David Oxenford's Broadcast Law blog is always informative, well written, and copyright-related. Recently, he discussed why, perhaps, "The Wind Done Gone" was a transformative adaptation of "Gone With The Wind", but the bold insertion of Star Trek characters into the Dr. Seuss story, "Oh, The Places You Will Go" was copyright infringement.
Oxenford does not delve into whether or not the JibJab political cartoons based on copyrighted songs were fair use or not. His analysis is thought provoking.
One wonders whether or not a mash up of news footage was inspired by the CME newsgroup advertisement How The World Advances with Brittany Lincicome (she drives a golf ball and it ends up at the feet of Sir Richard Branson on a large plane's staircase). Is inserting a golf ball or three into a news clip "fair use"?
Just because you make a funny version of a copyrighted work does not mean you are safe from a copyright infringement claim.
All the best,
Rowena Cherry
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I've actually read THE WIND DONE GONE. It doesn't retell the story of GONE WITH THE WIND but views the characters from an entirely different angle. None of the GWTW characters is even mentioned by name, aside from the generic "Mammy" (who's the narrator's mother and is given a personal name, which she doesn't have in GWTW). They're referred to by sardonic nicknames -- for instance, Ashley is Dreamy Gentleman. I think it would be quite a stretch for the novel to be considered copyright infringement. I was pleasantly surprised when I read it, because the news article I'd read indicated that it was granted a pass as "parody," so I expected something rather silly. On the contrary, it's a serious novel about the plantation culture from a slave's viewpoint.
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