I would add that this is not such a simple issue. While I am not a lawyer, there are several who have told me that fair use can be applied to a much larger degree that we currently think. The legal grey area that you find yourself in is one of the failures of our current copyright system, and one that many youth media organizations across the country are facing.
I am not a lawyer either. However, I did spend eight years in the music industry and had many dealings with the Performing Rights Society here in the UK. The laws governing this aspect of copyright are some of the oldest and most established in law, in fact copyright law in the UK was created for music in the first place. There is *no* grey area in this aspect of copyright law (assuming you are using music recorded and published under the traditional model).
There are arguments to change the law, but as it stands the law is currently clear in that if you do anything with published music that you have not been expressly granted a license for then you are are breaking the law. Purchasing an average CD or MP3 *does not* give you broadcast rights.
In order to legally broadcast any music in any form you must obtain a license. There are sources of music that would give you the right to use in the way described, but the original mail seemed to imply they were using traditional licensed material.
Please be under no illusions, the use you described is illegal if the only license you have for the music is the act that you purchased a CD (I am assuming the CD is licensed under the traditional model, i.e. it says "all rights reserved" on it).
You are unlikely to be prosecuted given there is no profit motive, but nevertheless, it is still illegal and permission should be sought.
Your best option is to do as some have suggested, use some music that is under a permissive license (like creative commons) or contact the copyright holders and ask permission to use it (contact the record label).
Ross _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
