Copyright -- Various Issues

Jed Williamson · December 12th, 2004, 10:10 PM

Is it possible to substitute the poem with one from those in the public domain; like from Edgar A. Poe?

Paul Tauger · December 13th, 2004, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Having a poem read for a video would require clearance and/or licensing, no?

Absolutely, unless the poem has passed into the public domain, either because the author dedicated it or the copyright has expired.

Dennis Vogel · December 13th, 2004, 04:06 PM

Thanks all. As I thought.

I haven't picked the poem yet but a PD one is a great idea. Now it's merely a matter of searching the copyright database to find a good PD poem.

Thanks again.

Dennis

Bob Costa · December 13th, 2004, 08:35 PM

not the copyright database. The library. Pick a poem more than 100 yrs old!!

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary...

or maybe
I think that I will never see a poem as lovely as a tree. :)

Chris Harvey · January 12th, 2005, 04:57 PM

I've edited a short concert of our church worship group performing five songs. What type of permisssion would we need to broadcast this on our local community access channel?

During my internet search on this subject I came across the following site:

http://www.ci.west-sacramento.ca.us/community/cable/rules.cfm

7.2 The City of West Sacramento understands that the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) are negotiating nationwide licensing arrangements with the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) for performances of their members' musical compositions on local originations by cable television systems. Due to the fact that Charter Communications is a member of the NCTA, and that ASCAP and BMI are not enforcing their members' rights with respect to such performances during the period of these negotiations, the following procedures will be undertaken until the city of West Sacramento informs users of any changes in the above situation.

7.3 All users may include music licensed by ASCAP or BMI in n their programs without previously making special arrangements with ASCAP or BMI.

7.4 Appropriate acknowledgement should be given in the credits to the musical compositions licensed by ASCAP or BMI which are included in the users' programs.

Our local access station has music from a local radio station playing behind the community bulletin board. If they have a license to play the music from the radio on their tv station, do they also have a right to play footage from a concert as long as credits are given to the publisher for each song?

I'm trying to do the right thing and any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

Richard Alvarez · January 12th, 2005, 05:48 PM

Who owns the copyright for the songs your group sang?

Chris Harvey · January 12th, 2005, 05:58 PM

The copyrights are held by various publishers. I imagine someone will end up just calling the publishers, explaining what we want to do, and asking for permission.

Chris

Bob Costa · January 12th, 2005, 09:19 PM

I don't think performance rights are the same as synchronization rights. ASCAP/BMI deal with performance rights, and would be the body to collect from your TV station when the music plays. But you still need to have sync rights before you put the music on your edited video, and then you would provide a cue sheet to the station.

Chris Harvey · January 12th, 2005, 09:32 PM

My understanding is that this case would not need a synchronization license. I'm not synching a professional artists cd to video of something else. The edited video is just a two camera shoot of the worship team performing the music.

Any other ideas?

Chris

Paul Tauger · January 13th, 2005, 01:07 AM

Chris, this is a complicated question and I can't really give you a definitive answer. There are exceptions in the Copyright Act for church services, but I don't know whether they would apply to local access cable. Absent the exception, you'd need the same clearances as for any broadcast, at least as far as I know. Fair use considerations would, of course, apply, but I don't know whether any would be applicable.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Paul

Chris Harvey · January 16th, 2005, 11:29 PM

Here's a follow-up on my situation if anyone is interested. I ended up calling the four music publishers who owned the copyrights for the five songs we wanted to broadcast on the access channel. One publisher said if we were only going to show it once or twice not to worry about anything and gave me verbal permission. One publisher said if the access channel had a BMI license that would cover one showing. Any additional showings would cost between $25 and $50 per showing. The third publisher, who owns the rights to two of the songs, said the synch license would be $50 per song to show the concert twice. The last publisher told me to fax the information to them. The person I spoke to gave me an estimate of $50 to $300 to show it twice.

After spending a lot of time to track down this information we decided to pass on the project.

Chris

Jim Quinlan · January 29th, 2005, 06:51 PM

I searched older posts here but couldn't find any similar topics.

Is it legal to create a Television commercial using props that look like they belong on a famous movie. For example, could I use a person dressed as Darth Vader (in a costume we made) or could we use a very realistic replica of R2D2 in a parody commercial?

We will consult an attorney before we begin production but until then I would appreciate any input on the subject.

Thanks.

Bob Costa · January 29th, 2005, 10:57 PM

Close but not too close is best. Think of the Darth Vader-like costume in Spaceballs for Dark Helmet. And that was a parody, so could get away with more than a commercial can. Artie & Garth sound like good names to me. :) IANAA.

Jim Quinlan · January 30th, 2005, 01:16 PM

We'll see how far we can twist the parody's to keep them as far removed from the original as possible. Spaceballs and Dark Helment were good examples. Thanks John.

Paul Tauger · January 30th, 2005, 04:05 PM

I can't give legal advice to non-clients, so there is a limit as to how far I can go with this. Some points:

1. Parody is a fair use exception. To come within fair use, standard fair use analysis applies. I don't know whether a commercial, even one that's intended as a parody, will necessarily come within fair use.

2. Parody requires that the protected expression that's copied is the subject of the parody. Without knowing a lot more about what you're planning, it's impossible to say whether it would come within fair use, even if you could get around the economic considerations.

3. Clothing can't be protected by copyright. Sculpture can. It's a fine line between what might be protectable expression and what might not.

4. Even if copyright isn't implicated, trademark certainly is. Intentional trademark infringement is defined as "deliberately trading on the goodwill appurtentant to the mark of another so as to cause a likelihood of consumer confusion as to source, sponsorship or affiliation." It sounds like that might be what you're doing.

5. Less than verbatim copying can still result in liability for copyright and trademark infringement.

There's no way that you'll be able to get a reliable opinion from anyone on this board. The _only_ way you can be sure that what you're doing won't subject you to extensive liability is to retain a lawyer and get an opinion.

January 12th, 2005, 04:57 PM	#95
Chris Harvey Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: North Dakota Posts: 72	Community Access copyright question I've edited a short concert of our church worship group performing five songs. What type of permisssion would we need to broadcast this on our local community access channel? During my internet search on this subject I came across the following site: http://www.ci.west-sacramento.ca.us/community/cable/rules.cfm 7.2 The City of West Sacramento understands that the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) are negotiating nationwide licensing arrangements with the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) for performances of their members' musical compositions on local originations by cable television systems. Due to the fact that Charter Communications is a member of the NCTA, and that ASCAP and BMI are not enforcing their members' rights with respect to such performances during the period of these negotiations, the following procedures will be undertaken until the city of West Sacramento informs users of any changes in the above situation. 7.3 All users may include music licensed by ASCAP or BMI in n their programs without previously making special arrangements with ASCAP or BMI. 7.4 Appropriate acknowledgement should be given in the credits to the musical compositions licensed by ASCAP or BMI which are included in the users' programs. Our local access station has music from a local radio station playing behind the community bulletin board. If they have a license to play the music from the radio on their tv station, do they also have a right to play footage from a concert as long as credits are given to the publisher for each song? I'm trying to do the right thing and any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Chris

January 12th, 2005, 09:19 PM	#98
Bob Costa Major Player Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Venice, FL Posts: 850	I don't think performance rights are the same as synchronization rights. ASCAP/BMI deal with performance rights, and would be the body to collect from your TV station when the music plays. But you still need to have sync rights before you put the music on your edited video, and then you would provide a cue sheet to the station. __________________ You are either growing or dying.

January 29th, 2005, 06:51 PM	#102
Jim Quinlan Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Clearwater, Florida Posts: 177	Television commercial copyright question I searched older posts here but couldn't find any similar topics. Is it legal to create a Television commercial using props that look like they belong on a famous movie. For example, could I use a person dressed as Darth Vader (in a costume we made) or could we use a very realistic replica of R2D2 in a parody commercial? We will consult an attorney before we begin production but until then I would appreciate any input on the subject. Thanks. __________________ Jim

January 29th, 2005, 10:57 PM	#103
Bob Costa Major Player Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Venice, FL Posts: 850	Close but not too close is best. Think of the Darth Vader-like costume in Spaceballs for Dark Helmet. And that was a parody, so could get away with more than a commercial can. Artie & Garth sound like good names to me. :) IANAA. __________________ You are either growing or dying.

January 30th, 2005, 01:16 PM	#104
Jim Quinlan Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Clearwater, Florida Posts: 177	We'll see how far we can twist the parody's to keep them as far removed from the original as possible. Spaceballs and Dark Helment were good examples. Thanks John. __________________ Jim

December 12th, 2004, 10:10 PM	#91
Jed Williamson Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 175	Is it possible to substitute the poem with one from those in the public domain; like from Edgar A. Poe?

December 13th, 2004, 04:06 PM	#93
Dennis Vogel Major Player Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Hillsborough, NC Posts: 409	Thanks all. As I thought. I haven't picked the poem yet but a PD one is a great idea. Now it's merely a matter of searching the copyright database to find a good PD poem. Thanks again. Dennis

December 13th, 2004, 08:35 PM	#94
Bob Costa Major Player Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Venice, FL Posts: 850	not the copyright database. The library. Pick a poem more than 100 yrs old!! Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary... or maybe I think that I will never see a poem as lovely as a tree. :)

January 12th, 2005, 05:48 PM	#96
Richard Alvarez Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: San Mateo, CA Posts: 3,840	Who owns the copyright for the songs your group sang?

January 12th, 2005, 05:58 PM	#97
Chris Harvey Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: North Dakota Posts: 72	The copyrights are held by various publishers. I imagine someone will end up just calling the publishers, explaining what we want to do, and asking for permission. Chris

January 12th, 2005, 09:32 PM	#99
Chris Harvey Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: North Dakota Posts: 72	My understanding is that this case would not need a synchronization license. I'm not synching a professional artists cd to video of something else. The edited video is just a two camera shoot of the worship team performing the music. Any other ideas? Chris

January 13th, 2005, 01:07 AM	#100
Paul Tauger Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Los Angeles (recently from San Francisco) Posts: 954	Chris, this is a complicated question and I can't really give you a definitive answer. There are exceptions in the Copyright Act for church services, but I don't know whether they would apply to local access cable. Absent the exception, you'd need the same clearances as for any broadcast, at least as far as I know. Fair use considerations would, of course, apply, but I don't know whether any would be applicable. Sorry I can't be more help. Paul

January 16th, 2005, 11:29 PM	#101
Chris Harvey Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: North Dakota Posts: 72	Here's a follow-up on my situation if anyone is interested. I ended up calling the four music publishers who owned the copyrights for the five songs we wanted to broadcast on the access channel. One publisher said if we were only going to show it once or twice not to worry about anything and gave me verbal permission. One publisher said if the access channel had a BMI license that would cover one showing. Any additional showings would cost between $25 and $50 per showing. The third publisher, who owns the rights to two of the songs, said the synch license would be $50 per song to show the concert twice. The last publisher told me to fax the information to them. The person I spoke to gave me an estimate of $50 to $300 to show it twice. After spending a lot of time to track down this information we decided to pass on the project. Chris

January 30th, 2005, 04:05 PM	#105
Paul Tauger Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Los Angeles (recently from San Francisco) Posts: 954	I can't give legal advice to non-clients, so there is a limit as to how far I can go with this. Some points: 1. Parody is a fair use exception. To come within fair use, standard fair use analysis applies. I don't know whether a commercial, even one that's intended as a parody, will necessarily come within fair use. 2. Parody requires that the protected expression that's copied is the subject of the parody. Without knowing a lot more about what you're planning, it's impossible to say whether it would come within fair use, even if you could get around the economic considerations. 3. Clothing can't be protected by copyright. Sculpture can. It's a fine line between what might be protectable expression and what might not. 4. Even if copyright isn't implicated, trademark certainly is. Intentional trademark infringement is defined as "deliberately trading on the goodwill appurtentant to the mark of another so as to cause a likelihood of consumer confusion as to source, sponsorship or affiliation." It sounds like that might be what you're doing. 5. Less than verbatim copying can still result in liability for copyright and trademark infringement. There's no way that you'll be able to get a reliable opinion from anyone on this board. The _only_ way you can be sure that what you're doing won't subject you to extensive liability is to retain a lawyer and get an opinion.