[SamAdams76]

Why would "Weird Al" even need his permission? I thought that if you were doing a parody, it wasn't copyright infringement. After all, I can't believe that the original artists gave permission to Yankovich to records songs like "Eat It" (parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It") or the very clever "Amish Paradise" (parody of Coolio's "Gangsta Paradise").

[steve-b]

I understand that it's Weird Al's policy to get permission, even if it's not a legal requirement. There was a communications snafu over "Amish Paradise", in which Weird Al went ahead in the good-faith belief that he had permission, but it turned out he didn't. AFAIK, this hasn't led to anything more serious than Coolio publicly expressing his annoyance.