© Infringements - Don't be a Hypocrite
I'm really getting tired of this. Colleagues, both highly respected and prosumer alike, who have no regard for copyrights. I recently watched an amazing presentation of work by a noted photographer, who's work was enhanced by the aural addition of music by Enya. I know just how next to impossible it is to get permission for uses like this, as I have tried, so I am almost certain that she was infringing on Enya's copyright. I also continue to watch as a other photographers continue to promote videos/presentations where music I know to be popular, but which are on YouTube with music that it is almost certain to be infringing uses. I wish they would just take a pause and realize what they are doing.
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The hypocrisy continues. Friends who "share" a Photoshop or PhotoMechanic serial #, yet complain when their own work is stolen.
Interestingly enough, were I to provide a photograph that was not my own to an organization for their presentation, or to a website/blog to grow traffic/hits, the infringing party would be the organization or website/blog. It is the "publication" of the material, by the "publisher" that is the infringement, in large part. For a public performance, it would be the corporation or organization that provided the forum/programming that would likely be held accountable.
Several years ago, I was working a product launch for a pharmaceutical company for the sales reps who visit doctors offices to give them samples, and promote the product. The music that started the event was the Red Hot Chili Pepper's song "Give It Away Now", perfectly appropriate in terms of theme, inappropriate in terms of the infringement of the band's intellectual property by a company with IP of it's own in the form of the medicine they sell.
I am not a lawyer, but here's a good rule:
Unless you're commenting on the music itself, as in "listen to the multiple downbeats", or "the refrain here is repetitive...", making a claim that your use is "fair use" is likely not to hold water. When you use music to accompany your images, you need to get permission, or don't use it. Period.
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15 comments:
I'll try to do my own research on this as well, but since you've tried: what is the best way to try to get rights for use of music like that? Through the publishers?
Marshall --
Unless it's a big buy, they won't pay attention to you. beyond that, it's places like Broken Joey Records, or Triple Scoop Music, for music that gives you the right to use the recording for your own presentations.
John
This is a very hard road to navigate. BMI and ASCAP have licensing programs that don't make it any easier to understand. I've heard that these are somewhat deceptive in that they allow you to use works but not the actual "performances." But they don't tell you this explicitly. You have to go to the artist to ask for that.
Artists on the other hand don't always seem to mind if you use their music if give them credit.
I think if you are playing the music, you should be purchasing the music, once for each copy you distribute.
But, yes, photographers, like all other artists, have many in their ranks that don't feel others deserve the same copyright respect and protection that their precious works do.
John,
Interesting post, recently, I started adding some slideshows to my site with the intent of creating a gallery of personal work to go along with my commercial portfolio.
As I was working on the slideshow, I plucked something from my itunes to go along with it and then it occurred to me that since I was essentially promoting my work, I might be violating the copyright of the musician by putting on my site as a background. So, I emailed the record company about this and predictably, never got a response. I emailed again and after a few tries, finally got a response to direct my request to someone else. Long story short, dozens of email to dozens of people and I never got an answer one way or another. Essentially, it's impossible to get permission to use songs in slideshows as a freelance photographer.
I'm certainly not advocating copyright infringement (in fact, I'm in the middle of suing an infringer right now) so I went without music and put the slideshow idea aside for the time being but, I can understand why the music industry has so much trouble with infringement when they make it so tough to get an easy answer.
Saying you "need" recognizable music from name musicians to promote your photography is no different than somebody saying they "need" recognizable photographs from name photographer to promote their music.
There are tons of places on the web that sell royalty-free music and/or rights-managed music, just like the same things for photography. People who need music should use one, or hire a musician to write and record them some, just like people who need photographs should license them or hire a photographer.
I don't see what's so hard about this either, myself.
This is a great post. How can other people respect our copyright when we infringe on theirs?
I just finished a class in school and a few of the other students used music without acquiring the rights and still passed. The projects they created were amazing. What is even more amazing is our school has a recording arts department and all it took was a few minutes to ask someone to help. I now feel the next problem for them is now legally they can never use all that work for their portfolio.
KE
If it ain't yours, don't use it. It's that simple.
The biggest whiners in the world are photographers who get their images lifted and used without their permission.
But the humorous thing is they never got them copyrighted in the first place. They're the same people that ask a friend to loan them the most recent upgrade for Photoshop and also to loan them the latest Green Day cd so that they can burn it to their iTunes.
These photographers can't even respect themselves and they expect others to respect their copyright, while they use excuses like "I'm only one person making a copy of this, Adobe is so hugh that they're not going to miss my 50 bucks".
Wake up!
Respect copyrights; stop making excuses.
Thank you for this post. I have gotten flamed time and time again on photography forums for pointing this out.
Maybe now that YOU have said, it people will listen.
I know Enya, and if she found out that you or anyone else was using her music for display purposes without permission; boy she would be real pissed.
OK heres a few of points to think about:
I'm sure the Red Hot Chili's and Enya are real recognizable, but wouldn't this be an opportunity to find a smaller, possibly more local band or performer that might be agreeable to letting one use their music IN EXCHANGE for a link to their buy a song or album site? Or maybe a large credit with contact info at the start and/or end of a presentation. Overall, the mega acts don't really need more micro exposure but the micro acts might find it a real advantage to get their work out with a good CREDIT AND MARKETING CONECTION, or a reasonable usage fee for a profit use.
I would be SLIGHTLY less ticked-off about one of my images being infringed on if there was a photo credit and a link back to my site.(Yeah I know-dream on, but checkout the "free stuff" post on the APE blog).
Micro acts would probably be a lot easier to contact about stuff like this, rather than a major record label.
The key here is to make a win-win agreement with both parties and promote everyone's good work. Face it , most of us are the "little guys" all trying to make our things happen, so what if we make a little extra effort and help each other out...I, have a dream*
(*credit to MLK Jr. all rights reserved)
Last thing-most all photo buyers I hear talk or read about HATE music on websites. Really.
I'm a photographer part time and a music teacher full time. Most music is just as protected (if not more) than any of our photography. The fact remains (as Chase pointed out recently) that both have become liquid. My interpretation of liquid is "easily stolen."
We must ethically honor the copyright of others. No, I don't have a grand idea that it will change the world, but its not about the world is it - its about a person as real as we are.
With that in mind, I turn to a moral thought; the person's music (or if your a musician - a person's images) used for your own gain can cross another line.
Promotion!
Perhaps you use a great song like "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle (a Christian musician) for a slide show selling family photography and your site also contains nude photography. You've now not only crossed the ethical line of copyright, but probably a moral/respectful line of what the artist would or would not want to be promoting. Although Bob Carlisle probably takes delight in the promotion of beautiful families, he might not want to promote nude photography as well.
It could be reversed with music by an artist that would not want to promote a Christian agenda/web site as well.
I hope the point isn't misunderstood. We need to think not only of the earnings of the artist, but what their right is to what they want to be involved with in regards of their talents/gifts.
I've just finished a slide show using an old Thelonius Monk solo piano treatment of and old jazz standard.
It works great and of coarse it's copyrighted.
I play jazz guitar (fairly well) and was thinking maybe I could sort of get around this issue by recording my own version of this tune. The song is from the thirties.
I would then use my own recording.
Would this be a reasonable option?
JL
Hi John, this post of yours rang a bell in my mind after I finished up a little study on software piracy. I ran a poll on my blog asking how many users of Photoshop and Lightroom are software pirates. The results were a little shocking with nearly 60% of Photoshop users being pirates. I just wonder how many of those 60% would be willing to give up their copyright on their photos.
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