What Are The Copyright Laws Regarding The Use Of An Artist’s Music?
Posted by Copyright Law Enquirer on July 13th, 2009 at 10:26am
One of my facebook videos was recently removed because I used the song, “December” as my background music. I have other videos where I used copyrighted background music, but none of them have been removed. What is the copyright law regarding background music for a movie? How long of a clip can I use before it becomes infringement?
Under music copyright
1 Comment for What Are The Copyright Laws Regarding The Use Of An Artist’s Music?
1. ron_mexi | July 13th, 2009 at 10:47 am
The basic rule is simple: you cannot use another’s copyrighted content without permission. Keep in mind that enforcement of copyright is not automatic. In most cases, the copyright owner has to take proactive steps (e.g., a DMCA takedown request) in order to have infringing content removed. So you have may instances in the past where the copyright owner did not take these steps so your infringing content was not removed.
There are no rules for the amount of content you can use to be considered “fair use.” As little as a few seconds has been found by at least one court to be infringing. As a very rough rule, if you play enough of a clip where the song can be identified, I would argue that such a clip is likely infringing.
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