Parody Draws Lawsuit

Westboro Baptist Church cult, known nationally for picketing the funerals of service personnel, is being accused by a music company of violating copyright laws with an Internet video parody of the 1980s song, "We Are the World."

But an attorney for Westboro Baptist on Thursday said the parody, "God Hates the World," is protected under First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and religious expression. She said the church intends to keep the video posted on its Web site.

As much as I hate the message the Phelp's clan and theit cult. She is right, from a purely first amendment rights point of view, they do have a right to parody the song. If thet didn't then such parody artists as Weird Al Yankovic and Acappella (the Christian version of Weird Al) couldn't exist.

However, Warner/Chappel doesn't disagree. To them, the problem is one of copyright.

But Warner/Chappel Music Inc. in Los Angeles views the video as infringing on the copyright it administers for "We Are the World." The song raised money for famine relief that led to a video featuring some of American music's biggest stars, including Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen.

"According to our records, no request has been made to use the composition, no authorization has been granted nor has any license been issued for the use of the composition on the Web site," Kelly Isenberg, the company's director of legal and business affairs, wrote in a May 8 letter to the Topeka cult.

So anotherwords all the Phelp's had to do to prevent all this was to write a letter to Warner and possibly pay a small monetary amount and their would never have been a lawsuit filed.