World of Weird Al Yankovic

Bermuda, I just read an article about Al. He talks about having to pay R Kelly. I thought this wasn't the case with parody songs. Any input? Thanks!

"I haven’t gotten any direct feedback from R. Kelly, but I know that he obviously approved it. In fact, he was nice enough to lower his rate on it so I could add another song to my album. I found out that because the parody was so long, he was entitled to an additional payment. But he was nice enough to wave that so I could include another song on my album. So he was very nice to me and very supportive.”

I'm not Bermuda, but Al has to pay royalties for parodies, just as other artists have to pay when they cover a song. It's R Kelly's music. What you're thinking of is asking permission. Al doesn't legally need permission from artists. But he still has to pay royalties.

Is it not when one uses someone else's artistic property and plans to charge/make profit from the material. Like when schools put on a play, usually at the high school level where there will be an admission fee, the play they perform will have a royalty fee to be paid for the rights to do this. Unless it is in the public domain, I do believe.