RE: Eminem & Weird Al Yankovic

[Max.Hyre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

   Dear Mr. Lowney:

   You ask:

> It is my understanding that parody is a fair use and does
> not require securing permissions from anyone.  So, why are
> all the news accounts of this taking the tone that Eminem
> has a right to forbid parody?

   I can think of two reasons:  First, unfamiliarity with
U.S. copyright rules (which probably covers > 95% of
U.S. citizens).  The URL you supplied points to a Kuala Lumpur
news source, and if the report was written locally, the reporter
could understandably be unclear on the details.

   The quotes from Mr. Yankovic, however, support the mistaken
impression.  Given the business he's in (and reports that he's
*very* intelligent person), I expect he knows the score.  However,
if you examine the grief 2 Live Crew went through over ``Pretty
Woman'' (see links below), it's clearly a winning strategy for
Mr. Yankovic to maintain good relations with his suppliers.
That's probably why the video was pulled---he'd much rather be
able to keep on parodying, with no legal alarums or excursions.

-- 

                         Best wishes,

                                  Max Hyre



Executive summary (You'll probably have to reassemble the URL.
   It's so long because the primary source seems to have taken
   the original proprietary.)
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:zZUsiuTt1F4C:www.kentlaw.edu/student_or
gs/jip/copy/campbell.htm+acuff+campbell+%22pretty+woman%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Overview (including audio) 
http://www.benedict.com/audio/crew/crew.asp

Supreme Court decision:
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/92-1292.ZO.html