Does Parody violate Copyright Law?
Copyright law protects ownership rights. While corporate speech is commercial speech, union speech is political speech and therefore cannot infringe on a copyright. Parody is protected speech and is thus a defense against copyright violation. A true parody will not confuse a viewer that the origin of the parody is the copyright owner. Parody and political speech that rely on the identity of the subject of criticism fall under the doctrine of fair use.
What is Fair Use?
The U.S. Copyright Office cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied”
Unions MUST exercise their right to Parody!
I am not a lawyer so I can’t give legal advice. However, it is my belief that the job of a good labor lawyer is not to prevent workers from exercising their free speech rights, but to but to make us aware of the risks and to defend us in case an employer challenges those rights. Labor law has been so deformed that it is now used against us more than it defends us. However, as long as free speech still exists unions have not only the right, but the DUTY to exercise their right to Parody. Like any muscle, free speech only gets stronger the more it’s used.
Union publicity is more powerful when it displays the “authorized” employer trademark or logo. The more the employer tries to suppress our right to parody their identity, the stronger we become. Images are more powerful than words!
I've prepared a PDF of a short course on labor art and parody.
Download Using Parody Art for Mobilization as a PDF
