Lawyers have predicted a rise in copyright disputes as new rules on parody came into force this month.
From 1 October, parodies of copyright-protected work are exempt from legal action. Paul Joseph, RPC partner, said: “Creative works that make the zeitgeist like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Breaking Bad are likely to be a hugely popular source of further parody.”
Joseph predicts an increase in disputes in the short term as content owners test the limits of “parody”. “A key requirement for a publisher to claim that the parody exception protects their use of someone else’s copyright is that the new work is funny.
This means that UK judges will be asked to decide whether new creative arts are funny. If the judge isn’t laughing, the creator of the new work may end up on the losing side of a copyright infringement case.”
