Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Arizona
Lip Sync Copywrite Law
We recently produced a lip sync concert at our school. We video taped it and sold tapes to parents. Our school tech person is saying we need to go and buy each piece of music the kids used to make it leagal to sell the tapes. Is that so? Is there another way? For example, can we buy and download each song from ITunes and pay only .99 per song, versus $15 to $20 per cd? Your advice is appreciated.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Lip Sync Copywrite Law
Buying the music is not enough. You need to license the right to use the music. That is completely different from owning the copy of the song. You need to contact ASCAP and BMI if you are interested in doing this. They probably have a reduced educational rate.
Re: Lip Sync Copywrite Law
your tech person is correct. your school has committed copyright infringement (although this does not mean that you will automatically be sued for such a small infringement). You should read over the itunes agreement. There will likely be a clause that when you download music, it is for personal use and not for reproduction. Hope this helped, Justin