Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Pennsylvania
Question on Distributing a DVD
A group of friends and me have made a feature length film. We have full rights to the movie and everything, and we cleared it all out to sell to a limited audience. However, we wanted to include a short film we made last year on the DVD we�re selling. This short movie uses music from Disney�s �National Treasure� and we were just going to include it as a free bonus, not included in the price of the feature length film. We were wondering if it was legal to sell the movie for profit, but include the old movie as a bonus.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Question on Distributing a DVD
You asked about clearance rights to movie music.
In the specific circumstance you described: The answer is NO.
Contact a lawyer and s/he can help you obtain the clearances you need. There is plenty of music available with public rights, or cheap rights, that may be used rather than a piece that must be cleared.
Regards,
Roger