The concept of parody as an object of copyright

Introduction: Parody is quite common in the contemporary art. The authors of parodies are getting fame due to the use of, sometimes quite broad, the material of the original copyrighted works. However, the generally accepted definition of “parody” is absent not only in the Civil Code, but also in the science. In this regard, there are quite legitimate questions: what are the legitimate limits of the implementation of parody in creativity? And how appropriate is the application of this copyright object within the limits of the national jurisdiction, as well as what are the criteria for its identification? The decision as to whether a work belongs to a parody is fully given to the courts. These arguments speak in favor of the relevance of the issues related to the definition of the concept of the copyright object, as well as its essential characteristics that determine the legal status and application. Thus, the purpose of this study is the attempt to increase the scientific knowledge in terms of the legislative approaches to understanding parody as a type of creativity and the copyright object, by analyzing the domestic and foreign jurisprudence in this area, identifying its legal features and characteristics, followed by a proposal of the author’s interpretation of the term “parody”. Methods: the methodological framework for this study, along with the general scientific dialectical method, is a set of logical (analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction) and legal (formal and legal, comparative law) methods. Results: the author’s proposal on the legislative consolidation of the notion “parody” in article 1274 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation is scientifically substantiated. It is argued that the proposed legal measure will contribute to the formation of a uniform law enforcement practice and judicial enforcement in the resolution of disputes on recognizing parody as an object of copyright. Conclusions: on the basis of the conducted research, the author identifies the main features of parody and formulates an original, scientific novelty definition of this concept as a meta-genre and an object of copyright, where the center of the new work is a recognizable original work, whose main features are exhibited in a critical comic light and appear in the form of a correspondence unregulated public relation between the author of the original and the parodist.