyright Law


Copyright Corner: Parody as Fair Use: An Interesting and Entertaining
Aspect of Copyright Law
By Eric S. Slater, Esq., Manager, Copyright, ACS Publications Division
LiveWire
Issue 7.1 January 2006
ACS Publications
The American Chemical Society
<http://pubs.acs.org/4librarians/livewire/2006/7.1/copyright.html>


Who says copyright cant be fun? In a bit of a diversion from my previous
Copyright Corner articles, in which Ive taken more of a straight arrow
approach in discussing copyright issues, this month Im taking a fun
approach. Ill take a look at three different areas where parodies are most
commoncomic book characters, music, and written works.

There's a long tradition protecting parody as a fair use, even though it's
not specifically mentioned in the United States Copyright Law, if the
parody otherwise seems reasonable under the four factors (Section 107 of
the United States Copyright Act, see

<http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/
uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000107----000-.html>

<http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html>

Examples of protected parody run the gamut from film and television to
music and written works, in advertising and even in an old childhood
favorite, MAD magazine. Parody is likely one of the more interesting areas
in how fair use can be applied, given the nature of how original material
is creatively transformed. For our purposes here, I will focus on several
court cases and how parody has been interpreted. It most certainly can
differ from court to court and from case to case. The key factor that
courts seem to consistently apply is how transformative the new use of the
work is compared with the original work.

In parody, some degree of copyright infringement is taking place. In fact,
it is not unusual for a satirist or parodist to utilize the creative work
of another, for the purpose of poking fun at either the borrowed work
itself or some altogether extrinsic social and political phenomenon. The
satirist generally identifies the borrowed work and writes for an audience
that is familiar with that work; furthermore, in order for the parody to
be effective, it will have had to reproduce parts of earlier copyrighted
works (see Gorman, Robert A. and Ginsburg, Jane C., Copyright For The
Nineties, 4th ed., The Michie Company: Charlottesville, VA, 1993, pp.
586-87).

In looking at comic book characters, the courts have been divided
depending on how the parody is portrayed and how much of the original work
is used. For example, MAD magazine has done many parodies of Disney
characters including Mickey Mouse, and has never been sued by Disney.
Perhaps this is because MAD is known for this type of humor, is not taken
seriously, and takes only what is necessary to parody.

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The complete article may be read at the URL above.


Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
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