The Use of Works for Parody and Caricature. Legal Criterions

Abstract

The article deals with the exception to copyright for the purposes of parody and caricature. This exception is one of the tools ensuring the balance between the authors’ interest to have the monopoly on the use of their works and the right of the members of the society to the freedom of expression. Another aim of parody exception is the promotion of creativity by the permission of the transformative use of copyrighted works. Three main aspects of this issue are discussed in this article. The first one deals with the legal regulation of parody exception. The parody exception is one of the exceptions permitted by the Information Society Directive. The countries under investigation have two main schemes of legal regulation related to the parody exception. The first group are droit d’auteur countries (France and Belgium) which have a special parody exception provision in their Copyright laws. The second group are copyright countries (the United States and the United Kingdom) with no special provision regarding the parody exception in their laws; however, in the case law of these countries this exception is recognised as one of the acts of fair dealing or faire use. The Lithuanian Copyright Act permits the use of copyrighted works for the purposes of caricature and parody.