Syzdekistan

I have been a Weird Al fan for many years. His original music is hilarious (yes, his albums always have several original songs) and his parodies are fantastic. One of the cool things about Al, is that he always asks for permission from the artist before he parodies a song. Most artists are honored and flattered to have Al parody a song.

Now, Al doesn’t have to do this. US copyright law expressly permits the creation of parodies. Special thanks to my friend Robert who pointed out this NPR story about a record company trying to prevent Al from releasing a parody of James Blunt’s hit “Your Beautiful” called “You’re Pitiful.” Blunt gave Al permission to do a parody of the song. However, Atlantic Records, Blunt’s label, told Al he couldn’t release his parody. Although Al has the legal right to release the song on his upcoming album, he didn’t want to cause a conflict between his record company and Atlantic. So Al released the song for free download on his website. It’s good and worth the download. And you too, can help stick it to the man.