Comment Re:Weird Al.... (Score 1) 386
I heard the same thing - at the time Al was told by Coolio's record label that Coolio was OK with it. After the fact he apologized to Coolio about it.
In any case, parody is protected free speech and he doesn't even need to get permission to do it. He can even play the same music without having to pitch a dime to the original musicians (it is considered a separate performance).
I find it absolutely stunning that this court case lost. Usually the industry's mantra is that there are only so many notes (12) and chords so the music itself is not copyrightable unless there is a very distinctive passage that is unequivocally tied to a specific song. For instance, the bass line for Under Pressure that Vanilla Ice stole for Ice Ice Baby.