The United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee granted summary judgment for Defendant and Plaintiff appealed. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded - on the finding that Defendant's parody was not fair use of copyrighted song. Writ of certiorari, which is when an appellate court decides to review a case at its own discretion, was granted.
Facts:
Defendant, 2 Live Crew, recorded a rap parody of the hit by Roy Orbison, “Oh, Pretty Woman.” Plaintiff, Acuff-Rose, the copyright holder of the original song, brought suit against Defendant on copyright infringement. Defendant voiced that Orbison’s song was fair use underneath the Copyright Act of 1976. The Copyright law dictates that a parody must hold some element of the prior artist’s work in order to make a new comment on the original work. In essence, a parody imitates an original work to make a statement, but the fairness of the use depends on whether it could be considered as commenting or criticizing the original piece of work. The district court granted summary judgment for Defendant, and held that the commercial nature of the song was within the boundaries of fair use. However, the appeals court reversed and remanded. It concluded that every commercial use is presumptively unfair because of Defendant’s commercial use. Defendant appealed.
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Issues:
For fair use, to what extent is the commercial purpose of the work a decisive element to the purpose and character of the work?
What other elements should be taken into consideration, besides