Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

;Legally, the download of a song from iTunes (or the purchase of a CD, etc.) only allows you to play the song as a stand-alone musical work, for personal purposes.

Incorporating a song into a video requires two (2) different kinds of licenses. (There are actually two copyrights here, and they may be owned by different parties).

The first, called a "synchronization license" deals with the 'musical composition' , the songwriter's work, and is usually administered by the songwriter's music publisher.

The second, called a "master use" license, deals with the recorded embodiment of the composition, the recording artist's work, and is administered by the record company.

Neither of these licenses is automatically included when you purchase a download or CD. It's necessary to negotiate directly with the companies that own/control these copyrights. Fees for such uses can vary widely depending on the song, the artist, etc.

For such a small number of DVDs, it may be prohibitive to do this. For this reason, many wedding videographers either use so-called "royalty free" music (search the web for such material), or just don't bother to obtain licenses, and take their chances that they won't be caught and sued by the copyright owners.

The monetary cost of such a gamble can easily reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially when you consider the expense of hiring a lawyer to defend a lawsuit. The risk of being caught is not just from physical copies being made by those you provide with DVDs, but also the chance that some portion (or all) of the video will make its way to the Web, on a site such as YouTube.

Finally, placing a copyright notice on your video (both outside and in the content itself) is a good idea, regardless.