Hello.

i am going to be making a documentary of a parrothead convention, parrotheads are fans of jimmy buffett, they have regional conventions where they have cover bands play buffett music and they raise a lot of money for a chosen non-profit.

so i'm trying to figure out the legality of the music, there won't be any original recordings of jimmy buffet, just cover bands as far as i know, and the cover bands aren't even the focus of the documentary, but their inclusion would be hard to avoid.

does anyone have any theories? any direct experience??

matthew

I believe this would fall under "incidental reproduction." I did a search of dvinfo and found this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13341&highlight=incidental+reproduction

The 5th post down, from resident lawyer Paul Tauger, discusses the topic a bit. It won't give you a clear answer, but it will point you in the right direction (hopefully)

thanks, that helped a little bit.

i actually wrote a letter to jimmy buffett's management company posing the question, it will be interesting to see what i get back.

allegedly, he is very open to cover bands because it just gives him more exposure, and this event is an offical "parrothead club" event, so it is a fundraiser etc.

unless i get some sort of absolute permission in writing, i'm going to avoid the music where possible, and definitely avoid having any song in its entirety.

matthew

Good strategy. One to follow in all areas of videography. If you don't have explicit permisison, assume it can't be done unless a lawyer tells you otherwise.

I can't fathom why this question has been asked so many times, when the responses from those who know the right answer have always been uniform.

well it seems that for every "right" answer by a lawyer, there are 3 or 4 "other" answers saying, if you don't make money, or you don't "make too many copies of it" it's ok

volume doesn't mean anything when the law is concerned.

i would hate like hell to do some little docu and have it take off and then not be able to do anything with it because of silly stuff i could have avoided.

i'm i'm really really lucky i will actually get permission from jimmy buffett inc. hell i even included a request for an interview with him about parrotheads, can't hurt to ask!

matthew

Yeah, that's because dimestore legal advice (as well as all other forms of advice!) is all too prevalent on the Internet, and in life. Ignore it and consult with people who know. Unless they tell you "I am a licensed attorney" ignore them.