Although Weird Al does parodies and not straight covers, same laws apply.
My understanding has always been that satire is fair use but because there could be some grey area there, and because weird al is a decent guy, he always sought permission. I seem to recall the coolio incident being a misunderstanding.
Not necessarily. Parody allows for a “percentage changed vs original work” when deciding whether copyright was infringed. Al was always perfectly within his rights to do the parody, but he’s a stand up guy and tries never to do a song that the original artist didn’t approve.
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My understanding has always been that satire is fair use but because there could be some grey area there, and because weird al is a decent guy, he always sought permission. I seem to recall the coolio incident being a misunderstanding.
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So he had to pay royalties to Stevie Wonder?
Not necessarily. Parody allows for a “percentage changed vs original work” when deciding whether copyright was infringed. Al was always perfectly within his rights to do the parody, but he’s a stand up guy and tries never to do a song that the original artist didn’t approve.
Weird Al also wanted to riff on some Prince songs but he wouldn’t allow it.