And dang, hit submit before I finished yet another thought - anyway, you're wrong. PA got their strip pulled because American Greetings threatened action under trademark violation, not copyright violation. Now, you, and the general public at large, might see trademark and copyright as the same, but legally they are not ;) So, to restate: the issue at hand in the case of Chuck DeVore's campaign material relates to copyright violation. The issue of Penny Arcade and the Strawberry Shortcake Snafu related to trademark violation. Yes, they both deal with areas of law, making them similar in that respect. No, any decision regarding the copyrighted music in the ads is not likely to have any impact on legal matters relating to trademark infringement, except in fairly oblique manners. Yes, your statements were off-topic because there are more ways than one to create derivative works than just through parody, and Game Genie didn't try to argue parody against Nintendo's lawsuit. Also, Accolade lawsuit: not about parody. I guess my points are: fair use != parody, and trademark != copyright. Finally, I admit I failed miserably in missing the redheaded dominatrix analogy staring me right in the face (whilst I stared anywhere but). My apologies to everyone who was offended by my bad taste! :D

Actually, it wouldn't be copyright violation if you drew a Mickey Mouse that SORT of looks like Mickey Mouse, but more likely a trademark violation.

Not really - PA didn't reuse original artwork of Strawberry Shortcake in that example (and in fact, never reuses original artwork of other artists, to my knowledge, unless you count inviting guest artists to deliver new comics). Instead, they used the Strawberry Shortcake character, but created new original art of their own. Using characters, or even semblances of actual recognizable people, is allowed in parody, or else we'd never see fake State of the Union addresses on the opening skit of Saturday Night Live. To use a car analogy, they drew a picture of a Toyota devouring people who can't figure out how to put cars into neutral. To be more like the folks who work at Chuck DeVore's campaign, Penny Arcade would have had to cut out & scan an ad for a Ford Explorer, then paste it next to a images of Wall Street fat cats, with a subtitle referencing lax financial regulatory systems and failed economic management, then claim that they were also mocking the quality of American-made vehicles.