Recommended reading: Broadcast Law Blog
Steve Safran May 23rd, 2007
I want to recommend Broadcast Law Blog to all news directors, GMs and finance folks. The rules and fees surrounding the online use of music are baffling, getting worse, and you very well may be have been in violation of them since 2002. The crackdown is happening. Even if you have paid ASCAP fees for broadcast use you aren’t covered for online. I served on a panel at BCFM in Las Vegas Tuesday with David Oxenford, an attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine in Washington, DC, and he opened my eyes to the complexity these seemingly punitive laws have on the use of online music. David’s a smart guy (don’t let the “attorney” part fool you - he is, after all a blogger) and the rules keep changing. The good news? As long as you’re creating original content and not using any professional music, you’re in the clear. All the more reason to tell the pros to get lost and focus on your community instead.
3 Comments Add your own
1. thedetroitchannel | May 23rd, 2007 at 7:14 am
“focus on your community instead” is a nice lead-in.
wwwdotpiedmont.edu/masscomm/partners/cnn.htm and note the date of its writing.
the more things change the more they stay the same.
2. Fernando | May 23rd, 2007 at 8:28 am
I know that this thread is about online use of music, but you can file this under online media and regulation…Yesterday I received a phone call from the assistant news director of my former news station. I started my own business about three years ago and as part of my marketing I created a web page. On that website, I posted three stories that I had shot and edited as demos. The A.D., a very pleasent sounding guy (he arrived after I left) asked me to please pull the videos down. The legal dept. at NBC did not want me to use their property on my site. The funny thing is that they have been up there all this time. The three stories were not linked to any other site. I know that the networks are getting a bit nervous in this digital age… I guess that demo reels online are different than demo tapes in the mail. For NBC to come after me now is silly, they should be more worried about their upfronts than coming after a former photographer. The material is part of my personal resume, it is an exclusive sample of my work and I do use it to try and get work. I understand the “work made for hire” rules, and it certainly is the right of NBC to make me pull the video down. Strange days indeed….
3. Jeremiah | May 30th, 2007 at 2:06 am
Not so much “tell the pros to get lost” as “Don’t use music owned/managed by corporate entertainment conglomerates.” There’s plenty of music out there for use that doesn’t have a thousand tiny strings attached.
Basically, if BMI or ASCAP are involved - DON’T USE THAT MATERIAL.
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