Supreme Court Case / Rule of Law

Supreme Court Case / Rule of Law
Copyrights fall under intellectual property, it protects the authors or creators of literary, artistic, or musical works and computer programs. These laws prohibit the reproduction or alteration of an author’s work without permission. Under the copyright law, a created work is protected for the lifetime of the creator plus 70 years. If the work is produced as a result of the creator’s employment, the term is 95 years from the first publication, or 120 years after the creation of the work, whichever is shorter. Copying a work without permission is an infringement unless it falls under the doctrine of fair use. This applies when the copyrighted material is copied without authorization for use in connection with criticism, news reporting, research, education, or parody. In this case, the question was if 2 Live Crew had infringed when it created a parody of Roy Orbison’s song “Pretty Woman”? 2 Live Crew only taken the base line from the original, placed their own lyrics and replaced the original tempo of the song to a much faster pace making it into “rap music” for commercial duplication. The commercial use for this parody will not damage the commercial use of the original, for they don’t even compete in the same market. In turn, the 2 Live Crew’s version does fall under the fair use doctrine, and makes their song a parody.