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Who would want to murder Al?

Weird Al generally gets the permission of the copyright owners before recording his versions. There have been some dust-ups where artists were annoyed at having their songs Weird-Al-ified without their permission, but in those cases it turned out that their labels had given permission without telling them. See his FAQ.

Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies, even though he doesn't have to. There's your citation. Note that part of this is a pragmatic business move; if he didn't have his paperwork in order, the original artist could sue him to collect the songwriter royalties Weird Al collects from his changed version of each song.

Indeed, Australia, YOU'RE PITIFUL! (scroll down for access to a free and legal copyrighted song).

From weirdal.com try :
Don't download this song

Sorry if it doesn't work, it's just what I found from Mr. Yankovic's own postings:
Al News Feed

From weirdal.com try :
Don't download this song

Sorry if it doesn't work, it's just what I found from Mr. Yankovic's own postings:
Al News Feed

Yeah: that's what I said, but avoided the use of "satire" and "parody" lest the pundits catch me unawares ;).

Chances are really good that the "one other" you think you've heard is something by someone else (item number one on his FAQ) -- Al has said that his biggest fear about downloading music is that people will (intentionally or not) label their works as his, and it'll spread through the p2pnets and people will attribute to him what is not actually his. A quick litmus test is if the song is not "family friendly". All of his songs (satire or parody) are a strong G or a mild PG. No drug discussion, no frank sex discussion, etc. It's a pretty well established thing that the Nirvana song is the only song where he directly satires the original work.

Lastly, if you keep reading down that FAQ, he sorta kinda refers to the songs he doesn't write himself as parodies, so that uh, sorta invalidates your arguement.

Satire is MAD magazine, parody is ... Weird Al.

And so he released it as a free download instead. You can get it directly from his website.

News for "Weird Al" Yankovic.

But the question is, has Weird Al gotten laid yet?

I guess you missed out on "'Weird Al' Yankovic's" "Straight Outta Lynwood" album. Track three in the USA is "Canadian Idiot".

I think it is a type of humor, as Canadian Bacon is as well.

I have no idea why AOL would back out of hosting Al's video, since he is one of the most successful artists I know. He has been releasing albums for over two decades. He has 3 Grammy's, 3 Gold Albums, and 6 Platinum albums in the US.

He also has a fan base so loyal that tens of thousands will gather just to honor him with a collective chicken dance.

He's releasing a "dual disk" CD that has a DVD of videos on the back side of it. Somebody probably swiped one from a pre-release stock room and ripped it.

It's a little known bit of trivia, but when Mel Brooks went to George Lucas asking permission to make the parody (not required but all the cool guys do it) George said sure, on one condition: You can't make any Spaceballs merchandise. Why? Because as pointed out in the movie, "Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made." George didn't want to lose out on a Star Wars lightsaber sale for a Spaceballs-the lightsaber sale.

That's why it's so heavily referenced in the movie; Spaceballs-the T-shirt, Spaceballs-the Coloring Book, Spaceballs-the flame thrower, Spaceballs-the towel, Spaceballs-the etc. Because they can't (couldn't) actually make a single item.

So does that same limitation exist? Could "Spaceballs-the animated series" be considered merchandising? Or did they get a new deal for parodying "Star Wars, the animated series" without limitations?

YOU'RE PITIFUL!
Yes, Al recently recorded a James Blunt parody which unfortunately, due to matters beyond his control, will not be appearing on his forthcoming album. But if you're so inclined, you can just download it for FREE! Go ahead, we won't tell anybody! Right-click (option-click for Mac) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here, or here or here, not to mention here, or even here!

It couldn't be because they get less per song than if you buy the CD, despite there being nothing to manufacture, print, burn, store, distribute, stock, or stores to man.

where the studio contracts actually pay the artists LESS per track, while having almost zero overhead cost for the production of raw goods because there are no raw goods.

I was just reading the "Weird Al" Q/A on his website about from fans where he talks about his contract on his smaller profit from (legally)downloaded music. I think this is an issue with Al having signed a contact without fully understanding that he would get less per download. Basically, it seems like a contact problem, not a "the big bad music industry won't pay artists as much for downloads". It's more "the big bad record label out smarted someone on their contract rates for downloads".

Also, "no overhead" is a HUGE mis-understatement. Where does most of the cost of producing a record go? It goes into the pockets of the people who produce it... not the cost of paper, plastic, and compact disks. CD's cost like 1 cent to produce, if not less now-a-days. Art can be expensive, sure, but that art is going to be created with/without a download. You need to still advertise your new record and that record has to 'visual' look different to distingish it from the other records. Even if it's a .JPEG on a website, that image was professionaly created by someone. Of course, I'm sure if the CEO's took an 80% paycut and only got paid like $1 million dollars a year, I think the cost of purcashing albums would be less. =D

But I degress... Albums cost money for recording time, studio time, paying the people master the tracks, back-up musicians (if any), advertising/promotion, etc, etc. This "no overhead" is a big mis-statement. Sure, they don't have to produce CD's, but that's probably the cheapest part of the whole process! I already covered the fact that they still will need to create artwork, etc. The big saves from downloading comes from cutting out the 'middle man'. You're no longer paying "Mega"-marts fee, their distributers fee's, etc. Just some bandwidth "overhead", which is comparatively cheaper (given gas prices these days).

Cheers,
Fozzy

...here are some fan-produced videos for two original songs and one of his polkas. I find them musically quite stunning. He can compose a song in any genre just as well as bands who do them exclusively. If you disagree, well, at least you listened before slamming him.

http://www.weirdal.com/legohardwarestore/index.htm l
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/horoscope
http://www.weirdal.com/polka/angrywhiteboy.htm

...here are some fan-produced videos for two original songs and one of his polkas. I find them musically quite stunning. He can compose a song in any genre just as well as bands who do them exclusively. If you disagree, well, at least you listened before slamming him.

http://www.weirdal.com/legohardwarestore/index.htm l
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/horoscope
http://www.weirdal.com/polka/angrywhiteboy.htm

This is the one thing about my renegotiated record contract that never made much sense to me. It costs the label NOTHING for somebody to download an album (no manufacturing costs, shipping, or really any overhead of any kind) and yet the artist (me) winds up making less from it. Go figure.

Nope.

In fact, by even posting it on Slashdot, they've pretty much ensured that Weird Al would never make the song.

From the FAQ section of his site (http://www.weirdal.com/faq.htm):
"Can I send my song ideas to Al?

Sorry, for legal and personal reasons, Al does not accept song ideas from fans (he's got plenty warped ideas on his own!) You might try following in Al's footsteps by recording your songs and sending them to Dr. Demento - maybe you'll hear yourself on the radio!"

I've never met him, but I'm told that he's a really cool guy (a family member of mine who was working security at one of his shows talked to him for a bit). And of course, being the diehard fan that I am, I have quite a few of his albums.

-- Joe

Submitter's (?) blog references this, but here is Weird's Al's website where he actually talks about it ... his response on this topic is the 4th bold one down.

http://www.weirdal.com/Weird Al, is that you?

Jeremy McCarthy of Fairfield, CT asks: Hey Al!!!!! What do u think about Napster? I just want to know if you approve.

I have very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I'm concerned that the rampant downloading of my copyright-protected material over the Internet is severely eating into my album sales and having a decidedly adverse effect on my career. On the other hand, I can get all the Metallica songs I want for FREE! WOW!!!!!

Jens Landmand in Lillebøs: Is your music copyrighted?

Yeah, so just don't try anything funny, okay, Buster?

That gem was by Weird Al Yankovic, by the way.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of song parodies floating around the Internet being attributed to Al which are in fact done by somebody else. "Star Wars Cantina," "Windows 95 Sucks," "Living La Vida Yoda," "Combo No. 5," "What If God Smoked Cannabis," "He Got The Wrong Foot Amputated" (the list goes on and on... some of the titles are unprintable in a family-friendly web site) - these songs are NOT by Al.

The list (PDF) of butchered movies includes almost every Woody Allen film, Silence of the Lambs, and Ghost World, just to name a few.

Fuck that, UHF is on there!!! This is completely unacceptable.

This is off-topic as hell, but Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz is also the name of "Weird Al" Yankovic's drummer.

There's at least one instance, "Amish Paradise ", where the original artist (Coolio) denied permission and Weird Al went ahead with it anyway...."

Subtle difference: permission was granted, but by the label and not by the artist, and the artist did not express disapproval until it was too late (at least according to Weird Al.) So it wasn't a case of him knowing it was not approved but going ahead regardless.

From Weird Al's FAQ:

"That was a very unfortunate case of misunderstanding between Al's people and Coolio's people. Short version of the story: Al recorded "Amish Paradise" after being told by his record label that Coolio had given his permission for the parody. When Al's album came out, Coolio publicly contended that he had never given his blessing..."

and had been told as much by his record label. He did not receive a denial and go "ahead with it anyway". Read this and get your facts straight before sounding off.

In fact, I'll make it easy for you; here is the relevant excerpt from the FAQ:

What about Coolio? I heard that he was upset with Al about "Amish Paradise."

That was a very unfortunate case of misunderstanding between Al's people and Coolio's people. Short version of the story: Al recorded "Amish Paradise" after being told by his record label that Coolio had given his permission for the parody. When Al's album came out, Coolio publicly contended that he had never given his blessing, and that he was in fact very offended by the song. To this day we're not exactly sure who got their facts wrong, but Al sincerely apologizes to Coolio for the misunderstanding.

According to his site, Weird Al always gets permission first, though it's characterised as a notification:

"Q. Does Al get permission to do his parodies?

A. Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years. Plus, Al wants to make sure that he gets his songwriter credit (as writer of new lyrics) as well as his rightful share of the royalties."

Does Al get permission to do his parodies?
Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years. Plus, Al wants to make sure that he gets his songwriter credit (as writer of new lyrics) as well as his rightful share of the royalties.

What about Coolio? I heard that he was upset with Al about "Amish Paradise." That was a very unfortunate case of misunderstanding between Al's people and Coolio's people. Short version of the story: Al recorded "Amish Paradise" after being told by his record label that Coolio had given his permission for the parody. When Al's album came out, Coolio publicly contended that he had never given his blessing, and that he was in fact very offended by the song. To this day we're not exactly sure who got their facts wrong, but Al sincerely apologizes to Coolio for the misunderstanding.

Appropriating the entire song and changing some of the lyrics goes beyond the normal bounds of fair use. It's why Weird Al Yankovic gets the copyright holder's permission before publishing his parody songs....

What does someone like Weird Al Yankovich do? Does he pay the copyright holders for the songs he parodies?

Yes.

I just wish there was a way to tell them all that just because a song is a parody, doesn't necesarrily mean it was written and performend by Weird Al.

Weird Al does attempt to contact the artists he is parodying, but parody is acceptable under copyright law.

Coolio included a sample as well as a rewrite, so he must have gotten permission.

Reference website.
Cover songs are covered under a mechanical license. The artist cannot stop you from covering their song.

Samples require the permission of the publisher and the owner of the master. They set the terms, so they can easily charge enough to make it infeasible.

From the copyright office:
There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances.

I know that chord progressions cannot be copyrighted, or all combinations of I-IV-V would have been eliminated long ago. But I would not use Star Wars' Imperial March without disguising it. The similarity argument rests on
amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The only case I remember was Bon Jovi suing and winning for one line of "Living on a Prayer", but I cannot find a reference. They won because the line was the same words and melody in the chorus. (I think it was "We're halfway there".)

If "On Top of Old Smokey" was not public domain, we would not have "Chariots of Fire". Restaurants write their own (awful) birthday songs to avoid paying for "Happy Birthday" written in 1893.

I wonder that melody is considered so important, since every singer applies very different melodies to my songs. I usually write 2 melodies for each song for my own singing so I can change depending if my voice has warmed up. Live versions usually have different melodies than the studio versions. I saw Britney Spears do "Baby One More Time" in a medley on TV once, and the melody was very different than the radio version. (I think it was because the TV version was live and only had one note.)

Today it is up to the artist to notice that someone released a very similar song. "Melancholy Elephants" refers to a world where the copyrights are checked against existing music before being issued. Given the patent office's reluctance to do anything resembling work, we should not have to worry about automatic copyright validation, but it would be much easier to validate music with computers than patents.

It's all about the pentiums, baby!

...Then we'll have to give "Weird Al" Yankovic the electric chair.

Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years. Plus, Al wants to make sure that he gets his songwriter credit (as writer of new lyrics) as well as his rightful share of the royalties.

"AlBook" doesn't have the same ring to it though

I think this man would disagree with you!

UHF is now on DVD.

Research the reference here

UHF will be out on DVD June 4, 2002

Look here...

Bullshit, I don't buy it.

Asking permission "because he's a nice guy", sure. That I can explain as "nice."

When it comes to money, he's not foolish. He's (okay, his record company is...) writing large checks to the authors of music he parodies. Nice? No way. That's a royalty payment by definition.

• royalty
  • 
    (Skipping parts 1 to 7, which refer to monarchies, kingdoms, etc...)

    8: "A share paid to a writer or composer out of the proceeds resulting from the sale or performance of his or her work."

In closing, you might wish to read some of the Weird Al FAQ, which addresses this situation:

• Does Al get permission to do his parodies?

  Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important for him to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years. Plus, Al wants to make sure that he gets his songwriter credit (as writer of new lyrics) as well as his rightful share of the royalties.

• What do the original artists think of the parodies?

  Most artists are genuinely flattered and consider it an honor to have Weird Al parody their work. Some groups (including Nirvana) claim that they didn't realize that they had really "made it" until Weird Al did a parody of them!

• What about Coolio? I heard that he was upset with Al about "Amish Paradise."

  That was a very unfortunate case of misunderstanding between Al's people and Coolio's people. Short version of the story: Al recorded "Amish Paradise" after being told by his record label that Coolio had given his permission for the parody. When Al's album came out, Coolio publicly contended that he had never given his blessing, and that he was in fact very offended by the song. Al immediately sent Coolio a very sincere letter of apology for the misunderstanding, but has yet to hear back from him.

According to his FAQ page Weird Al's policy is to get permission. There was one case where somebody dropped the ball ("Amish Paradise"), but Al was acting in the good-faith belief that Coolio had given permission.

http://www.weirdal.com/faq.htm

Does Al get permission to do his parodies?
Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important for him to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years. Plus, Al wants to make sure that he gets his songwriter credit (as writer of new lyrics) as well as his rightful share of the royalties.
What do the original artists think of the parodies?
Most artists are genuinely flattered and consider it an honor to have Weird Al parody their work. Some groups (including Nirvana) claim that they didn't realize that they had really "made it" until Weird Al did a parody of them!
What about Coolio? I heard that he was upset with Al about "Amish Paradise."
That was a very unfortunate case of misunderstanding between Al's people and Coolio's people. Short version of the story: Al recorded "Amish Paradise" after being told by his record label that Coolio had given his permission for the parody. When Al's album came out, Coolio publicly contended that he had never given his blessing, and that he was in fact very offended by the song. Al immediately sent Coolio a very sincere letter of apology for the misunderstanding, but has yet to hear back from him.
Have any artists ever turned Al down for a parody?
Even though most recording artists really do have a pretty good sense of humor, on a few very rare occasions Al has been denied permission to do a parody. Actually, the only artist to turn Al down consistently over the years has been... well, I would tell you, but my keyboard doesn't have that little "symbol thingy" on it.

Additionally, he does need permission for songs like The Saga Begins, because the use of American Pie to parody Star Wars doesn't count like that.

Does Al get permission to do his parodies?
Al does get permission from the original writers of the songs that he parodies. While the law supports his ability to parody without permission, he feels it's important for him to maintain the relationships that he's built with artists and writers over the years. Plus, Al wants to make sure that he gets his songwriter credit (as writer of new lyrics) as well as his rightful share of the royalties.
What do the original artists think of the parodies?
Most artists are genuinely flattered and consider it an honor to have Weird Al parody their work. Some groups (including Nirvana) claim that they didn't realize that they had really "made it" until Weird Al did a parody of them!
What about Coolio? I heard that he was upset with Al about "Amish Paradise."
That was a very unfortunate case of misunderstanding between Al's people and Coolio's people. Short version of the story: Al recorded "Amish Paradise" after being told by his record label that Coolio had given his permission for the parody. When Al's album came out, Coolio publicly contended that he had never given his blessing, and that he was in fact very offended by the song. Al immediately sent Coolio a very sincere letter of apology for the misunderstanding, but has yet to hear back from him.
Have any artists ever turned Al down for a parody?
Even though most recording artists really do have a pretty good sense of humor, on a few very rare occasions Al has been denied permission to do a parody. Actually, the only artist to turn Al down consistently over the years has been... well, I would tell you, but my keyboard doesn't have that little "symbol thingy" on it.

Additionally, he does need permission for songs like The Saga Begins, because the use of American Pie to parody Star Wars doesn't count like that.

Much in the same way that some artists say that they know they've really "made it" when Weird Al parodies one of their songs, maybe, in the same way, musicians/actors/athletes know they've made it once they make one of those "I am Sci-Fi" bits.

But, I can't be the only one that would love to see an actual Sci-Fi commercial with CmdrTaco in a CopyLeft shirt belting "No I am Sci-Fi dammit!" ;)

And yes, I am a little bit embarrassed that I know this.