Well the proverbial stuff is starting to hit the fan.
I'm also a member over on the TDPRI Guitar Forum. Over on that forum, a member posted a video of himself demoing his new amp that he made around a year and a half ago. He played some obscure songs from the 30's. I say obscure because most people around these days haven't heard some of those old songs.
So yesterday he was notified by a lawyer of the family of the song writer that he is being sued for playing the song without permission and without purchasing a license to play in the video and posting it on the internet. He wasn't trying to sell the amp, wasn't using the song to sell a product or make money off of it.
Guess what? He's not the only guy getting these notices. So you better think twice now before posting a video online of yourself playing someone's song or playing someone's song from a recording on your video.
Now I know that a musician needs to make money, but this kind of thing seems crappy to me. What's your thoughts on this?
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None of those characters are original Disney creations. They are all from works Disney adapted to film. Try going as an original Disney creation.
You want hard line stick in the mud copyright horrors look at Disney. I'm into a lot of cosplay, scifi and fantasy. Go to a few conventions. You will not see anyone there representing Disney. Unless they have bought something licensed by Disney. You can't even make a costume that looks like a Disney character without someone loosing a load in their pants.
From listening to copyright and fare use lawyers most companies love fan art. It represents their products in a good way. And it's free advertising. Not sure why jack and harley guard their image tightly. Perhaps they've been burned hard in the past. They do have two of the most questionable trade marks. JD can easily be someone's name. And the shield with wings is as old or older than the Roman empire.
I think the best example of a company dropping the ball on fan art is Coca Cola. The Kinks wrote a song called 'Lola' and wanted to use the words 'coca cola'. The franchise denied them. So The Kinks replaced the words with 'cherry cola'. Coke later publicly stated they regretted their decision.
If you still have questions talk to businesses that pay live bands to play. Talk to the bands themselves.
There are hundreds of thousands of videos on Youtube. People playing other peoples music to sell things. Hundreds more uploaded each day. Hundreds of thousands of videos of people playing other peoples music. From the streets to venues to their own bedrooms. Hundreds more uploaded each day. All under the protection of fare use laws.
Well, with the Jack Daniels and Harley Davidson tins, the trademark issue comes into play in that there might be some confusion in the minds of the consumer public that its a product of that company, whereas other tins and cigar boxes don't seem to generate the same confusion and seems to be clear that its a cast-off put to an unrelated use . Its a subjective standard, but that is what the courts use.
so don't start your own cigar company and use cast off cigar-boxes for packaging...
and the simple version of the copyright law is that if you are making money off of someone else's work that they ought to have gotten money for, you owe them money.
or if your use costs them money, you owe...
OK, here's farther proof for those who still need it.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ProGuitarShopDemos/videos
Hundreds of Youtube videos of someone playing other people's music to demo and sell equipment. I stopped counting at 580.
Whew, I just read a few articles explaining Fair Use and now I'm more confused. The bottom line seems to be fair use covers educational use of copyrighted material, not done for profit is a big part too, however a rap group used Pretty Woman in a song without permission and it was ruled fair use because their treatment of the song was "transformative" ??? even though they did profit. Also parodies fall under fair use so Weird Al can do stuff like Eat It without permission but I think he actually did get MJ's permission. So, in summary, all of my covers have been educational in nature and no profit was gained and I flubbed enough of the lyrics to make it "transformative" I don't think the Guitar Forum guy has too much to be worried about.
Oh and if Smokey Robinson contacts me about my use of Tears of a Clown I would be honored to cease and desist!
The TDPRI Forum (where this happened) is probably the largest guitar forum on the net if not one of the largest. It might be a while before something happens here on CBN.
I could see the JD folks getting upset with the resale of there products. Guess the same could happen with Canjo's if it wasn't for the fact that most of those companies on the cans are long gone.
What if the Cigar companies decided to get into this with us over our CBG's? Seems we could get and music writers and the companies to pay us for advertising their products and promoting their songs.
Another potential problem with us builders of CBG's is from the Anti-Tobacco product crowd since we're promoting Tobacco by using these boxes. LOL
It has happened previously,but chiefly in regard to people making 'bootleg' copies of cigar boxes,i think the fact that you use a genuine cigar box,that you own,in any manner you see fit,save in a manner of ridicule,is not really trespassing on the original manufacturers area of ownership,the problems may start when you label your home made box with a proprietary label,unlikely to bring the lawyers rushing to nail you,but they do have a case in that scenario
Yes, it could get truly ridiculous.
And let's none of us forget the immortal Charles Dickens quote from Oliver Twist "if the law supposes that then the law is a ass, a idiot!" Indeed!!
Very interesting. I think I've heard more about folks on CBN being confronted over use of Jack Daniels tins than over use of songs. I've done many covers here and on youtube with absolutely no problem, So far. I watched some of the lawyer clip posted by Cause and I'm trying to get a handle on what is considered fair use under the copyright law. Hmmm... might have to start writing more of my own stuff!
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