Parody Is Fair Use, Satire Is Not

I agree that Fair Use is a complicated, tricky subject. But also I wouldn't think of let's say corporations or large media partners suing a youtuber. Wouldn't they just shut your video down for copyright infringement? Are there any known cases of this happening on youtube?
 
ThisEvilBunny said:
I agree that Fair Use is a complicated, tricky subject. But also I wouldn't think of let's say corporations or large media partners suing a youtuber. Wouldn't they just shut your video down for copyright infringement? Are there any known cases of this happening on youtube?
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The entire point of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is to prevent companies from having to sue you to take your content down. So you're quite correct that nobody is getting sued over these claims. In the grand scheme of law in relation to copyright infringement, putting a song online along with a video is a pretty innocuous infringement.

The problem is that YouTube itself has been sued by copyright owners. And in order to deflect those lawsuits, they have developed systems that protect the copyright owner and YouTube, at the expense of the user.

That's why it is important to know what your legal rights are. If you know that you have a really solid fair use defense for a piece of content, then you can dispute and appeal these claims with full confidence that you will win, eventually and not lose your channel or have other sanctions in the process.
 
Tarmack said:
The entire point of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is to prevent companies from having to sue you to take your content down. So you're quite correct that nobody is getting sued over these claims. In the grand scheme of law in relation to copyright infringement, putting a song online along with a video is a pretty innocuous infringement.

The problem is that YouTube itself has been sued by copyright owners. And in order to deflect those lawsuits, they have developed systems that protect the copyright owner and YouTube, at the expense of the user.

That's why it is important to know what your legal rights are. If you know that you have a really solid fair use defense for a piece of content, then you can dispute and appeal these claims with full confidence that you will win, eventually and not lose your channel or have other sanctions in the process.
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Think again! Many YouTubers have been sued for parody. Shane Dawson is an example for his Taylor swift parody. Also fair use and parody also looks at whether you earned money from it and also if it damages the original market. That second one is an opinion. You could say that your parody helped the original market but the artist could say it hurt them. Also lawsuits are so complicated now. Think of the Robin thicke blurred lines case. That's not even fair use and we are getting to a point where a musician might not be able to make a song based on a genre. That's kind of what blurred lines lawsuit is about. It doesn't copy the notes as proven by several musicians but the defendants are saying it sounds likes a Marvin Gaye song. The only thing that's similar is the style. If Robin thickes counter sue in court doesn't hold up then that basically means no one should be making rap funk etc. it's very strange.
 
offbeatbryce said:
Think again! Many YouTubers have been sued for parody.Shane Dawson is an example for his Taylor swift parody. Also fair use and parody also looks at whether you earned money from it and also if it damages the original market. That second one is an opinion. You could say that your parody helped the original market but the artist could say it hurt them. Also lawsuits are so complicated now. Think of the Robin thicke blurred lines case. That's not even fair use and we are getting to a point where a musician might not be able to make a song based on a genre. That's kind of what blurred lines lawsuit is about. It doesn't copy the notes as proven by several musicians but the defendants are saying it sounds likes a Marvin Gaye song. The only thing that's similar is the style. If Robin thickes counter sue in court doesn't hold up then that basically means no one should be making rap funk etc. it's very strange.
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Find me one YouTuber that has been sued in relation to a Parody. Dawson was never sued by Swift or Sony. It was just an abuse of the DMCA takedown system. The whole point of the DMCA is to allow copyright holders to protect their interests without risking losing a court battle.

The Robin Thicke situation is nothing like the parody issue at all. It instead hinges on the accusation that Thicke actively intended to make a song based on a very particular Marvin Gaye track. It has nothing to do with blanking out a genre of music in the slightest. Of course, it helps Thicke quite nicely for the public to think the opposition is attacking rap funk itself, despite that not being how court battles work.
 
offbeatbryce said:
Also lawsuits are so complicated now. Think of the Robin thicke blurred lines case. That's not even fair use and we are getting to a point where a musician might not be able to make a song based on a genre. That's kind of what blurred lines lawsuit is about. It doesn't copy the notes as proven by several musicians but the defendants are saying it sounds likes a Marvin Gaye song. The only thing that's similar is the style. If Robin thickes counter sue in court doesn't hold up then that basically means no one should be making rap funk etc. it's very strange.
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So what you're saying is, that parody lawsuits are now blurring the lines between what is parody and what isn't.
 
Idec Sdawkminn said:
So what you're saying is, that parody lawsuits are now blurring the lines between what is parody and what isn't.
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Yes. Weird Al gets permission for direct parodies but have you ever heard his originals. He write originals that sound like other artists. For example take a look at his song Germs. It was intentionally made to sound like Nine Inch Nails. Al has admitted that he never got permission for sound a likes because he legally doesn't have to. But now he said in a recent interview he might ask because of the Blurred Lines issue. Another example of an original of his is "The Night Santa Went Crazy" The beginning part sounds like "Mama I'm Coming Home" by Ozzy Osbourne and the chorus sounds likes "Black Gold" by Soul Aslyum One other example is his 12 minute song Albuquerque. Listen to that and a song called "Dicks Automotive" sounds very similar. Al stated on his site many times that he intentionally does this for humor and he wants to pay tribute to artists. He also wrote an original "You Don't Love Me Anymore." and the Music Video is a direct spoof of Extreme "More Than Words."
 
so in conclusion parodi is make what creativity that artist make to make a joke of that artist , right ?
 
Thank you for this post! You just saved me from getting copyright strikes on some of my future videos
 
offbeatbryce said:
Think again! Many YouTubers have been sued for parody. Shane Dawson is an example for his Taylor swift parody. Also fair use and parody also looks at whether you earned money from it and also if it damages the original market. That second one is an opinion. You could say that your parody helped the original market but the artist could say it hurt them. Also lawsuits are so complicated now. Think of the Robin thicke blurred lines case. That's not even fair use and we are getting to a point where a musician might not be able to make a song based on a genre. That's kind of what blurred lines lawsuit is about. It doesn't copy the notes as proven by several musicians but the defendants are saying it sounds likes a Marvin Gaye song. The only thing that's similar is the style. If Robin thickes counter sue in court doesn't hold up then that basically means no one should be making rap funk etc. it's very strange.
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Fair use does not typically look at whether you're making money off the copyrighted material. I highly recommend you watch "Common myths about fair use & copyright" by Stanford, and "CIS fair use legal experts answer fair use questions"
 
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