Roy Acuff and the Acuff-Rose Music Publishing Company

 

Roy Acuff.  Besides being a charter member and inductee in the Country Music HOF, Roy Acuff founded Acuff-Rose Music publishing co., with Fred Rose. http://www.law.cornell.edu/ says “Acuff Rose Music, Inc., filed suit against petitioners, the members of the rap music group 2 Live Crew and their record company, claiming that 2 Live Crew's song, "Pretty Woman," infringed Acuff Rose's copyright in Roy Orbison's rock ballad, "Oh Pretty Woman." The Court granted summary judgment for 2 Live Crew, holding that its song was a parody that made fair use of the original song. [Copyright Act of 1976]. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the commercial nature of the parody rendered it presumptively unfair under the first of four factors relevant under §107; that, by taking the "heart" of the original and making it the "heart" of a new work, 2 Live Crew had, qualitatively, taken too much under the third §107 factor; and that market harm for purposes of the fourth §107 factor had been established by a presumption attaching to commercial uses.” In Jeff Tweedy’s song called Anodyne, the a lyric goes, "Name me a song that everybody knows; And I'll bet you it belongs to Acuff-Rose."