Does anybody have an opinion as to whether the parody exception to the copyright law would apply to Copyrighted photos and parody news articles. I'm thinking along the lines of something like Weekend Update on saturday night live where you mock up or zoom in on an AP or similar news photo to highlight a parody news article. I haven't thought too far into this area, but immediately it seems a bit sketchy to me because it's very dissimilar to a musical parody in that you are making humor of the subject of the photo and not the photo itself. If it would fall under a copyright exception, does monetization via adsense cloud the issue? This gets me thinking about music parodies and guys like Wierd Al. Because of the profit factor, I would think that most parodies would not fall under copyright exception. It would make sense that the label actually purchased licensing for those kinds of things.
It is possible to have written parody or an image parody. http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-a.html#2 The problem is that whether a use is a parody is often settled in court. See the Summaries of Parody cases here. Whether it's for commercial use could make a difference. Also whether the copyright holders like what you've done or not: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html#5 It's tricky because every case is different. It may very well be that some artists (or their production companies) do obtain the right to use the images or other copyrighted material before making a parody.