Im making an animation for my uncle.He alrready has a charcter he wants animated but i want some cool music in the animation.
How do you tell if music is copyrighted or not?
I know this http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00001R3H7/ref=ase_raymondscottcom/104-0604854-5654302?v=glance&s=music cd seems to have some cool music by raymond scott but i have no clue if its legal to put his music in my cartoons.
can anyone help me?
If the source you're taking it from has a copyright notice on it, it's copyrighted.
WRT the CD you referenced, it's copyrighted.
thanks for telling me.
is there a way to see the copyright notice without actually picking up the cd?
what does the copyright notice look like?
also if a film is public domain can i take music from it?
what if 20 years after i took music from the film a company buys the right's to the film? is my cartoon now illegal?
I own that CD. good stuff
There are ways to get around the copyright.
First of all, if the animation is only for your uncle and his pals, and not for commercial distribution, it's probably safe to put whatever music you want in it.
Technically, we are allowed to make copies of music that we own for our own use, so if your uncle owed a copy of that CD and didn't distribute the cartoon to anyone else, it should be safe.
There's also something called the Fair Use doctrine. I believe that you're allowed to use whatever music you want as long as the clip is under 30 seconds. I'm no expert on Fair Use, so you'll want to look into it some more.
It's also possible that you can alter the original work - using music software - so much that it dodges copyright issues. I believe this is covered under Fair Use as long as the altered version doesn't resemble the original too much.
And then you might simply want to ask for permission. Maybe they'll give it to you for free, or for a small fee.
If you want to be entirely safe, you can gather some public domain music. There are royalty-free CDs available. You should assume any music is copyrighted unless it says "public domain" or "royalty-free" on the cover.
i have looked into the royalty free cd's and stuff but they all are like midi versions of the songs i want so i definetly dont want to pay for them.
How do i ask for permission? so i have ot call the company that makes the cd?
I have to look into that Fair Use doctrine on the count of my animation will be less than 30 seconds long.
Thanks a ton for the help. :D
I want to use the intro to "Killer Bees" from The Bobs on a pitch reel. I emailed them, they said "go nuts," as long as it wouldn't be for sale or broadcast. if it was, I'd just email them and get details for licensing the use of the song. I'm sure there would be pay involved, depending on my expectations of how widely spread it would be used.
If you were using music in a cartoon that would hit the market, you definitely want all of your t's crossed. The cartoon I'm pitching to Frederator has a song in it that was written by someone local who owns all mechanical, songwriting and performance rights. Once I had his permission, I was done.
The Golden Rule is: always assume that any piece of music you stumble across is copyrighted. When in doubt it's always cheaper to hire a composer to write you something new. Use music you aren't certain about and chances are high the owner will find out and have you by the balls sooner or later. You don't want that, trust me, I've heard horror stories ...
Jabber's correct - once it's used and out there, you're at the mercy of the copyright holder, who can ask for whatever payment they want.
There is no "standard fee" - each artist is free to ask for whatever they want for the rights, and can limit them however they see fit.
For example - Microsoft contacted the Rolling Stones looking to use "Start Me Up" as part of their Windows marketing campaign. Rather than just say no, the Stones quoted a price of $20 million, thinking that Gates would never go for that much. Gates said "O.K.". Moral of the story: there's rich, and then there's rich..... :D
Ray Scott is copyrighted. IIIRC, I read somewhere where the earliest recordings will be protected until 2030 something.
But I just discovered this site:http://www.publicdomain4u.com/
Alot of old blues. I assume if the site is true, many publishers and companies that are no longer, orphaned this music.
cool you know i nerer though of that but my dad has some great blues recordings and im sure half of them are royalty free. :D
plus its great music
Well I wouldn't assume that. The site that I linked says the ones they have up are public domain.