Music copyright question for DSE & others

Avanti wrote on 12/18/2007, 4:05 PM

If I hum the tune;
OR play a musical instrument;
OR hire a band to play the first 20-30 seconds of a hit song
(with NO vocals) to use in a video to be played either on the web or TV;
do I need to pay the original band or someone for that right?

Please only knowledgeable comments and no guess work, theory or assumptions.

Thanks,
Charlie

Back to post

Comments

RexA wrote on 12/21/2007, 2:35 AM

"There is a is a wonderfully funny video that illustrates what I am talking about *here*."

That clip is awesome! Thanks. lma...o.... No wait, I wasn't, I never saw it. (Was that a lawyer I saw over my shoulder.) Laurence? Never heard of him. It was on the internet wasn't it? Isn't everything on there free?

I like Pachelbel's Canon, indeed. Myself, that is, anyone else? Does he have any relatives or lawyers protecting the rights that might have not expired for a few more millennia?

Glad it wasn't Bono's Cannon in B-flat(tened).

RexA wrote on 12/21/2007, 2:54 AM

Bog G. ,

I really enjoyed your comments. A very informed but logical discussion of a complex legal issue. Wish you could get into a position to make real law decisions for us. If you did, could you resist the money?

Oh stupid me, I forgot that you could never get close to a position that could affect these laws unless you had already had proved that you enjoyed and respected big money.

RexA wrote on 12/21/2007, 3:25 AM

"Why don't you ask the publisher for permission to use the song? "

This has been mentioned before, but I never got a good grasp on how to do this.

Where do I find the publisher? How do I know he has exclusive rights?

If I want to use a recorded song, I need more than just the publisher to sign off, no?

What are sync rights? That's what I need if I put it in video, isn't it? Publisher will set me up for that? Oi, huminua huninua, yikes. Too much pain for my level.

All this has been beat to death before here, but never having a real need to use someone else's song, all this has made me avoid any popular music -- even though I would love to -- and go with safe music.

Maybe when I make my second masterpiece I'll think about using the music we all relate to and pour that emotion where I want. In the mean time, there is no way that I can think about getting legal with the amount of work I am willing to do that seems worth it.

Maybe after you have done it once or twice it is easy to get the legal rights for some piece of popular music to use in your low-dollar film, but from the gist of what I have read here, it seems like it might be easier to work with a different group of people to buy a small chunk of Plutonium to use as I see fit.

Steven Myers wrote on 12/21/2007, 4:48 AM

This has been mentioned before, but I never got a good grasp on how to do this

http://www.harryfox.com/public/infoUpdateList.jsp?startsWith=al

Soniclight wrote on 12/22/2007, 2:11 PM

Bob Greaves (and anyone else with in-depth experience),

I didn't want to tack on my own copyrights Q here so as to not hijack the thread, so I started a new one.
I'd appreciate your thoughtful input. Thanks.