Help, What are the Rules for Sampling Artist Music and Using in Website Slide Show?

[macsrules]

My question is simple.

1. I want to use some popular jazz song as the background for one of my slide shows, what are the rules? Can I do this? If I only sample part of the song am I okay, or is that a no no too?


2. If I can't sample the artist music then where are some really good free jazz sites?


Any help will be great, thanks in advance.

 

[AviationFan]

1. Unless the distribution of your slideshow is limted to yourself and a small number of friends or relatives, copyright regulations clearly prohibit such use of popular (copyrighted) music. Whether you get caught/get into trouble is a different question, but it's not allowed. The moment you put something on a website and make it viewable to anybody, its distribution is not really limited anymore, right?
   
2. There are a number of sites out there that specialize on royalty-free music, for applications such as video and web. The songs cost a few bucks to purchase, but then you can legally use them. stock20 is an example of such a service.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

@ AviationFan:

That was interesting, thank you for posting that answer. Two quick questions if you don't mind:

1) How many people constitutes a "small number" if that verbiage is used in the copyright legalese and not your words?
2) Based on the OP question this is not an issue of "distribution" (i.e. profit based download, sharing for free via P2P), it's an issue of merely "playing" in the background - does copyright law take this situation into account differently and if so, how?

-jim

 

[notjustjay]

I think the question is going to be whether the viewing constitutes a "public performance". Playing it in someone's living room and showing your friends is considered private viewing and should be OK. Playing it in a community center to an audience is a public performance and not allowed.

You technically can't even have a movie night and show a DVD, because it's a public performance and DVD's are licensed only for private home viewing (the little copyright notice that always plays at the beginning of movies).

 

[AviationFan]

1)How many people constitutes a "small number" if that verbiage is used in the copyright legalese and not your words?
2) Based on the OP question this is not an issue of "distribution" (i.e. profit based download, sharing for free via P2P), it's an issue of merely "playing" in the background - does copyright law take this situation into account differently and if so, how?

Jim,

I don't know the correct answer to the first question. Practically speaking, I believe this is more a matter of limited exposure leading to limited risk of getting into trouble. Therefore, I think it's safe to assume that nothing bad is going to happen if I use music in a slideshow and show it to my kids or a good friend who comes over to my house. Different story if I play the same slideshow to customers coming into my office, or post it on the web.

As far as question two goes, it's still copyrighted material. I don't know if background music for a slideshow would be considered the same as using background music in a video or film. The rights you need to obtain are different compared with the simple sale of (unmodified) music, but you still need to clear some rights before you can do it legally.

- Martin

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Thanks. More questions than answers in a tough subject like this, but I am much clearer on the actions to take now. Take care.

-jim

 

[macsrules]

Thanks for the replies and information, I pretty much knew deep down I could not do that, I guess I just wanted to hear it from others.

I really think a company could do really well if they could figure out a way to do what I-Tunes did but for people that want to use the songs for web work. There are some really cool jazz songs in the best of 2005 that I would love to use but without getting permission I can't. Besides, I would not even know how to go about that (getting permission).

I did find a really good site though, it is call the music bakery http://www.musicbakery.com/

 

[AviationFan]

I really think a company could do really well if they could figure out a way to do what I-Tunes did but for people that want to use the songs for web work.

Oh yes! Or for other small volume distribution, such as wedding DVDs, corporate training videos, etc... There is a lot of demand out there from people willing to pay a reasonable fee to use the music, but the music industry in most countries does not have a sales channel set up to target that market. Australia is an exception, where AMCOS provides very affordable licenses for many small applications in a streamlines process. I wish something similar existed in the US!

- Martin