Then why have so many Churches been made to secure the rights for the
music they use... at least the church I have been working with in the
past is a VERY non-profit organization...
Kind of blows a hole in the performance issue... and these smaller
Churches can hardly afford to pay the usage rights to a single package
much less to several...
I still say be very careful... if they tell you to remove any copyrighted
material from your site the safest thing to do is comply... Why take the
chance? Take it from someone who has been there kinda sorta...
vince
On Sun, 11 Mar 2007, Nick Scheer wrote:
Please don't. It would be extremely unreasonable for anyone to demand that
you should. You are a free person who should be able to express yourself
the way you want. Unless the covers are hard to differ from
the originals, I strongly oppose any idea that this is some kind of
copyright infringement
While having covers of copyrighted songs available on your site may
*technically* not be in compliance with copyright law, the reality is that I
think it is most unlikely that the copyright holders would see fit to pursue
you for any kind of damages, since the recordings you are providing access
to are performed, produced, etc. by you, and you are not benefiting
financially in any way, and someone is *not* going to download a cover song
in lieu of purchasing a CD from the original artist, which is the main
justification against the RIAA's well-publicized legal witch-hunts in the
US.
The absolute worst-case scenario I think you'd ever experience would be
receiving a form letter from a law firm representing a copyright-holder
demanding that you Cease and Desist from continuing to provide access to the
files in question. Even that is most unlikely.
If you were *selling* or otherwise receiving a direct financial benefit from
your recordings, or if your site was part of a commercial entity, that could
raise other, somewhat more significant issues.
I have heard of legal action resulting from performance of copyrighted songs
by a band playing a gig at a bar, but I have never heard of this happening
where no for-profit business was involved.
At the end of the day, potential legal action by copyright holders comes
down to a business decision, and I seriously doubt that there would be a
perceived business justification for the cost of going after you in
court--lawyers aren't cheap. A C&D form letter, *maybe*, but that's about
it.
Yes, I know that the RIAA, etc. are investing bigtime in going after
individuals for allegedly distributing *exact copies* of copyrighted
recordings by their constituents, but the business case for that response is
very, very different for what you are concerned about, especially since the
recording industry feels the need to make a strong political statement, and
set concrete legal precedents regarding the distribution of exact copies of
commercial recordings.
However, if I were a judge presiding over your hypothetical case, and
plaintiff's counsel tried do make an argument that their client suffered
*measurable financial losses* as a result of amateur cover songs on a
personal website, my ruling would be "go crap in a hat" (*bang gavel*).
This is all IMHO of course--I am not an attorney, but I did stay at a
Holiday Inn Express last night. :)
--Nick
On 3/11/07, Kjetil S. Matheussen <k.s.matheussen@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Bob van der Poel:
>
>
> Anyone know much about the legalities of posting music recorded by
> oneself, but written by someone else? I put up a few recordings on my
> web site, mostly as a demo of MMA ... but I got to wondering the other
> day if some nice lawyer is going to be knocking on my door? I'm not too
> worried since I do live in Canada, and the server is <somewhere in
> Europe>. But, still ... one has to wonder.
>
I don't know the laws, but I would be extremely surprised if this is
illegal in Europe.
> In my case, I didn't write the music. But, I'm the "artist" (and
> recording engineer, etc.). And, I'm not selling anything. And, they are
> just demos.
>
> So, should I worry?
I wouldn't.
(In fact, I have a bunch of cover versions available for download myself,
and no way am I going to remove them.)
> Should I take them down?
>
Please don't. It would be extremely unreasonable for anyone to demand that
you should. You are a free person who should be able to express yourself
the way you want. Unless the covers are hard to differ from
the originals, I strongly oppose any idea that this is some kind of
copyright infringement
