Parody Recognized Throughout the European Union

The Court of Justice of the European Union has recently ruled that the concept of parody must be regarded as an autonomous concept of EU law, in the case known as Dechmyn v. Vandersteen (case Case C 201/13).

Johan Dechmyn was a member of a far right political party in Belgium, and at a 2011 event he distributed calendars which included an image adapted from the cover of a comic book from Vandersteen's comic series, which is known in English by the title Spike and Suzie.

In the adaption of the comic book cover, the mayor of Ghent was depicted as one of the comic book characters, throwing gold coins to immigrants. The heirs of the owner of the original work sued in Belgium for infringement of copyright.