The Right To Parody: Comparative Analysis of Copyright and Free Speech [Hardcover]

Examines the right to parody as a natural right in both the free speech and the copyright contexts.The author argues that parody, in addition to being an increasingly recognized defense to copyright infringement, is a human right. Written in non-specialist language, this book will appeal to both scholars and general readers interested in intellectual property, constitutional law, and free speech advocacy.The author argues that parody, in addition to being an increasingly recognized defense to copyright infringement, is a human right. Written in non-specialist language, this book will appeal to both scholars and general readers interested in intellectual property, constitutional law, and free speech advocacy.In The Right to Parody: Comparative Analysis of Free and Fair Speech, Amy Lai examines the right to parody as a natural right in free speech and copyright, proposes a legal definition of parody that respects the interests of rights holders and accommodates the public's right to free expression, and describes mechanisms to ensure that parody will best serve this purpose. Combining philosophical inquiry with robust legal analysis, the book draws upon examples from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Hong Kong. While it caters to scholars in intellectual property and constitutional law, as well as free speech advocates, it is written in a non-specialist language designed to appeal to any reader interested in how the boom in online parodies and memes relates to free speech and copyright.Part I: 1. The natural right to free speech and parody; 2. The natural right to parody copyrighted works; Part II: 3. The parody/satire dichotomy in American law; 4. Canada's potential parody/satire dichotomy; 5. The (deceptively) broad British parody exception; 6. The broadening French parody exception; 7. A parody exception for Hong Kong in crisis; Conclusion.For one thing, in the introduction Lai establishes the influence on the book of Robert Mergess JustiflÃh