In last week’s post, I wrote about using music lyrics in a book or story. That made me think about quoting lines or verses from poems, but it also raised the question of whether parodies of songs were safe or off limits.

Let’s start with poetry, Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t come up with a definitive answer. Like books, poems are subject to copyright, but how much you can quote under fair use is undefined. From my POV (and I’m not a lawyer or a poet), a poem, by virtue of its format and length, bears more similarity to a song than a novel. Because of that (and also out of respect), I asked Barry Dempster, an award-winning poet, for permission to use an excerpt of his poem, “Hard Song” from his collection, Love Outlandish, for the epigraph in Heartbreaks & Half-truths:

It’s the crack in his heart

where the melody lingers, the hiss

of an old 45. How can I help

but sing along, hard, hard song,

unconditional illusion.

A perfect intro to the theme, don’t you think? But back to poetry and copyright laws…If someone out there has a better handle on the copyright laws surrounding fair use of poetry, please leave a comment, including the source. Inquiring minds need to know.

That brings me to the ins and outs of parodies. Here’s the question posed by a reader:

I wonder, where does the writer stand when it comes to parody? For instance, if I have a character sing [just] the two lines: “Lamplighters//lazy as the corn in sun” in a context where it is clearly intended to parody two lines from the chorus of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ (i.e. which properly would start with the word ‘tramps’), clearly I am relying on the existence of the original to generate a humour beat. So does that fall foul of copyright?

I did a quick Google search and this is what I found: Under U.S. Copyright Law, a parody can be considered a “derivative” work protected from copyright infringement claims by the fair use doctrine. However, “‘Parodies of works protected by copyright in the U.K. require the consent or permission of the copyright owner unless they fall under three different exceptions.” Here’s a link to an online discussion: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/8570496/how-can-i-avoid-copyright-claims-on-a-parody-song-i-wrote?hl=en

My search also uncovered a post on Copyright Alliance titled “Why is Parody Fair Use But Satire Isn’t?” The post cites a decision in favor of the defendant in Supreme Court Decision in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. “Parody needs to mimic an original to make its point,” the judge ruled, “and so has some claim to use the creation of its victim’s (or collective victims’) imagination, whereas satire can stand on its own two feet and so requires justification for the very act of borrowing.”

Despite the win, the U.S. Copyright office is careful to note that, “Like other uses, parody ‘has to work its way through the relevant factors, and be judged case by case, in light of the ends of the copyright law.'”

Now, the above example parodies a complete song (that of Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’ in 2 Live Crew’s ‘Oh Pretty Woman’). I couldn’t find anything that would support or preclude use of a line or two. My guess is it’s probably okay, but don’t take my word for it.

As for 2 Live Crew, despite some success, it would appear the group’s biggest claim to fame may well have been a lawsuit.