Are Christian Parodies Legal?
That’s a real good question. ApologetiX attempts to answer this question by pointing out that the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously agreed that parodies are protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. ApologetiX provides a link to the site that explains this ruling. In this particular case, 2 Live Crew claimed to have done a parody of Roy Orbison’s song “Pretty Woman.” The resulting song was rather vulgar (in line with most of 2 Live Crew’s material) and Roy Orbison’s estate filed a lawsuit because of their perceived damage that this parody caused to the original recording. The Supreme Court ruled that parodists must be protected under the First Amendment because it is likely that the original author would refuse permission to create the parody if it was poking fun at the artist or the song. Therefore, a parodist may use the original material without permission and without paying royalties. However, the Supreme Court was very clear that they weren’t giving t
