Musical Usage

Im going to a (High School) State competition and I am in the Film Technology portion of it. I have made a fan film that uses William's Music. It says I need permission to use copyrighted material. Would owning the CD's be enough permission for this? I am unfamiliar with musical usage rights. Thanks

 

Well, the copyright laws and "fair use" can get a little complicated. If you are using a short clip in a school project, and it is not being sold or distributed, you are probably alright. You should check the rules of the competition, though, to see if they have any restrictions.

 

They said I need written permission. How would I go about getting that?

 

Use and performances are usually liscensed by BMI or ASCAP.

 

You might also want to check out the 'Fan Films' board under Fan Activities. Not only do they usually have this kind of info, there is a specific 'Legal questions involving fanfilms' thread designed to answer this type of question specifically.

 

You can get the rights to use it, but it might be a little difficult and cost you a bit. I know for a fact that simply having the CD isn't enough to have performance rights also. It's like movies where they allow you to have it for private use, but any mass showing is against the copyright. If you want, you can check BMI's licencing...Williams is part of BMI, not ASCAP. I don't think you can be with both. it's one or the other. He has all of his music with BMI.

John Williams has a profile there for everything. Search here. He's listed under WILLIAMS JOHN T, as SONGWRITER/COMPOSER, not artist.(you might have to click on some agreement first.) I'd give you a link directly to it, but the address is too long to work right on markups.

He has 3185 works under BMI. All of the Star Wars cues and basically every movie cue and every little TV spot he ever wrote. Hope this helps you.

~JW

 

Thanks, JW. I checked BMI's site quickly yesterday, but I didn't have time to search through their site for specific listings.