European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 5, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse 2into copyright Law that Isnit so pretty Clarence Page hound Public figures have veto Power Over their critics no matter How fair and mild. The comments May be that is the Issue that lies at the heart of the copyright Battle Between 2 live Crew the Raunchy rap stars and Acuff Rose music of Nashville the company that owns the late Roy Orbison s hit pretty woman. The Case now before the supreme court also pits a Galaxy of Star composers such As Dolly Parton against a Galaxy of Star comics such As Mark Russell mad Magazine Washington s Capitol Steps and Abc s saturday night live. Luther Campbell the head of 2 live Crew was perfectly willing to pay the usual fees to Acuff Rose to Lampoon pretty woman on one of their albums. But Acuff Rose refused the Royalty 2 live Crew used the Melody anyway and Acuff Rose sued. Its pretty woman had been soiled Acuff Rose claimed Quot unlike the original lyrics that Are about a lonely Man s romantic longing for a pretty woman he sees walking Down the Street 2 live Crews verses taunt a succession of unappealing women including a big hairy woman a a a Bald headed woman and a a two trip in woman a the plaintiffs argued in court briefs. I wonder How the composers who stole the melodies for Yankee Doodle my country tis of thee and the Star spangled Danner from the British would feel about this. When it comes to being lampooned in song these Days the Law offers an extraordinary privilege to song owners you can t parody their songs without their permission a foggy Battleground of copyright Law allows the. Quotation of copyrighted material words music images for purposes like criticism news reporting scholarship and parody As Long As such use does not usurp the Market for the copyrighted material. Lawyers Call it Quot fair fair enough. A District court ruled 2 live Crew made fair use of the copyrighted song because it Quot appropriates no More from the original than is necessary to accomplish reasonably its parodic besides said the court 2 live Crews rap was aimed at a different audience from Orbison a song so it was Quot extremely unlikely that 2 live Crew s song could adversely affect the Market for the but the appellate court of the 6th circuit in Cincinnati disagreed. It cited an earlier supreme court ruling that Quot every commercial use of copyrighted material is presumptively an unfair exploitation of the monopoly privilege that belongs to the owner of the Quot a. That puts the Burden on 2 live Crew to prove their commercial parody does not unfairly diminish the economic value of the original. Discussions about this Case tend to focus on the question of ownership but maybe the real question is damages. Who in other words is Hurt the songwriters and owners argue that the value of their property is diminished by parodies they Don t like. But that argument simply docs not hold up Iii Light of the realities of show business a business that thrives on publicity even when it is bad. Not Only Are song owners not damaged by replay of their songs they arc also compensated through direct payment and through exposure of their product possibly to new audiences is there any other profession that pays people for what is essentially their own publicity Acuff Rose should have to explain Why it thinks its song might be damaged any More by rappers than it was when the company approved its use As a Hook crts background theme music in the movie pretty woman. Is Acuff Rose really Hurt in any legally measurable sense or is it merely engaging in censorship Money does not appear to be the Issue. Nor is a a theft in any traditional sense. A Rodisti arc offering to pay the same royalties they must pay when permission is properly granted. A fair use is the rap Star Luther Campbell of 2 live Crew. Issue. So is the right to make a fair commend Quot fortunately All song owners have not Tost their sense of humor. Parodis a weird at Yankovics new album Aja Paloona for example has a hilarious achy Breaky song that Savages the endless airplay achy Breaky heart has received. Yet As with All of his parodies Yankovic received permission from achy Breaky composer Don von. Tress whom he thanks in his cd and tape liner notes. Since Yankovic gives an old song new life maybe von Tress should be thanking him on the other hand the Mere act of requiring permission has a chilling effect. A Rodisti Tike the Capitol Steps complain that song owners Given a Chance to say no tend to say it reflex icly even when they would not otherwise object. With Public Fervour quite rightly aroused these Days against Raunchy rappers who refer to women As Quot bitches and a a How so and worse this is not a great time for 2 live Crew leaders in Raunchy rap to be seeking Public sympathy. But it is often the irreverent in you face types who do the rest of us a favor by challenging Laws that need to be challenged and changed. In this Case its the song not the Singer that counts. Tho Chicago Tribune English language can be hard not to mention difficult Andy Rooney English is a great language but it can be infuriatingly Complex and contradictory. A we go to a drugstore for Medicine which is Good but if a take drugs that a bad. A the word a a Day Means both the Daylight hours and the whole 24-hour period. We say a she works All we mean she works 9 to 5, during the Daylight hours. When we say a what Day is it a we mean the whole 24 hours. We need another word to separate the two. A we re desperate for a neuter gender third person singular pronoun so we done to have to choose r every time Between a a he and the dilemma drives writers crazy. To avoid it people use an ungrammatical but neuter gender plural pronoun when speaking As in a someone left their keys on the writers can to do that but we dislike having to say a someone left his or her keys every time. A i almost always use a a hard meaning a difficult a even though i know its wrong. I use a a made for a angry a too. A editors arc taking out More and More of the punctuation Marks that a writer puts in. I use a lot of commas dashes and three dots because i think it makes my writing More like my talking. That s what i think writing should be like but editors remove half of the punctuation i put in a there Isnit much difference Between British English and american English but i like some British Spellings better than our own. A a Colour conveys More of the sense of what the word Means than a Ocolor a i always spell a a behaviour Quot As a a behaviour and an editor always takes out the she s right but i still like i like a labour a too. A the word a a gender confuses people. It is not interchangeable with the word gender is a grammatical term that refers to the sex of a person or an object. Maybe we misuse it because the English language does no to have Many words that Are different depending on the sex of what a being referred to. A a actor is masculine gender. A a actress is feminine gender but How Many of those words can you think of not Many. In French every noun is assigned a gender and it s hard difficult for american kids studying it to understand. Why is the word for cup feminine la Fasse when the word for Glass is masculine Leverr anyway a person docs not have gender. People have sex. A a usually changes in the language Are an improvement. When a Slang word lasts for More than one generation it s usually a useful addition. The word a uptight Quot is a Good example. It Means More than a tense Quot or a every once in a while something unfortunate happens. Its unfortunate that we be lost the old meaning of the word a Gay a a when our hearts were Young and Gay has a great lilt and meaning to it and there a no other word that would give the same feeling that the word a a Gay docs. The word has been appropriated by homosexuals As a euphemism a is a perfectly Good word. Its direct and accurate and it no longer carries the same opprobrious connotation that it once had for most americans. I Hope we get the word a Gay Quot b ii a sometime with its original meaning. A the word a a dear meaning expensive sounds old fashioned. A English teachers Are losing a lot of Battles and 1 done to mind. No matter How often teachers Tell students that a a lend is a verb and a a loan is a noun people Are going to continue loaning friends Money. Teachers ought to give up on that one. Tribune Media service Andy Rooney in a former Star and so Tea reporter. December 5. 1303 sunday
