Fair Use

I think that parody and Fair Use are ok to use to get out of a libel suit. As long as the parody has some new creative viewpoint it should be allowed to be used. Sure the original artist, writer, or whoever is going to be mad that someone based an idea off of their own and is making money, but almost everything we have has been based off someone elses idea. Changing a small portion of original work should not count as parody, but in the case of Gone with the Wind and the Wind Done Gone, i think that is a perfect example of why the 2nd book should have been allowed. Even though the storyline was basically the same it was told from another's viewpoint. Weird Al is another artist who uses parody. He usually asks for permisson from the original artist to parody their song and then does the parody, but in the case with his song Amish Paradise he did not get permisson from Coolio to parody Gangsta's Paradise. However, no lawsuit was filed because it was fair use and a parody