A small but significant change to U.K. legislation comes into effect Wednesday (Oct. 1) that will enable people to freely parody copyright protected video, film and TV works without fear of reprisal or legal challenge. The new laws – actually an amendment to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 — allows U.K. citizens to use "a limited amount" of copyrighted material on online video platforms such as YouTube "for the purposes of parody, caricature or pastiche" without the prior consent of the copyright holder, although it’s important to note that "fair dealing" limitations do apply.