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Copyright dilemma?
Moderators: rick, Mark Bassett
23 posts
• Page 1 of 1
by smash » Sat May 29, 2010 11:27 am
I work in video production, and honestly, the whole copyright issue is still really tough to understand, and is still misunderstood by many many people.
The amount of people I meet who still believe the you are only infringing copyright if you "copy more than 10%" astounds me.
I know someone who has licensed (not purchased) stock images from a site on the net, and has simply applied some Photoshop filters, and is selling them as original works.
The original license wasn't even for distribution, it was previewing. He thinks he is fine.
The amount of companies who ignore copyright when their videos are for web release only, is frightening.
On the flip side, I have had times when I have worked on a corporate video for release on the web, and the client has wanted to include either music or vision that we did not hold the copyright for. After the client reluctantly agrees to pay any licensing fee (Client: but it's only for the Internet?) it is essentially impossible to find out who to pay. And this is after numerous calls to various authorities, no one actually seems to have a clear policy or understanding of copyright as it pertains to the web.
There really needs to be a one stop shop to pay for licensing, it's tough enough explaining to people why they need to pay fees to APRA/AMCOS as well as the PPCA. Plus, if you work in video, there are all sorts of other licensing fees too.
I honestly think it's beyond most peoples understaning, so they ignore it, and the people who try and "do he right thing" are seen as overly expensive and complicated at best, and ripping off your clients at worst.
The amount of people I meet who still believe the you are only infringing copyright if you "copy more than 10%" astounds me.
I know someone who has licensed (not purchased) stock images from a site on the net, and has simply applied some Photoshop filters, and is selling them as original works.
The original license wasn't even for distribution, it was previewing. He thinks he is fine.
The amount of companies who ignore copyright when their videos are for web release only, is frightening.
On the flip side, I have had times when I have worked on a corporate video for release on the web, and the client has wanted to include either music or vision that we did not hold the copyright for. After the client reluctantly agrees to pay any licensing fee (Client: but it's only for the Internet?) it is essentially impossible to find out who to pay. And this is after numerous calls to various authorities, no one actually seems to have a clear policy or understanding of copyright as it pertains to the web.
There really needs to be a one stop shop to pay for licensing, it's tough enough explaining to people why they need to pay fees to APRA/AMCOS as well as the PPCA. Plus, if you work in video, there are all sorts of other licensing fees too.
I honestly think it's beyond most peoples understaning, so they ignore it, and the people who try and "do he right thing" are seen as overly expensive and complicated at best, and ripping off your clients at worst.
- smash
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- Location: Northern Beaches, Sydney
by musikwerks » Sat May 29, 2010 11:48 am
I know this is slightly different to the original post but thought it worth noting anyway...
We have a reality TV series that is being sold to the USA at the moment. We use library production music from a couple of companies. Two of the companies we have purchased a worldwide blanket license to use whatever we like, wherever we like, but the 3rd company we don't have that arrangement with, we just payed for AUS/NZ broadcast rights. Unfortunately, no one thought we would sell the show overseas so on Series two we had a problem. We had paid for Aus/NZ rights through APRA which was a very reasonable $600 or so dollars per one hour show. But to expand that to the world would cost $4k per episode. Still, not a bad price for worldwide rights to over 50 tracks per show. But times that by 8 episodes and it becomes a possible deal breaker.
Anyway, as it turns out, APRA did us a deal and we got USA rights for a good price. Their reasoning being that the library will still make money from actual broadcast royalties when the show is played, payable by the network in the US and, what I thought was pretty cool on APRA's behalf, was that they said they would rather we kept Australian made music in the show. (The other two libraries are UK based). As it was, we were looking at taking those tracks out. So everybody won at the end of the day and the sale was able to go ahead.
What I am seeing more and more is that yes, you need to license any music you use but the rights holders are very open to doing deals. They know that each time their work gets aired, that's a payment to them... so they're willing to forgo or reduce the initial buy-in price in favour of residuals that could well earn them money decades down the line via syndication. It's actually a very easy process to go through. Our contact at APRA is a really nice guy and is great to work with. Plus he really likes our show so that helps too I'm sure!
When it comes to corporate video production, no pay, no play. The client has to pay or they don't get the music. It's included in all budget correspondence and is not negotiable. Simple as that.
Smash, PPCA is for retailers, like Gyms, Cafe's etc, places that play background music. APRA are the people you should be dealing with.
For anyone needing licensing advice, APRA have comprehensive info here:
http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/musicconsu ... needs.aspx
We have a reality TV series that is being sold to the USA at the moment. We use library production music from a couple of companies. Two of the companies we have purchased a worldwide blanket license to use whatever we like, wherever we like, but the 3rd company we don't have that arrangement with, we just payed for AUS/NZ broadcast rights. Unfortunately, no one thought we would sell the show overseas so on Series two we had a problem. We had paid for Aus/NZ rights through APRA which was a very reasonable $600 or so dollars per one hour show. But to expand that to the world would cost $4k per episode. Still, not a bad price for worldwide rights to over 50 tracks per show. But times that by 8 episodes and it becomes a possible deal breaker.
Anyway, as it turns out, APRA did us a deal and we got USA rights for a good price. Their reasoning being that the library will still make money from actual broadcast royalties when the show is played, payable by the network in the US and, what I thought was pretty cool on APRA's behalf, was that they said they would rather we kept Australian made music in the show. (The other two libraries are UK based). As it was, we were looking at taking those tracks out. So everybody won at the end of the day and the sale was able to go ahead.
What I am seeing more and more is that yes, you need to license any music you use but the rights holders are very open to doing deals. They know that each time their work gets aired, that's a payment to them... so they're willing to forgo or reduce the initial buy-in price in favour of residuals that could well earn them money decades down the line via syndication. It's actually a very easy process to go through. Our contact at APRA is a really nice guy and is great to work with. Plus he really likes our show so that helps too I'm sure!
When it comes to corporate video production, no pay, no play. The client has to pay or they don't get the music. It's included in all budget correspondence and is not negotiable. Simple as that.
Smash, PPCA is for retailers, like Gyms, Cafe's etc, places that play background music. APRA are the people you should be dealing with.
For anyone needing licensing advice, APRA have comprehensive info here:
http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/musicconsu ... needs.aspx
Kristian Anderson
- musikwerks
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