Amendments to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 came into force in the United Kingdom in October 2014. The changes introduced two significant modifications to the existing copyright framework: a new exception permitting the creation of personal copies for private use, and a new exception covering the use of copyrighted material for the purposes of parody, caricature, or pastiche.<\/p>\n
The right to make personal copies permits a lawful owner of a copyrighted work to reproduce it for private use, subject to the following conditions (not relating to computer programs):<\/p>\n
The personal copies exception is unambiguous in its terms. Any act involving a copy of a copyrighted work that is not expressly permitted by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 constitutes an infringement thereof. These provisions were introduced by The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations, 2014.<\/p>\n
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 now recognises parody, caricature, and pastiche as permitted uses of copyrighted material, introduced by The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations, 2014. No precise statutory definition is provided for any of the three terms. The amendment permits the use of copyrighted material for the limited purpose of parody (defined broadly as imitation with a humorous or satirical effect), caricature (an exaggerated representation for entertainment or critical commentary), or pastiche (an imitative or composite artistic work of a musical nature).<\/p>\n
The parody exception is governed by the doctrine of fair dealing, which requires a court to assess whether the use of the copyrighted material was fair and justifiable in the circumstances. In applying this doctrine, the court weighs factors including the extent of financial loss to the copyright holder and the proportion of the original work that was used. The use of an entire copyrighted soundtrack, for instance, would not ordinarily qualify as fair dealing; a reasonable and limited portion might.<\/p>\n
The parody exception is subject to two express conditions:<\/p>\n
The amendments expressly preserve the operation of the law of defamation: if a copyright holder considers that a parody or related work is defamatory or conveys a misleading message, recourse to the courts in defamation remains available, unaffected by the new exception.<\/p>\n
In the absence of statutory definitions for parody, caricature, and pastiche, a court faced with a dispute under the new exception will be required to determine whether the work in question qualifies as one of those categories \u2014 which will involve an assessment of whether the material was, in fact, humorous, entertaining, or satirical in effect. Where a work purports to be a parody but does not satisfy that characterisation, the creator may be found liable for copyright infringement. The law therefore places considerable latitude in the hands of the presiding judge when assessing whether the exception applies.<\/p>\n
This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified attorney before acting on any matter discussed here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK Copyright Law now permits parodies and similar works under fair dealing, but judges decide if the work qualifies based on its humorous effect. This post analyses the legal framework and the continuing protection against defamation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":43,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[6923,12818,131,706,6924,12819,12820,12817],"class_list":["post-17713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyrights","category-media-and-entertainment-law","tag-caricature","tag-copyright-designs-and-patents-act-1988","tag-fair-dealing","tag-parody","tag-pastiche","tag-personal-copies","tag-uk-copyright-amendments","tag-uk-copyright-parody-exception"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149714,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17713\/revisions\/149714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}