Copyright Issues: Pics and Music

[Jazzman247 Profile Private message]

Hello Team,

For those of you doing shows professionally (for compensation), what do you do with music/pics that you don't own but the customer owns - as far as copyrights/disclaimers on screen? Any guidance would be much appreciated. I'm not afraid of doing my own research - just need some starting points.

Thanx!

[Jeep Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi my friend,
I usually advise my customers that they will have to be in order with copyrights rules and this will be their job. On all documents (quotations, invoices) I recall them that their responsibility will be involved if they do not respect the legal rules about the copyrights.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

That is a sticky area - many people feel that if they bought the CD of music they own it. Not true - there have been lots of discussions here on copyrights and music rights, so I will not go into that, other than to say just because they have a CD of music they purchased, they don't own the music. They only have complete rights to the music if they wrote it and performed it. As far as the pix go, you are generally fine if all the images are from their own cameras (or relatives with permission). If the images are from a professional photographer they hired for the event, then that depends on the contract they had with the photographer as to what they can do with the images they got from him/her. When we got married in '76, I had a friend shoot all the pictures for us (I think we agreed on $200 - quite a bit at that time) with the agreement that all the pictures he shot including negatives (this was before digital) were ours to do with as we pleased. He was fine with that. Many pros retain the rights to the images and the client has to work out with the pro what kind of agreement they want for the pictures (which often comes as a major surprise to brides AFTER the wedding when they find out how this works).

mikey

[leenliz Profile Private message]

Hello I am new to Proshow aswell as this forum, my question is, if I was to create a wedding slideshow for a client, and my client wanted a paticular song....lets say for instance "marry You" by Bruno Mars, would that be a copyright issue if the client provided me with that song to put on their slide show ?

[Luke_Miller Profile Private messageWebsite]

I get the request for specific music all the time. I always reply that there is no legal way for me to use it. Instead I spend a lot of time on royalty free music sites selecting appropriate music for which I can purchase a license.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Hello I am new to Proshow aswell as this forum, my question is, if I was to create a wedding slideshow for a client, and my client wanted a paticular song....lets say for instance "marry You" by Bruno Mars, would that be a copyright issue if the client provided me with that song to put on their slide show ?

Yes, because unless they are really really good friends with Bruno, it is highly unlikely they have permission to use that song. They have purchased the CD (or some other media), but they did not purchase (or otherwise negotiate) permission to use the music. It can get worse with video - if you shoot a wedding video (or reception that has a DJ for example), while the DJ did have permission to use the music (they have to jump through some hoops), you don't have permission legally to create a video that has the music from the reception in it. I have seen this discussion over in the video forums before - legally, you can't use the video of the reception you shot unless you filter out the music. Yes, seems odd, but that is the way it is from the discussions I have seen. Do a search of the forum here for "copyright" and you will find a number of discussions.

mikey

[J_L_R Profile Private message]

Copyright issues can be a real pain in the proverbial.

However in UK I have found that the PRS for Music website is a real help in determining the legality of usage.
They cover most of the popular music writers /artists and will quite willingly tell you if the music you wish to use falls within their
membership and is therefore covered by their licensing.

Their Limited Manufacture Licence is "quick, affordable and grants you ‘blanket’ permission to legally use any music in your own CDs, DVDs or videos", according to their website.

Contact them on 0800 0684828 (UK). (http://www.prsformusic.com/users/record ... cence.aspx). Their scale of charges is reasonable - the licences I recall start at £15:00, rising to I think about £100. Licences authorise use for up to 12 months and at those rates can be easily absorbed into costs. If my memory serves me correctly, the £15:00 licence would allow the use of about 8 or 10 songs in any 12 month period. Any number of licences can be purchased in any year.

I believe this an easy and cost effective way to stay legal (certainly in the UK).

As I am not connected with them I cannot answer detailed enquiries, but have found their call handlers to be more than helpful in dealing with enquiries.

They can certainly tell you if the music you intend to use is covered by the licence. The licence number can be shown in credits and even printed on the disc.

Hope this may help, happy authoring. Regards, Kevin.

[leenliz Profile Private message]

Thank you Kevin, I will look into your advice and see what happens..... Thanks for your reply.

[pete424 Profile Private message]

I am a Realtor and a professional real estate photographer. When I shoot photos of a home for a particular agent, I retain all my rights to the photos. Our local MLS as had some problems with agents using copyrighted photos garnered from the web. The process they use now consists of me granting written limited usage rights the agent who paid my fees. These rights are limited to one agent for the duration of that listing. In regards to music I find what I need on a site called http://dig.ccmixter.org/ They have original music that the composer allows to be used, even in commercial settings. The only thing they insist on is proper attribution. All this info is available on the site.

[DavidKayltd Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hello I am new to Proshow aswell as this forum, my question is, if I was to create a wedding slideshow for a client, and my client wanted a paticular song....lets say for instance "marry You" by Bruno Mars, would that be a copyright issue if the client provided me with that song to put on their slide show ?

Yes it is a copyright issue. In order for you to use it you have to get the rights from the record company and the writer and the artist.