Copyright questions

[DMETxix]

It's not illegal if I use music from other people (I.E Brian Wilson etc) and have Puppets Lip sing to it and put it on the internet is it? Isn't ok as long I as I credit the musicians,album, and year and NOT make money off the video, and say that they have no affiliation with me? Or am I wrong?

Sharing, distributing, etc.. any content not of your own without express (written) permission by the original performer(s) would indeed be infringing on their copyright, unless otherwise stated in their legal mumbo-jumbo. Wether you make money with this or not, you are sharing their work, in an altered/edited state no less, which is violating several terms specified in the standard copyright notice. The original author might not even like your final product!

Then there's the thing concerning the medium you are copying it from, often it is the case that the song (composition, lyrics) is copyrighted to the author, but the performance recording itself is copyrighted by the producer, which is the toughest one to get permission for.

If giving credit was enough, there would be almost no point in having a copyright, since anyone can use anyone's material and share it with the world. (i.e. sharing your entire movie collection on the web as long as you give credit.)

In a nutshell: It is illegal to use any form of media on the internet that you have not paid royalty fees for or purchased the right to.

Forgive me if I made any mistakes in the above posting, but I believe that this is correct. I'd recommend searching for royalty-free music or contacting composers directly to see if anything can be arranged.

 

[gfarkwort]

Thanks DMETxix for correcting me I was thrown off by this other guy who animated a song and then just gave credit....so thats ok I storyboarded what I did So I'll see if I can contact the muscians/producers
Thanks

 

[Jinx]

Yes, these issues are indeed deep and wide! My brother is signed to a recording label, and every time he performs one of the songs that he himself wrote he has to pay a royalty!

Think of it this way; if your were to go and take your groceries from the store without paying for them, but you told everyone where you got them this would certainly not suffice for the grocer.

It's the same for a songwriter. If you merely acknowledge the authorship of the songwriter, it's not going to pay his bills!