Plagiarism vs Parody: A comparative legal analysis

This master's thesis is aimed at determining the legal characteristics of a parody, its features in various jurisdictions, and also to draw a thin line between the legal way of free use of works and plagiarism. To achieve this goal, the following tasks: 1. To consider the emergence and development of parody through the study of legislation, judicial practice, the doctrine of the United States of America, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the European Union, France, Germany, Holland and the Russian Federation; 2. Identify approaches to the definition of parody and delimitation from plagiarism in the countries of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman-German legal families; 3. Investigate the approaches obtained for similar and differing features; 4. To analyze the applicability of the approaches obtained in the territory of the Russian Federation; 5. To establish a unified approach to the definition of parody and demarcation from the illegal use of works; 6. To consider the transboundary nature of the created parodies on the Internet from the point of view of violation of the rights of authors and consumers; 7. Develop on the basis of the material obtained the author’s definition of parody. To achieve the stated goal and solve the tasks, the work uses general scientific methods of knowledge (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, etc.), particular methods (statistical) and special methods of legal research (formal legal, historical and comparative legal). The main results of the work are the author’s definition of parody and the criteria for distinguishing parody from plagiarism, applicable to the created parodies around the world.