Does Weird Al Qualify as a Parody Fair Use?
30 05 2016Dear Rich: In a recent answer you linked to a blog posting by Weird Al Yankovich in which he says the following: “My parodies have always fallen under what the courts call “fair use,” and this one was no different, legally allowing me to record and release it without permission.” He adds, though that it has always been his personal policy to get the consent of the original artist before including his parodies on any album. What do you think of Weird Al’s fair use analysis? Is putting different, humorous words to an existing song automatically a parody that does not require permission?
We appreciate Weird Al’s contribution to popular music but we think he’s mistaken about fair use.
Is Weird Al a parodist? His songs make us laugh but that’s not enough to qualify as a parody. Under copyright law, a parody comments on the work (or author) being parodied. As the Supreme Court wrote:
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