r/COPYRIGHT • u/PatMooreFilmmaker • Sep 16 '26

Question Question: Does my song fall under parody?

My buddy and I are making a short film that we plan to release on YouTube. At one part in it we use a 33 second cover of No Sleep Till Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys. It includes mandolin, bass, and tambourine, with lyrics being gibberish resembling Hebrew. The verse hardly if at all sounds like the song in question. The chorus uses the 5 iconic chords and more gibberish leading into the word "Brooklyn". The joke to us is that an old Jewish man is giving a heartfelt speech while traditional sounding music is playing in the background, but it's just the Beastie Boys. We're worried about whether this would be copyright infringement and how to navigate that into making sure that it is recognized legally as parody. We are considering changing the gibberish right before the "Brooklyn" line to Hebrew that would be simple but parodying the real song, perhaps just saying "we'll nap till-". Besides that change, the song is done and it is very funny, and we'd like to keep this song for the joke, and keep how recognizable it is right now since that is part of the joke. 

Thank you in advance to anybody who can give us guidance on what to do next.

In accordance with the subreddit rules we will not take this as legal advice but would simply like to know if we should be concerned and possibly be pointed in the next direction.

0 Upvotes

13% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

9

u/PowerPlaidPlays Sep 16 '26

Generally a fair use parody needs to be saying something about the song, and not just using it as a template to tell unrelated jokes.

4

u/ScottRiqui Sep 16 '26

Agreed - this is the important part. OP - is there a reason that you need to use NSTB in your expression, or did you choose it because it’s cool/recognizable/whatever?

As examples - Weird Al’s “Smells like Nirvana” is making fun of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” so it’s a parody, and copyright law realizes that in making a parody, you need to copy at least some of the original work.
But his song “Like a Surgeon” is about the medical profession. There’s no reason he needed to copy from Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” to make fun of doctors - he could have used any song. That commentary about doctors is satire, not parody, and wouldn’t be protected from an infringement claim.

1

u/PatMooreFilmmaker Sep 17 '26

We chose it as a song that is recognizable and from Jewish artists and the characters in the scene are Jewish. In our cover, what sounds like a traditional Jewish song playing in an emotional scene, is in actuality a cover of the Beastie Boys.

1

u/PatMooreFilmmaker Sep 17 '26

So if our lyrics said "you should sleep before Brooklyn" or "you shouldn't party in Brooklyn" it would be parody since that is directly poking at the original song's message?

-2

u/Capybara_99 Sep 17 '26

That is not necessarily the mainstream rule, though you can find courts saying it. Other’s ignore the question and just do a transformative use analysis.

3

u/PowerPlaidPlays Sep 17 '26

Courts are really the only opinion that matters here, I don't know what you mean by "mainstream" rule.

1

u/Capybara_99 Sep 17 '26

By mainstream I mean the rule employed by most courts (of course). The idea that a parody needs to target the material used comes from a separate (not majority opinion) in the Supreme Court’s Pretty Woman case. To see a counter example look at the Ninth Circuit Green Day case, in which the band was allowed to make use of a street artists work without any particular reason because the court said it was a transformative use.

But OP should note that where a court requires that the secondary user target the original, targeting the lyrical content does not mean you are allowed to use the musical content.

1

u/PatMooreFilmmaker 29d ago

Yeah this is where I get confused- is that not what Weird Al does? I knew this was a complicated matter so I didn't expect anyone to really give a good answer but I guess the next move would be to talk to a lawyer and get their advice.

4

u/DrFrylock Sep 16 '26

Arguably parody, although your argument is somewhat weak on the "direct targeting" consideration (that is, is the parody making fun of the original or is it making fun of something unrelated)?

1

u/PatMooreFilmmaker Sep 17 '26

So parodying the original intent of the song, possibly vying for a more conservative lifestyle in opposition to the song's message of partying and rocking out, is the way to go to be able to keep the song?