Copyright? That’s A Laugh

The legal change will particularly affect online spoof videos created by re-editing existing material and presenting it in a humorous or satirical manner. Such material was previously allowed only if the author of the original material gave explicit permission for its use. Some record companies haven’t been happy with these online parodies.

EMI put in a copyright claim after a send-up of the song “Empire State of Mind” by Alicia Keys and Jay Z was used to promote the charms of Newport in southeast Wales.

“When you’re in Newport. Chips, cheese, curry makes you feel brand new, washed down with a Special Brew,” the spoof version’s lyric said. However, a new exception to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1998 that comes into force Oct. 1 means copyrighted material can be reused “for the purposes of parody, caricature or pastiche” without permission from the original author.

If a parodist is taken to court, it will be up to a judge to decide whether the disputed parody is sufficiently funny. Eleonora Rosati, a lecturer in intellectual property at the University of Southampton and copyright law and policy consultant, sees a problem with the change in the law. Leaving it up to a judge could be “controversial” if the new exception actually requires a humorous or satirical effect as opposed to just a humorous or satirical intent.

“Of course, humour may change from person to person. What is perceived as funny by some may not be funny by another,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

Well-known music business lawyer Ben Challis, an intellectual property barrister and general counsel for Glastonbury Festival, said the new exception to the law isn’t a “get out of jail free card” for those wanting to sample other people’s music. “The English courts have a near blank slate about how this will work. It will be interesting to see how the judiciary decide what is funny, what is mocking and what is not,” he told The Daily Telegraph.