OT: A different copyright question.

SeaJohn wrote on 10/22/2004, 12:59 PM
I hope this is different from the usual copyright question...

I listen to a lot of talk radio during the day, and most of the hosts have 5-10 seconds of bumper music coming in and out of each segment.; a lot of the music is copyrighted.

Do they have to pay royalties on this, or are they allowed to use a short segment without paying for it?

If it's legal for radio stations to do it, is it also legal for independent video producers to do it? I'm working on a corporate training video, and they want to use about 8 seconds of the Mission Impossible theme in one spot. We're looking at getting someone do come up with something close, but it would be nice to be able to use the actual theme.

Comments

frazerb wrote on 10/22/2004, 1:14 PM
They pay royalties. Most of the time a radio station will buy a blanket license from ASCAP and BMI to cover all of the music they have in their library. I assume the nationally syndicated shows pay licenses individually. I suppose some shows may have music written just for them.

Buddy