The Supreme Court defined parody as “a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or work for comic effect or ridicule .” Basically, parodies must comment upon or criticize the original work. Parodies can be considered as fair use but not all qualify as fair use, it is determined by a four-factor test in Section 107 of Copyright Law. Weird Al Yankovic (aka Weird Al) is most known for his success as a parodist, making light of songs by contemporary artists. Weird Al’s “Amish Paradise” parody faced some controversy regarding permission but the real issue is if it should be considered a parody at all. Parodies are often confused with satire, both involve the use of a copyrighted work but parodies criticize the original work and satire comments on something other than the original work such as society . Works of satire usually are not protected by the fair use defense whereas parodies have the potential to by protected by this defense. The four factors in Section 107 that determine fair use are (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature …show more content…
Weird Al’s parodies are popular songs to which new and humorous lyrics are set. His stylistic parodies employ humorous lyrics as well but instead of using actual songs, he emulates the style of popular artists . Weird Al has released 13 albums in 30 years with six going platinum and four earning gold. Weird Al has said that he pry’s on popular songs that have topped Billboard charts, made zeitgeist on radio and social media. The more popular the song, the easier it is for him to create cleaver imitations of a theme . After releasing songs, Weird Al normally releases a music video that coincides with the parody. In his “Amish Paradise” music video the concepts parodies the content of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”
I would grade this parody a 4.5/5. I enjoy listening to this song, and I have it stuck in my head. His lyrics are clever, catchy, and one of a kind. There is not much content in
Parody is the imitation of style of some person, place, or thing. The Butter Battle
toward a person, a country or even the entire world. (Literary) Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines parody as “a piece of writing, music, etc., that imitates the style of someone or something else in an amusing way.” The Schirmer Encyclopedia of
In a world of selfishness it often leads to a world of human brutality. Forgiveness, a virtue that isn’t practiced much today, has been practiced in both Night and Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. Night, written by Ellie Wiesel, is the terrifying record of Wiesel’s memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of mankind. Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, written by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt and David L. Weaver-Zercher, is an account of a gunman who killed five Amish children and injured five others in a schoolhouse in the small town of Nickel Mines Pa. Media attention quickly turned from the tragic events to the
If you examine the pop charts from 30 years ago, it is hard to identify many artists who’ve managed to stay relevant into today’s generation. Weird Al, is one artist that has been active in the music industry since the mid 1970’s and has been able to keep up with the times way before the dawn of social media, online media, and vlogging. For his most recent album, Weird Al designed a creative advertising strategy for the digital age with his #8videos8days experiment. This strategy included eight videos in eight days for eight songs from the new album — on a variety of sites ranging from
Satire is type of drama in which defects in individuals or society are chastised keeping in mind the end goal to incite change in the objects of feedback. Notwithstanding to what extent prior parody itself may have existed, the idea of parody was presented by the Roman humorists, Juvenal and Horace. The tones passed on in their written work portray the primary methods of satire, being Horatian and Juvenalian, are still utilized as a part of parody today. In no time, two famous types of comic drama that utilize ironical components incorporate spoof news sources and comedic exhibitions. Albeit ironical written work has developed all through history, numerous parts of parody are still evident in both the articles of satire news sources, similar
The second approach to copyright is the democratic approach. All works of art are ideas built on a foundation of other ideas. The democratic approach advocates that intellectual property belongs to the society and should be available for the general good of the public. If the particular usage is intended to derive financial benefit or any other business-related benefits, it is considered inappropriate usage. If the utilization of factual work were more usable than the use of someone’s creative work, then that would not be fair use. There is no specified edge to the amount of quoted work that can be called “fair use.” The courts exercise common sense to determine if it was too much. If the utilization of the material created market or stirred a competition, and if the fair use diminishes demand for the original product, it is not considered as appropriate use (Crews, 1993).
Political and social satire go hand in hand in showing examples of the past and the future. While social satire mainly focus on the current problems of society, political satire can represent a warning about the future. Both types are important to learn and understand when reading works involving satire. Putting a light on satire will help people understand satire better. Educating students about satire in schools starting at a young age will allow for students to grow up with a better understanding of satire. Satire can play such an important role in novels that it is essential that everyone understands the concept. Understanding satire will allow for people to see different viewpoints of today’s society through the authors’ eyes. Satire can add humor to a piece, yet that humor can be revealing something much different. It is important for people to be able to differentiate from the two. People first need to understand satire to see the historical importance of it or understand the hidden warning it can
When the song “Rude” by MAGIC! first aired on the radio, it was an instant hit. The video told a romantic tale of a young couple overcoming the disapproval of the girl’s father. This story was well-received by most of the public, but Benji Cowart had a different view. Believing the father was right, Cowart made a humorous parody of “Rude” from the father’s perspective.
In light of these three cases the defense of parody may be disregarded if the plaintiff can argue priority, since the marks are registered in the principle register and have established their mark in the market. Secondly, the defendant has infringed the mark arguably on four counts, through semantics, with the use of ‘pel’ and No. 13 which are both distinctive and non-functional when used together, hence infringes the plaintiffs mark, Chapel and Chapel No. 13 (the argument for Chapel No.13 are stronger). Secondly, they use the same type of dress i.e. astronaut dress and lastly the color i.e. gold. The last two counts are arguable trade dresses but are worth mentioning for the purposes of proving that the defendant did intend to create an association
Before going into detail on what each concept means and what relationship it has in us understanding the rhetorical fundamental of parody, it would be nice to know what Parody is and where it originated. Originally, parodies appeared in Ancient Greek literature, and consisted of poems that imitated in a disrespectful manner the contents, and forms proposed by other poems. Parodies are fed of elements taken from reality to give it to work reality much imagination and also some sophistication when it comes to the narration of the facts.
Weird Al targets his lyrics and videos toward everyone; his listeners range from small children to adults. His video are relative to multiple age groups because everyone has felt uncomfortbale with pop culture before. People often feel uncomfortable when “they don't know what's on the charts [or] haven't listened to any new artists” (687). Weird Al confronts that awkwardness and celebrates it in his songwriting. Often people do not admit to listening to Weird Al, “but no song will sell this many copies in one week to pre-teens alone” (690).
The second factor in the fair use analysis is the nature of the copyrighted work, this factor is not important to the overall fair use analysis involving parodies.
Second, this speculative anticipation of market harm limiting to students will always disfavour a finding of fair use. What if in the case like India which is in dire need to access to reading material in future the court finds a use of a copyrighted material to be fair even when such use seems to have a negative impact on the market of the protected work, which gives the impression that a negative impact on the market may not necessarily lead to a finding of unfair use. In Campbell v. Acufff-Rose Music, Inc., while not denying the fact that parody can harm the market at all, the Supreme Court of the United States surprisingly made a finding of fair use. Therefore, it is important to consider that the market impact is not always conclusive as to whether the use is unfair. If the case goes in appeal, it is important for the Supreme Court’s to examine the reasoning, necessary in order to appreciate its opinion and understand why a court
Copyright and fair use can be hard to talk about because when you use a video with copyright songs you can't see it. Fair use belief that not all copying should be banned, particularly in socially important endeavors such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research. Although the doctrine of fair use was originally created by the judiciary, it is now set forth in the Copyright Act. Under the Act, four factors are to be considered in order to determine whether a specific action is to be considered a "fair use."