Legal Question in Technology Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Illegal to parody a website?

You asked if it is legal to make a website that parodies another website?

Yes, but the author must be certain to maintain that the document is a parody. The parody may not be used to defame the original or cause loss to the stake or reputation of the original. Also, if the parody were found to be an infringemment this would generally be a civil claim (tort) as opposed to a criminal claim.

Yes, it is legal to parody. But is dangerous. Just because one person believes a document is a parody does not mean that all persons will observe that it is a parody. Persons authoring parodies should anticipate getting cease and desist letters and potentially being sued on multiple grounds.

The defense that what the author created is a parody is an affirmative defense. Meaning that by making a claim of parody the author admits to infringing certain rights, but is only doing so to make fun of the original. Profit motives of the both the original work and the parody work figure heavily into whether a parody will stand the test.

The question you have to ask yourself is, am I making the parody because it is necessary to poke fun at this other work or am I making the parody to either profit from the other work or drive profit away from that work?

Regards,

Roger Traversa

email: [email protected]