Attached Link: http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2000-all/gall-2000-12-all.html

nomuse, Weird Al isn't protected by the parody "fair use" exception. This from Barbara Weil Gall an intellectual property lawyer (see link above for the full article).... "It is important to distinguish between parody of the original work, which is fair use, and use of the original work to parody something else, which requires permission. For this reason, entertainer "Weird Al" Yankovich has been unable to write any of his parodies to the tune "Purple Rain," as the copyright owner with the unprintable name (it used to be "Prince") has so far refused his requests for permission to use the tune."