I am preparing to put out a vocal warm up CD series (I’m a private voice teacher), and, as an introduction to the CD, would like to put together a 20 second audio montage of me singing various songs in various styles. So, it would be several 3-5 second clips all fading into one another.
Some of these songs are not original songs (ie: me singing a Led Zeppelin song, me singing a Ray Charles song, me singing a song from the musical “Kiss Me Kate”…). Though the clips will only be a few seconds long each, the songs themselves may be recognizable for a couple of seconds.
What I’d like to know is if it would be considered “Fair Use” of the songs. Granted, I’m using the songs for a commercial purpose, but besides that fact that they would only used for a couple of seconds or so each, I found this note on www.PDInfo.com , the public domain reference site:
"Determination of Fair Use is weighed by looking at how the work is used, how much of the work is used, and probably most important how does the use affect the value and potential sales of the original work."
…if this is true, then certainly, what I’d be doing would have absolutely zero effect on sales of these original artists’ songs. I understand it’s a gray area at best…but are there any entertainment lawyers or people in THE KNOW who can offer a little guidence?
For songs, there is no such thing as fair use. The Verve was hit with and lost an infringement suit by the Rolling Stones for sampling four bars of a Stones song.
You would be required to license the song for it to be legal. You can do it and hope no one will notice, but you’d be on shaky ground if they ever did.
Cite? This would make libraries very upset, if true, but I can’t find anything in copyright law that would indicate this is the case. The specific use you mentioned wouldn’t necessarily be fair use, anyway. Derivative works are still covered by copyright.
Fair Use is very commonly misunderstood – it’s primarily for things like education and libraries. I recommend the four-part staff report that starts here as a good starting place.
You understate the case massively. The whole of Bitter Sweet Symphony was constructed around the original version. And they weren’t “hit with” anything, it was an ongoing wrangle from when they first wanted to use it.
How do bands who only do covers get round this?
I noticed when I was in Bahrain last summer the girls singing live in bars would slightly change the lyrics in their songs.
Is this a valid way round copyright.
“Leaving on an Airplane” was a stalwart favourite of us in the bar.
Bands making covers are re-recording something already released. This is covered (in the US, at least) by compulsory license. The author has the right to record it first, but after that, anyone can, paying the statutory fees, of course. Cecil said it here.
I’m assuming you want to make a handful of copies for students to use, rather than just one CD, but as long as you don’t go stamping out hundreds of copies, I wouldn’t expect anyone to complain, and if they did, “educational use” is a pretty solid defense.
If you’re talking about local cover bands that perform in clubs, this is supposed to be handled by the club itself obtaining a license from the BMI or the ASCAP. The club pays a licensing fee to the organization, and they are then authorized to provide entertainment that uses copyrighted music (technically this includes karaoke and jukeboxes, in addition to live musicians). The BMI or ASCAP then distributes the fees to the various songwriters and publishers, using some formula of their own. Additionally, a performer or band can become licensed by one or both of these organizations so that they are covered in the event that the club isn’t licensed.
However, I’m not sure what percentage of clubs actually bother to obtain a license.
Yes, you need to licence the song if it is included in a “derivative work”. DJ Shadow uses almost nothing but samples and it keeps his lawyers very busy. You have to get a licence for the master recording of the work you sampled in addition to the mechanical licence.
Cover bands who release CDs of their covers can get a compulsory licence. You can do it online relatively cheaply these days. If you have several songs it can get a bit costly when it comes to licencing fees. My buddies had a coer tune on their last CD. I think they paid about $160 in licencing fees when they made 1,000 CDS that had two cover tunes.
When they perform in bars, it’s the bar that pays for it (has something to do with blanket fees that let the bar play tunes their DJ plays as well as whatever the bands play.)
The OP needs to get a compulsory licence for each song used if you are going to distribute the CD, and “distribute” includes giving them away for free. Singlfile is probably the easiest way to do it. Go to: The Harry Fox Agency and read up. It’s for “individuals, community groups, schools or religious groups who are producing between 500 and 2500 copies of a recording.” The price varies per the length of the song.
ETA: That website also has an FAQ that will tell you what to do with sampling etc.
That is categorically wrong. The seminal Supreme Court case on Fair Use, *Campbell v. Acuff Rose Music * concerned 2 Live Crew’s sampling of Roy Orbison’s song “Pretty Woman.” 2 Live Crew requested the sample and were refused; they went ahead anyway and won. The Court found fair use in 2 Live’s Crew’s parodic use of the opening bars of Orbison’s song.
Reading how the justices try to evaluate the artisic merit of a 2 Live Crew song is one of the more amusing things ever committed to the court record.
