Legality of Music in videos

fredjclaus

I know this is not a room of lawyers and I need to consult one but I just wanted a general idea.

I have been looking at DVD slideshow makers, and noticed one company sells me license to 1600 songs to use in my slideshows as well.

Let's say I do a wedding though and the bride and groom want their wedding song as their music in this slideshow. If the bride and groom give me the CD they purchased with the song on it, do I have a legal right to use it as their background music, or is that still a copyright issue?

Pixoul

Short answer: no, you do not have the right to use their wedding song on the slideshow and doing so is no different than someone buying one of your prints, turning it into a poster, and then reselling it (copyright issue).

Long answer: it's cost prohibitive to legally license popular music (hundreds to thousands of dollars for a single track) but Google for Creative Commons tracks; there is legally-downloadable music where the musician has given certain permissions to reuse their music (commercial, non-commercial, must-distributed-as-is, allowed to modify, etc.).

Edit: In other words, if the bride and groom choose a Creative Commons track for their wedding song that gives permission to reproduce commercially in derivative works then you'll be able to use it.

ziggy53

It is always best to use licensed music for a video slide-show compilation.

I believe that I read a court case where it is allowed for you to make 1 copy of a wedding/event video slideshow and use music CDs provided by the couple as long as the CDs are commercial and original. The court ruling was based on both the "fair-use" interpretation, allowing anyone to copy music that they "own" from one "format" to another as long as it is for their own use only, and based on the fact that as long as the couple own the original CD copies it is no different than playing the music on a separate device along with the slide show compilation.

Important points:

1) You must be supplied original, commercial CDs; copies don't count.
2) The couple must actually own the CDs used in the compilation. Having them sign a waiver to you stating that fact may be important to protect yourself.
3) You may not make more than 1 copy. Multiple copies must be licensed from the copyright holder.
4) You must not charge anything for the addition of the musical track. Any charges to your customer must be for the visual compilation alone. You are best not to charge anything at all and include the compilation as a free service for your customer.
5) You must not do anything that would cause the copyright holder to lose revenue.
6) if the compilation shows up on "YouTube" and you become associated with the production, all bets are off. Both you and the wedding couple may be sued separately and jointly to recover damages. You must get the parties to understand that the risks are fines and punishments well into 6 figures for each violation and includes the possibility of Federal prison time.

Doing these things should prevent you from successful prosecution but may not prevent you from a lawsuit. A "high-profile" wedding would probably be more risky than a typical budget "common folk" wedding.

The best description of "Fair Use" as it might apply in this case:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html

It is always best to use licensed music for a video slide-show compilation. (Bears repeating.)

fredjclaus

Thanks Ziggy, that's great advice.