This cartoon is a bit misleading; not all of these things are violations.
There are two types of copyrights, the copyright of the song and the copyright of the recording. With whistling a song on a subway, singing Christmas Carols door to door, or singing Happy Birthday in a restaurant, you do not have to worry about the copyright of the recording because you aren't using. You only have to worry about the copyright of the song. In the case of the subway or restaurant, it is up the venue to pay the licensing fees to ASCAP and BMI. The singer / whistler would be exempt. The person whistling or singing does not have to worry about these fees. Happy Birthday is old enough to be in public domain and is exempt from any such fees. I'm not sure how singing Christmas Carols (not in public domain) door to door plays out since you are not in a specific venue. I would assume that this would fall under fair use. Making a single mix CD for friends or lovers is perfectly acceptable under the fair use clause of copyright law. On the other hand, I believe that creating 100+ CDs for wedding guests does not constitute fair use. (<-- I almost lost a friend arguing this point, so it is a sore spot for me). Considering that a lot of venues in CT stopped having live music because of letters from BMI / ASCAP lawyers; I would assume that any company who sells these wedding CDs must be paying licensing fees to BMI / ASCAP or else they'd be getting their own batch of lawyer letters. Displaying posters of your favorite stars in school halls; does not have any relation to the copyright of songs or recordings. I'm not an expert on this, however it would be my guess that the record company who distributed the poster had properly licensed the image from the photographer who took it. Playing music out of your car window has the same problem as singing christmas carols door to door. You aren't in a venue. If the music is on the radio, then all radio stations have to pay licensing fees to ASCAP and BMI based on listener base. If it is some other source of music, I'm not sure how copyright law applies. As far as the last part, I never heard of the lawsuit where ASCAP sued Girl Scouts for singing songs around a campfire. At 09:05 AM 9/16/2003 -0500, you wrote: >Subject: pure truth >From: "Kevin Graeme" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 07:57:41 -0500 >Thread: >http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=messages&threadid=9689&forumid=5#88884 > >Why would it be taken down? I think the RIAA wants everyone to know that >those are all violations. > >-Kevin > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Michael Dinowitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 3:10 AM >Subject: pure truth > > > > Save this image before it's removed forever. > > >http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/09/16/arts/030916_art_POPLIFE_750.gif > > > > Michael Dinowitz > > Finding technical solutions to the problems you didn't know you had yet -- Jeffry Houser | <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> AIM: Reboog711 | Phone: 1-203-379-0773 -- We Provide The Soundtrack to your Web: <http://www.fcfstudios.com> My Books: <http://www.instantcoldfusion.com> -- Far Cry Fly's CD Release Party on September 6th at Q-River in Wallingford Energetic Acoustic Rock: <http://www.farcryfly.com> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm?link=t:5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm?link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. http://www.cfhosting.com
