Do you have a lead for a process on "how to secure the rights" to such material like music or video? (Perhaps a website link as a guide?)

And I was also interested in knowing what the ball park $$$ figures are like to secure permissions and right to use such material.

And one here that have sought such rights can give me a little insight?

Thanks for your help!

For music, try magnatune.com or google "royalty free music". For popular music, you will have to contact the individual publishers that own the rights and have a very large wallet!

Do a search on Copyright in this forum. You should find enough reading material to keep you occupied for a few days.

I have used copyright material, didn't cost a cent. It was produced by a govt corporation though for promotional purposes. I simply asked and I got a letter granting permission for the specified project.
As to the 'personal use', well if no one else is going to see it I'd imagine technically you're safe BUT I still think it's a bad practice to get into. What satisfaction is gained, bit like having a stolen work of art really.

more like a few months.
http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/help/kb look in the tutorials section
http://www.broadcastnewsroom.com/2004/02_feb/features/copyright_caveats.htm

Have there been any developments in this area?

Is it true that the UK has entirely figured this out with MCPS licenses or are people deluding themselves into thinking they have the right to copy/sync when, in fact, they do not. I checked the www.mcps.co.uk site but it still seems a little vague.

Finally, if MCPS really do have what it takes, what can be done to adopt a similar scheme in the US?

Like Farss says in his example....his didn't cost anything.

I wanted to use some music sample and contacted the studio and it was going to run me about $10,000.00.

It all depends on what you are talking about - and who owns the material.

All you have to do is ask.

Depending on what you need, there really isn't a "one place to go". Music speaking....Harry Fox. But that's about it as a starting point. If you want to use video, well...that's a whole nuther can of nuts.

I'd start with the studo (if it is a film)....or try and track down the distributor.

It's wide open and sometimes the searching takes a bit.....but you are always better safe than sorry.

I'll leave you with this note though. Back in the early 90's, I had an idea for a song I wanted to produce, but I had to track down the makers of this one piece of music....and I had to track down folks over at 'Mr. Rogers Neighborhood'.

After all my tracking down and such, I got the greenlight to go ahead with the project (wasn't gonna cost me a dime)....then I kinda of back burnered it and totally forgot all about it.

Now I can't seem to find all the stuff I had gathered and have to start the whole process all over again!!

Best o'luck.

Thanks for your insight guys! I appreciate it.

- Spidey

Spot,

Could you quickly outline the rights that are needed to use a song in a video that you want to redistribute? I’ve read your article (which was very good) but I’m still not clear. Here’s what I think needs to be obtained:

1. Sync rights from the publisher to use the music with a video
2. Performance rights from the artist who’s work you want to use
3. Mechanical rights from the record company to redistribute the music with the video
4. Public Presentation rights if you are going to show the video in public (i.e., at a meeting). Who do I get those from?

I’m not sure about the 3rd one. Do the mechanical right come from the record company? Are they even needed since you're creating a derivative work? How about performance rights are they from the artist? Are there any other rights that are needed that I missed? I’m not talking a major motion picture here, just local private videos that people ask you to create for them.

I’m doing a graduation video and plan to use royalty free music and some ACID compositions that I did, but the kids really want some of their music so I thought I would give it a try and see if I could get at least one song that they would recognize on the video.

Worse case, If I recreated the song in ACID (i.e., performed it myself), would I only need Sync rights? (i,e., no public presentation rights either)

~jr