Editing Rick Dees (section)

==''Fisher v. Dees'' and other legal trouble==
{{main|Fisher v. Dees}}

In 1984, Dees (and his record company) made a request of Marvin Fisher, the owner of the copyright in the music of the song "When Sunny Gets Blue", for permission to use the song in a [[parody]] of the performance by [[Johnny Mathis]]. Fisher refused to grant permission for the use. Dees decided to do a parody even without the permission of the copyright holder, using about 29 seconds of the song in a parody album titled ''Put It Where the Moon Don't Shine''.

Fisher sued Dees for [[copyright infringement]]. The trial court found that the [[parody]] song, titled "When Sonny Sniffs Glue," was clearly intended to "poke fun" at the style of singing for which Johnny Mathis was well known, and thus was not infringing. The decision was upheld on appeal, in ''[[Fisher v. Dees]]'' [[Court citation|794 F.2d 432]] (9th Cir. 1986).<ref>A reference to the text of the decision in ''Fisher v. Dees'' appears at Law.UCLA.edu, webpage: {{cite web|url=http://cip.law.ucla.edu/cases/case_fisherdees.html |title=Arch-402-UCLAedu |access-date=December 18, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218115402/http://cip.law.ucla.edu/cases/case_fisherdees.html |archive-date=December 18, 2008}}.</ref>

In an unrelated 1991 case, Dees was successfully sued for $10 million in damages. The court found Dees and his business manager acted with "malice and oppression" in diverting profits from Dees's Top 40 countdown program and gave the judgment to a former business partner.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-20-ca-485-story.html |title=Verdict Against Rick Dees: Law: More than $10 million in damages in 'Top 40' radio suit is awarded to ex-partner of KIIS deejay and his business manager|date=1991-03-20|first1=Claudia|last1=Puig|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=2018-08-20}}</ref>