Hello,
I'm thinking of creating an online radio program that would showcase
music by independent, self-produced musicians; but I have a couple of
legal questions I'd like to ask:

- How to protect myself against the possibility of someone sending me
copyrighted music, not belonging to them, but pretending it does? It
is obviously impossible to check that such or such song was not
actually recorded or written by someone else...

- Is there a standard contract enabling an artist to allow a
broadcaster to use their music free of charge (knowing in this case
that the artist, through the promotion, is very much the beneficary,
and knowing that the program itself is non-profit making)?


thank you

Guillaume.

On 4 May 2004 16:48:49 GMT, (G) wrote:

- How to protect myself against the possibility of someone sending me
copyrighted music, not belonging to them, but pretending it does? It
is obviously impossible to check that such or such song was not
actually recorded or written by someone else...

Err.. Guaranteeing that so that you don't have to pay fees will be an
interesting task. But then that's why Insurance gets sold. Getting covered
for this type of liability might be a problem, of course. Are you prepared to
lose your house and car if someone sues?

- Is there a standard contract enabling an artist to allow a
broadcaster to use their music free of charge (knowing in this case
that the artist, through the promotion, is very much the beneficary,
and knowing that the program itself is non-profit making)?

If someone lifted someone else's music, a contract with the artist wouldn't
protect you. And how much bandwidth are you preparing to buy? a T1 will
support about 30 50kbps streams. Actually less since there is other overhead
involved. They go for between $500 and $1800 a month, depending on which ISP
and phone company you have and how far you are from the CO. Or you could go
for a t3 (about 3 T1s) for about 90-100 streams that wide. Or if you want
something a tad better sounding, cut those figures significantly.

ASCAP and BMI might still come after you looking for infringements. I cut a
CD for a trombone quintet at a college north of Charlotte. They were going to
use the recording as a fund raiser. It was all Black Spirituals, arranged for
that group. Guess what they found after the fact. One of the pieces that
they thought was public domain wasn't... They ended up paying rights after the
fact big time.

Bill Blomgren wrote in
:



Err.. Guaranteeing that so that you don't have to pay fees will be an
interesting task. But then that's why Insurance gets sold. Getting
covered for this type of liability might be a problem, of course. Are
you prepared to lose your house and car if someone sues?


Sometime when you're fooling around looking at the copyrights on music, go
look up "Happy Birthday", sung illegally at every kid's birthday party.

"Happy Birthday" is copyrighted by AOL/Time-Warner. If that isn't
hypocracy, nothing is....(c;

Bill Blomgren wrote in message ...
On 4 May 2004 16:48:49 GMT, (G) wrote:

- How to protect myself against the possibility of someone sending me
copyrighted music, not belonging to them, but pretending it does? It
is obviously impossible to check that such or such song was not
actually recorded or written by someone else...

Err.. Guaranteeing that so that you don't have to pay fees will be an
interesting task. But then that's why Insurance gets sold. Getting covered
for this type of liability might be a problem, of course. Are you prepared to
lose your house and car if someone sues?

My, my. Sounds like a big risk for a non-profit, cultural
project. Although, not living in the States, I might be partially
spared from this type of danger (?)



If someone lifted someone else's music, a contract with the artist
wouldn't
protect you. And how much bandwidth are you preparing to buy? a T1 will
support about 30 50kbps streams. Actually less since there is other overhead
involved. They go for between $500 and $1800 a month, depending on which ISP
and phone company you have and how far you are from the CO. Or you could go
for a t3 (about 3 T1s) for about 90-100 streams that wide. Or if you want
something a tad better sounding, cut those figures significantly.

Well actually it's not about "streaming". I used the term
"radio" in a broad sense: the idea is to make MP3 files of the program
available on a website which also houses an internet lit mag. Would
that change anything rights and risks?


ASCAP and BMI might still come after you looking for infringements. I cut a
CD for a trombone quintet at a college north of Charlotte. They were going to
use the recording as a fund raiser. It was all Black Spirituals, arranged for
that group. Guess what they found after the fact. One of the pieces that
they thought was public domain wasn't... They ended up paying rights after the
fact big time.

ouch!

Thanks for the info. I'd better think more than twice then.
Guillaume.

not living in the States, I might be partially spared from this type of danger
(?)

Don't bet on it. France has copyright laws too.

On 5 May 2004 23:00:49 GMT, (G) wrote:

My, my. Sounds like a big risk for a non-profit, cultural
project. Although, not living in the States, I might be partially
spared from this type of danger (?)

True.. all depends on local regulations. Copyright varies to some extent from
country to country, but the EU should be reasonably uniform.

Well actually it's not about "streaming". I used the term
"radio" in a broad sense: the idea is to make MP3 files of the program
available on a website which also houses an internet lit mag. Would
that change anything rights and risks?

No.. In the case of the rules here, a download is a stream. Requires
significant logging and all that, so that you can pay the "right" amounts..
but never less than the minimum. ouch

ASCAP and BMI might still come after you looking for infringements. I cut a
CD for a trombone quintet at a college north of Charlotte. They were going to
use the recording as a fund raiser. It was all Black Spirituals, arranged for
that group. Guess what they found after the fact. One of the pieces that
they thought was public domain wasn't... They ended up paying rights after the
fact big time.

ouch!

Thanks for the info. I'd better think more than twice then.
Guillaume.

Amen. That one mistake got patched up rather nicely, but it was a tad
expensive..The recording was for a non-profit group. Had they done it all
before production, it would have been a lot cheaper. (But the licensing folk
have a minimum, which is well into the hundreds.) -- There were penalties for
not pre-paying. Sheesh.

If you cross all your Ts and dot all your I's, you can probably get away with
it. If the content can be edited before placing on the web site, you can
remove anything that you can't prove isn't cleared for public performance.
But if it is presented "LIVE" then you are at the mercy of the licensing folk
and their ability to find a copyright somewhere that you stepped on.

Over here, the Harry Fox agency is always happy to talk to people that are
creating content and making CDs.. (they are the publishing/clearing house for
the music..) -- and of course, after it is produced, Ascap and BMI want to
sink their teeth into it to "protect" the performer...

Bill Blomgren wrote:
On 5 May 2004 23:00:49 GMT, (G) wrote:

My, my. Sounds like a big risk for a non-profit, cultural
project. Although, not living in the States, I might be partially
spared from this type of danger (?)

True.. all depends on local regulations. Copyright varies to some extent from
country to country, but the EU should be reasonably uniform.

One thing I haven't heard mentioned yet is the international treaty whose
name I can't remember that says that a bunch of countries including the US
and several members of the European Union will honor each others' copyrights.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) /
Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/
"someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy
slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003

There are two conventions...one, which the United States is signatory to, is
the Geneva Copyright convention, and includes most of the rest of the world.
There's another one which I can't quite recall (Pan-American?) and it
occasionally happens that a copyright under one is ignored by entities
controlled by the other.

UNESO apparently adminstrates the Geneva convention (and why this is a
surprise, I can't say) but there's an Acrobat document which goes into some
detail....

http://www.unesco.org/culture/copyri...ng/ucc52ms.pdf

--
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"Steven J Sobol" wrote in message
...
Bill Blomgren wrote:
On 5 May 2004 23:00:49 GMT, (G) wrote:

My, my. Sounds like a big risk for a non-profit, cultural
project. Although, not living in the States, I might be partially
spared from this type of danger (?)

True.. all depends on local regulations. Copyright varies to some extent from
country to country, but the EU should be reasonably uniform.

One thing I haven't heard mentioned yet is the international treaty whose
name I can't remember that says that a bunch of countries including the US
and several members of the European Union will honor each others' copyrights.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) /
Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/
"someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy
slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003