"Martin L. Shoemaker" wrote:
>
> At the same time, I suspect Weird Al scrupulously acquires whatever
> permissions he can before releasing his song parodies. The man's an awfully
> visible lawsuit target otherwise. I've never looked at my CD sleeves to see
> if there's licensing indicated on them or not.
He has to aquire the rights to the MUSIC. The right to publish "to the
tune of" lyrics, *without* permission, was won for us by Mad Magazine,
in a lawsuit brought by Cole Porter. Fought it all the way up to the SC.
A telling quote from the final decision:"No one owns the rights to
iambic pentameter."
Music, however, is another issue entirely. Since he is not parodying a
tune (ala PDQ Bach), but is instead using it verbatim, he must have
permission. Of course, since permission is given by the record company,
NOT the artist, this means he occasionally offends humourless people
like Coolio.
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