Parody and the Law

Hello everyone!

I'm on the board of directors for a student group on my college campus, and we are currently trying to mount a stage version of a film that was released some years ago, and after contacting the right people, they told us that the rights could not be granted to us because of problems with the distributor who owns the copyright.

However, we were told we were allowed to parody the work when asked, so here's my question: If we decide to go ahead and do a parody of this film and dramatize it, are we allowed to use the same title as the film, or do we have to change that?

There are very complicated laws involving the line between parody and copyright infringement--starting with the fact that the words "A PARODY" have to be much more prominent than you would think.

The idea is that you are free to make fun of something, but you are not free to capitalize on someone else's creative work. That's a pretty fine line.

If you don't consult a lawyer on this, as Phyllis suggested, you could easily be sued or shut down.

See below how clearly these books have to state that they are parodies, even if you or I would think the cover art makes that obvious:

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