Questions About Doing A Parody Of A Movie

BenjaminLevin · Post by **BenjaminLevin** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:27 pm

Do I have to pay royalities or anything if I poke fun at a movie? And if the title sounds similar to the original movie are there any kind of special steps I have to take?

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:56 pm

say your doing a spoof on Daredevil call it DarnDeevil or something...or like spider-man make it Man-With-Web'd-Feet or something hehe

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 10:04 pm

Don't worry about it if you don't plan on selling it...

BenjaminLevin · Post by **BenjaminLevin** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 10:04 pm

BenjaminLevin · Post by **BenjaminLevin** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 10:06 pm

But if I wanted to sell it then I would have to dish out some hard cash towards certain companies that own the rights to the movies I am poking fun at?

foxwood · Post by **foxwood** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:18 am

Depends just how close, and if the owner is anal since it is in therie your spoof of somthing. Ask Raptor, hes the copyright man. Also this would work better in a diffrent area wouldn't it?

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 8:27 am

Uh - oh, getting a reputation huh...
Parody is a GENERALLY permitted use of copyrighted material. However, just saying it's a parody, it's protected go away to the legal eagle's from the studio, may not be enough, and in fact probably won't be enough. Here is a reference article http://www.publaw.com/parody.html . Understand that in order to protect their copyright, copyright holders are required to prove that they have previously protected their rights ( ie to sue people) so there is a good chance, if you come up on their radar that they will come after you, even if they think they are going to lose, it is simply to prove they have attempted to protect their copyright so if someone does a real rip-off of the material down the road.
So my totally un legal opinion is even tho technically your parody should be a protected work ( assuming it passes the tests listed in the article) you may have to go to court to prove it. In the case of the example 2LiveCrew had to go to the supreme court. And you are probably talking about some real serious hard cash to get the licenses you would need if you licensed the work. As always, anytime you tread the tenuous areas of copyright infringement, seek the advice of a good Intelectual Property attorney, and generally not on the Internet LOL.
Again my opinion and interpretation, there is no legal advice implied, just my thoughts on the question at hand.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 10:50 pm

Just don't use exact character names. music, props etc and you should be right. My film Dangerous Dan Jones is a parody of Indiana Jones and if you listen to the music it sounds similar but if you break it down into tracks it is very different.

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 11:07 pm

Grant wrote:Just don't use exact character names. music, props etc and you should be right. My film Dangerous Dan Jones is a parody of Indiana Jones and if you listen to the music it sounds similar but if you break it down into tracks it is very different.

And a very well done parody at that!! I could see absolutely nothing in that movie that would even allow them to raise a copyright question! And at the same time, it was obviously a parody of the Indiana Jones series...

Famous · Post by **Famous** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:09 pm

Like Spaceballs.
That was a comedy a a number a space films...You can do more than one you know.

BenjaminLevin · Post by **BenjaminLevin** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 4:28 am

Spaceballs rocked! That's one of my favorite Mel Brooks movies. And thanks for your help Raptor. I'm in the middle of a second draft for my script.

Famous · Post by **Famous** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 2:51 am

Really ,Drafts?.I have an Alfa Smart ( laptop ) so I just type it on it and then just print.

BenjaminLevin · Post by **BenjaminLevin** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 4:49 am

I type mine on my laptop. Mine is a toshiba, nothing special, kind of crappy to today's standards. I haven't printed anything yet, I have all of the drafts saved on my laptop and I makes changed there. And then i print my final draft.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 1:24 pm

i do mine all on paper along with storyboards

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 5:03 pm

yeah I type mine in the crappy Scriptbuddy, then I copy and paste it to word and make my corrections that way the formatting is semi right and I dont have to format the whole thing.

nutter25 · Post by **nutter25** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 6:52 pm

One BIG tip for creating a parody though, only replicate the bits of the film that are funny... learn from Scary Movie 3's mistake.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 12:27 am

parody is considered "fair use". Just be smart about it

2nd_Recon · Post by **2nd_Recon** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:49 am

meaning don't call a parody of "The Lord of the Rings" "The Lord of the Rings". Call it "The Lord of the Circular Jewelry Wornn on the Hand for the Purpose of Aesthetics"

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:56 am

or instead of Terminator 3: Judgement day, call it "Rise of the termination machine: Bug repellents

TheWall · Post by **TheWall** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 7:14 am

or like take the title off kung pow enter the fist and who in there right mind would step into a fist? anyway use that as a example

I3lade203 · Post by **I3lade203** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 1:18 pm

I assume it's only for fun right? As long as your not selling it, or posting it everywhere you can possibly think of, you should be fine

foxwood · Post by **foxwood** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:57 pm

well most parody is fair use, just some people get very defensive about it though. So know how the onwers react before you make one.