Marvin Fisher D/B/A Marvin Music Company and Jack Segal v. Rick Dees, Atlantic Recording Corporation, Warner Communications, Inc.

The plaintiffs-appellants, Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal, appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment disposing of their federal claim for copyright infringement and their state-law claims for unfair competition, defamation, and product disparagement. We affirm.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The plaintiffs-appellants, Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal (the composers), composed and own the copyright to the ’50s standard “When Sunny Gets Blue” (the song). In late 1984, a law firm representing the defendants-appellees — disc jockey Rick Dees, Atlantic Recording Corp., and Warner Communications, Inc. — contacted Fisher and requested permission to use part or all of the music to “When Sunny Gets Blue” in order to create a comedic and inoffensive version of the song. Fisher refused the request.

A few months later, Dees released a comedy record album (also issued in cassette form) called Put It Where the Moon Don’t Shine. One cut on the album, entitled “When Sonny Sniffs Glue” (the parody), is an obvious take-off on the composers’ song. The parody copies the first six of the song’s thirty-eight bars of music — its recognizable main theme. In addition, it changes the…