With increasing frequency, the success or failure of the "fair use" defense in litigation concerning copyrighted material depends on whether the challenged work "parodies" the pre-existing work. This article examines how courts have analyzed whether an asserted parody qualifies for fair use protection in the leading Supreme Court case of Campbell v. Acuff-Ross Music Inc. and its progeny, including the recently issued, currently on appeal, decision from the Southern District of New York in Salinger v. Colting, in which the parody fair use defense was rejected at the preliminary injunction stage.
