Using copyrighted material (music)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Erschen
  • Start date Start date
F

Frank Erschen

I am creating movies that I wish to share with others.
For example, I want to give a CD or DVD of a wedding to
the couple whose wedding it was plus to people in their
families, and friends. Another example is a vacation:
give a copy of the movie to people with whom we shared
vacation. None of this is being done for commericial
purposes. I want to incorporate popular music. What
guidance can you give me about using music (that I have
legitimately obtained) in CDs or DVDs that I provide to
others? (The searches I've done point me to advice
telling me to be careful, but I have found nothing that
directly answer this question.) Thx F
 
You're should be OK as long as 1) there are no commerical conotations of any
kind (i.e., you're not making money from the wedding photos) and 2) the
number of CD/DVDs is small - for distribution among people you have met in
person (not all of your on-line "friends") and 3) you're not using a
substantial portion of music from any single source. This should all be
completely legal in the US under "fair use".

Note that circumventing DRM measures (such as protected WMA/iTunes files or
a soundtrack from a CSS-encrypted DVD) would probably violate the DCMA,
regardless of any "fair use" considerations.

I'm not a lawyer.

Dan
 
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