By "he" I think you mean me.... since you did refer to a recent parody I did of Purple Haze that I named Yello Hayz.

So, yes, you can record covers and post them to You Tube. They have digital spiders that roam the newly posted stuff and determine if it's a cover some from the melody according to their algorithms. They check if that artist allows covers and if so they monitize it giving the revenue to that artist. If the artist doesn't allow it then they take it down. This apparently was the only workable solution for them and agreeable with most artists. If you have the HFA license, you can tell them and YOU can collect the revenue.

You are correct.... melody and lyrics are copyrightable. HOWEVER, there is a provision in the copyright law that excludes in-the-classroom/educational-use of songs that allow teachers to use music without worrying about the copyright. The other provision is to use the song in a parody. The forces to be realized that in order to use the song as a parody to deliver the message, with the words being changed to covey the new parody message, it would be necessary to allow such use to use the original melody without running into a legal road block. It is for this reason, I was able to legally use the melody of the original Purple Haze in the song without being a scofflaw. I'd recommend a book I have in my library called THIS BUSINESS OF MUSIC as it explains this and other things about copyright law in more detail than you probably want to hear, and with examples from the past (case law) as to why the law is written like it is.

BTW, I had a few things going on and never was able to get back in time to reply to the last several folks including you. When I was able to get back it had fallen off the first few pages and was forgotten by me. My apologies. Life has a way of intruding when you least expect it. I'll leave it at that.

One more request.... please use paragraph spacing and breaks to make large posts like that easier to read. That was killer on the eyes.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 05/05/20 04:48 AM.
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