Killjoy, I know, but you'd probably want to have permission from Spoon (or, more likely, Merge Records) before repurposing their most popular track commercially.
Similarly, annoying as it probably sounds, virtually anything a startup would ever want to do with a piece of music anyone has heard of before† is probably not kosher. On the flip side, there's thousands of amazingly talented musicians willing to record tracks for tiny amounts of money, so maybe investigate that instead of just grabbing random tracks from iTunes.
The obvious and (please presume) prolific apologies apply if rights to You Got Yr Cherry Bomb were secured for this. Totally possible.
† Including but not limited to putting it center stage on a cheerful and uplifting branded company blog post about resumes.
Good point! My understanding, from speaking with the SlideRocket team, is that it's kosher to use another artist's song as your presentation soundtrack as long as you attribute the song in your presentation somewhere. But if I were doing a similar project in the future, I'd absolutely love to work with a musician to record something - that's a terrific suggestion.
EDIT: Just spoke directly with a representative at SlideRocket, Sogol Motiey, who says, "Nope! No copyright issues."
Pretty sure that's totally not true, but, boy would I ever like to be proven wrong about this. As I understand it, and excuse the language, but attribution has fuck-all to do with the rights to music.
There's a whole market for "royalty-free music" (all of which costs money, but at least doesn't cost money per view) that exists entirely --- again, as I understand it --- because you can't just use random copyrighted songs in presentations, on websites, &c.
Sliderocket even links to some of these sites on an article about adding audio to presentations:
* The extent to which the use transforms the original work
* The nature of the work being used
* The amount and substantiality of the use
* The effect of the use on the market
I'm pretty sure soundtracking your resume with almost the entirety of a signed band's most popular track flunks all these tests --- charming though that resume is.
I'm actually not at all concerned about musical resumes --- seriously, does Britt Daniel care about resumes? Of course he doesn't --- so much as the mentality at startups that this stuff is always going to be kosher. Not so. HN just got finished shellacking a different YC company over this exact issue.
You're correct that this would fail a fair-use test. Once it went up on a blog it's akin to a public performance, and use of the master recording should be licensed.
It is improbable that someone is going to issue a DMCA letter because of this, but it does (to your point) outline a couple of problems in S.V., one of which is the misconception that "It's not stealing if you attribute the artist" is widespread. And incorrect, at least for anything (c)All Rights Reserved.
If in doubt, it's a good idea for startups to consult their attorney (and not the PM, or lead engineer, or friend-in-a-band) when in doubt when using music, art, or what-have-you in public fora.
tonecluser responded to the wrong person, but you're both right - that was very bad advice. There are definite copyright problems here.
Even if they could win this in court (which they probably couldn't), it's certainly not so cut and dry that anyone would just say 'nope, no problems, carry on' and be done with it.
You're not crazy; it was ludicrously bad (or at least ill-informed) advice. And you are correct - unless published under a specific license, music "fixed" into some format is (c)All Rights Reserved.
Isn't that weird? Don't you guys have performance rights separate from copy rights?
I mean... yeah, using the music means that a payment should be made, but why is it copyright rather than performance rights?
This is just a general question. I used to work in the industry and only reading this do I see how weird it is.
We had the MCPS and PRS. One does physical copies of recordings, and the other does performances of a recording.
Performing rights are what should be applied here, no copy is being offered, it's simply a broadcast.
That being so... why would copyright apply? And if that is the case, then surely all of the fair use doesn't apply because that's related to fair use of copyrights, not performance rights.
Example: If I made a video and had the Beatles on as a sound track. Then I need to make sure I have performance rights (usually by a blanket fee), and don't need to consider copyright at all.
Obviously this all has a UK slant, it's what I know... just curious as to why a similar thing doesn't apply here and it's considered copyright (MCPS equivalent) when no copy is being made.
It is possible that BMI will send a bill, eventually, if they notice. Note that this is separate from paying for a license to use the master (the recording).
You're right, since this isn't just streaming but also use in a larger work — you can't just use someone's song in what's essentially an advertisement without their permission
Kickstarter must have to deal with this shit all the time in the project videos
It apparently happens enough that they have to mention it:
MAKING IT YOURS
And remember, don’t use music, images, video, or other content that you don’t have the rights to. Using copyrighted material is almost always illegal and can lead to expensive lawsuits down the road. The easiest way to avoid copyright troubles? Either create all the content yourself or use content that is free for public use. For example, you may be able to use some Creative Commons-licensed music — per the terms of their licenses — that's available on SoundCloud. Other resources you can explore: Vimeo Music Store, Free Music Archive, and ccMixter.
Similarly, annoying as it probably sounds, virtually anything a startup would ever want to do with a piece of music anyone has heard of before† is probably not kosher. On the flip side, there's thousands of amazingly talented musicians willing to record tracks for tiny amounts of money, so maybe investigate that instead of just grabbing random tracks from iTunes.
The obvious and (please presume) prolific apologies apply if rights to You Got Yr Cherry Bomb were secured for this. Totally possible.
† Including but not limited to putting it center stage on a cheerful and uplifting branded company blog post about resumes.