I've just read Carrie Cann's interesting post and it got me thinking more about another huge example of how copyright doesn't seem to apply to song parodies. I have two teenage boys and they, like millions of others, spend hours immersed in the world of League of Legends. For those who don't know, League of Legends (better known as LOL) is a multiplayer online battle arena video game. In the game, players choose the role of a character to battle against a team of other players. Each player has unique characteristics, and millions of people spend millions of dollars to get access to new characters to enhance their play. "As of January 2014, over 67 million people play League of Legends per month, 27 million per day, and over 7.5 million concurrently during peak hours". Another characteristic of LOL, and the reason for this post, is the huge number of song parodies that are an integral part of the play. LOL forums are filled with discussions about the song parodies that play continually in the background of the game. I can't count how many times a song will come on the radio and one of my two sons will remark how they have heard a parody of the song on LOL. They don't know the original song, but they know the parody. Carrie mentioned how probably the most famous parody artist, Weird Al Yankovic, always obtained permission of the songs original artist before releasing a song parody. I couldn't find any information on whether the minds behind the LOL parodies go to the same trouble, but apparently, it is my understanding that legally, according to this source, they don't have to.
I'd love to hear if someone wants to challenge me on this understanding.
(Note: The image below is from Creative Commons. It is not really specific to LOL, but it was as close as I could get without infringing on copyright.)
I'd love to hear if someone wants to challenge me on this understanding.
(Note: The image below is from Creative Commons. It is not really specific to LOL, but it was as close as I could get without infringing on copyright.)