Hi all—I am a session musician just delving into the world of song parody. I'm working on an CD containing a mixture of orginal comedy songs and parodies of existing songs. Would love to post them on amiright.com but I am wondering about copyright issues—does anyone know how to copyright a song parody? In my case, the lyrics are original, and I create my own tracks which are very close to the originals in terms of production etc. TIA for any info, my lawyer grows weary of my tedious questions and small budget ;)

Hi all—I am a session musician just delving into the world of song parody. I'm working on an CD containing a mixture of orginal comedy songs and parodies of existing songs. Would love to post them on amiright.com but I am wondering about copyright issues—does anyone know how to copyright a song parody? In my case, the lyrics are original, and I create my own tracks which are very close to the originals in terms of production etc. TIA for any info, my lawyer grows weary of my tedious questions and small budget ;)


Here's some messageboard links you may find useful:

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=12149.0

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=21649.0

Both link elsewhere to www.copyright.gov - the key parts are:

"When is my work protected?
Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

Do I have to register with your office to be protected?
No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created."

Ant

Thanks Ant! Yeah, I think I finally figured it out. Parodies are "derivative works" and thus you enter info about the originals in Section 6. Do you know though if you need permission from the original copyright holder to post actual music in the .mp3 section?

Thanks Ant! Yeah, I think I finally figured it out. Parodies are "derivative works" and thus you enter info about the originals in Section 6. Do you know though if you need permission from the original copyright holder to post actual music in the .mp3 section?


If you create it yourself it's generally derivative as well, well-if it is used for parody anyway. . .If it is in the public domain or created by you or someone you trust to be used for parody then by all means it's legal without permission.

That's important too because if you had to have permission--it'd be very tough to ever make a recorded parody.

US law is much less restrictive than UK law - IIRC, you need permission from the copyright holder of the music to publish a parody (and copyright on the music runs for 75 years after the composer's death... way longer than copyright on a particular recording, which is 50 years from date of recording). It was suggested to me that this was the real reason why Weird Al hasn't toured the UK.

In practice, they've never gone after people for recording parodies without permission (AFAIK), but the law does mean that parodies are few and far between in the charts over here (think the Wurzels and the Barron Knights.. and the occasional spoof by someone who already knows someone in the record business).