Legal Research Certification Program (Prepare to Practice): Lesson Three- Familiarity Ranking

Taking the hypothetical from the pretest, decide on your familiarity ranking of the main legal question: parody as part of the fair use doctrine of copyrighted materials. What secondary source or primary source would you start with for your research on this topic based on your familiarity ranking?

Your managing partner is having a meeting tomorrow with an Oregon locally famous YouTube personality. She is famous for parody and comedy sketches about celebrities. She recently did a sketch she considered a parody of the Fast and the Furious movie franchise. She has been contacted by Universal Picture’s law firm our of Universal City, California, with a cease and desist letter on her parody from last month. The managing partner would like you to research parody as a part of the fair use doctrine of copyrighted materials.