1) What has happened:
On October 1st the UK amended the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) in accordance with an EU Directive. Now under British law, works composed with the purposes of parody [and/or caricature and pastiche] do not infringe the copyright of an artist or a band; they instead fall within the ambience of fair dealing.
Interestingly, a draft proposal of the amendment was put to parliament much earlier this year with an intention of the law coming into force on June 1st. However the proposal was pulled at the last minute. The revised proposal was again put on the parliament floor on June 9th with the view of the amendment coming to force on October.
2) What is parody?
Now that the regulation is officially part of UK law, a question that comes immediately to mind is what exactly is “parody?” The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Deckmyn v Vandersteen, C-201/13 (Deckmyn) recognised the need for the definition of parody to be harmonised amongst the nations of the member states. It further recognised that parody has two characteristics.
‘first, to evoke an existing work while being noticeably different from it, and, secondly, to constitute an expression of humour or mockery’.
3) What does this change mean?
The new change does take away some of the rights of copyright holders- but is this necessarily a bad thing for the artists? One would think that parodies would actually be beneficial to the rights holder in the music industry. Parodies often provide free publicity for the musical piece, and garner more interest as well.
It may be that artists are nervous that the new parody exception may leave the core integrity of their songs more vulnerable. However, these fears are somewhat unfounded. The new amendment is subject to the limitations already put in place to protect artistic integrity, namely the vast variety of defamatory laws, and section 80 of the CDPA (Section 80 restricts non-copyright holders from using copyrighted work in a degrading manner).
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29408121
No laughing matter: the right to parody in EU copyright law (Case Deckmyn v. Vandersteen, C-201/13)
