Use of Copyright Music

[jjjdolfan Profile Private message]

What is the procedure to use copyright music for a promotional CD we are trying to make usinig PSP? Do we have to join an Association, if yes, which one?

I'm using a song from Pirates of the Carribean (Will and Elizabeth) as my background music in my promotional CD and would like to distribute out to prospective customers. What do I have to do to make everything legal?

Thanks,

Al

[stickgirl Profile Private message]

You would need the permission of (and most likely, pay royalties to): the composer of the music, the author of the lyrics and the recording artist whose rendition you are copying. A good place to start for this would be ASCAP. Further, you will need a synchronization license to enable you to put images with the music. You can attempt to get this from the producer of the recording that you'll use (this is extremely difficult and expensive). Also, don't forget to pay the royalties to MPEG-LA for the technology involved in DVD production (if that's applicable).

Given the fact that there is no "one place" to go, and that you still might be missing something (I'm by no means an expert, just did some reading), I strongly recommend finding "royalty free" (which means full royalty paid) music that would have a similar sound and feel.

Kathy

[debngar Profile Private message]

As stickgirl states, purchasing a license via BMI and ASCAP is not worth the money for all the trouble it takes to keep track of hits to your website or how ever many CDs you use it on. It's hundreds of dollars per year. Not worth it IMHO.

I go along with searching to find some decent royalty free music for your presentations.

There is plenty out there if you take the time to look for it and are flexible.

The music discussion area part of this forum might have some additional information for you. Check it out.

http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewforum.php?f=14

Debbie

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

Caveat: I am not a lawyer (nor do I play one on TV). Unfortunately, I've had more exposure to intellectual property issues than I really ever wanted.

Like the others, said this whole area is a legal quagmire. Most of the rights holding organizations are not set up to handle small time operations coming to them with such requests and while they don't want to deal with you, they have been known to be pretty quick to issue cease-and-desist letters. Classic Catch-22!

That said, the process, as I understand it is that you need to find the publishing company for the piece and have your lawyer contact them for terms and conditions for the right to incorporate the music into a derivative work and distribute that work. They have the right to grant you a license for that and they can charge a license fee and/or royalties for the right, which can be a one-time fee, a per-use fee or no fee at all. They may want the right to approve the work or not, etc, etc. Everything is negotiable but you must have acquired the specific right to use that specific work and distribute it inside your product in order to be legal.

For your purpose you need to be sure that all material (images, video and audio) incorporated either belongs to you (the corporate entity) or you have been specifically granted permission to use it. Generally speaking that means that you need to look for material that explicitly grants the right of use in a derivative product for commercial distribution. Royalty-free is nice but not really essential if you can find someone who will grant the rights you need for a one-time fee that you consider reasonable. Not all royalty-free material will come with a license that grants the right to use it commercially so that's not sufficient to stay legal.

One source for exactly what you need are the "stock" companies of all kinds, one of which is well thought of here, Digital Juice. Search the forum and you'll find lots of discussion and commentary. Their audio products are excellent and when you purchase them, you are granted a royalty-free license to incorporate their material into other works for commercial distribution and public performance. DJ is not alone (far from it) in that business but they are one of the few I've seen that seem enthused to deal with individuals and small companies. PhotoDex also sells a limited line of such product by the way.

Wish we had easier, "do this" news for you but this is a complex topic that hasn't caught up to the modern era. Still, I hope we can help!

Dick