New UK Copyright Exception Allows Mashups — But Only If Judges Think They Are Funny (original) (raw)

from the you-must-be-joking dept

Five years ago, Techdirt reported that a request to the UK government to provide a copyright exception for mashups was rejected. Since then, we’ve been reporting on the UK’s very slow progress in updating its copyright laws by bringing in various changes and exceptions. An article in the Daily Telegraph points out that there is a big problem with the new exception for parody, caricature or pastiche (found via @copyrightgirl):

> Under a new exception to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998, which comes into force on Wednesday, people will be allowed to re-use copyright material “for the purposes of parody, caricature or pastiche” without having to ask permission of the original author first. > > There is an important caveat. If a parodist is taken to court, it will be up to a judge to decide whether the disputed parody is sufficiently funny.

A document from the UK government explains (pdf):

> In broad terms, parody imitates a work for humorous or satirical effect, commenting on the original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target.

Leaving aside the fact that judges tend to be somewhat advanced in years, and are therefore likely to have a very different idea from young creative artists of what “funny” means, there is also the point that this narrow definition excludes a huge class of mashups that aren’t even intended to be funny, just creative. As Mike pointed out recently in his article on Kutiman, it’s all too easy for this brilliant use of elements taken from elsewhere to be seen as “infringing.” The fact that the UK’s exceptions do not permit such kinds of originality shows how much its new copyright is still stuck in the past.

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Filed Under: copyright, free speech, humor, judges, mashups, parody, uk