Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

And yes, there are fair use laws that have been tried and upheld in court.

The best example is a music teacher can copy and distribute copyrighted sheet music to his or her students. The only thing that can be contested in court is whether they are really students or not, or if they just pretend to be students to get free sheet music.

Parodies are fair use, as proven by Weird Al and 2 Live Crew.


Yes... fair use is granted to educational use. The 1976 act states " for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research. Also factors to consider in this is whether the use is commercial or non-profit educational purposes, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount of the copyrighted work used, and the effect it has on the market and value of the work.

Parody of a copyrighted work requires extreme caution. Only a court can decide after the fact, whether the song is a unique song or a copyright infringement. Court cases through the years on parody songs have gone in both directions. It can often be safer to buy the license to the original song if the melody and lyrical content are going to be extremely similar as Weird Al tends to do. Often, a parody song will be registered as a derivative work of the original song. If you're planning a parody song, to be released commercially as Weird Al does, a consultation and retainer to a good music attorney would be a really good idea.

Another aspect to this is "answer songs". For example, Kenny Rogers recorded Lucille. Some time later Sherri Jericho recorded an answer to the original. The melody is exact.

Original song: Lucille

Answer song: Thanks for leaving Lucille

Again... a music attorney's advice would be the way to go

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 06/04/14 08:38 AM.
You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.