Hi,
I'm putting together a quiz for charity on behalf of a business and was wondering whether I could use 5 seconds of a song mixed in with 20 other 5 second bites of other songs without infringing any copyright laws?
If there are any rules would you be able to tell me any ways in which I could protect myself and still carry it out.
Thanks in advance
Copyright of Sound Bites
Hi macca,
I assume that this would involve you re-recording the snippets you wish to include, in which case that might amount to infringement of the sound recording, although clearly your motive is well meaning and trivial by comparison with the pirating of sound recordings which is the bane of the industry.
While a new exception to copyright law has been enacted to allow the private copying of legally owned recorded music etc for the purposes of format shifting (eg from CD to MP3 etc) this only applies for private use and where the use is not directly or indirectly commercial in nature. On that basis I don't think it would cover you.
Even though 5 second bursts seems pretty short, samples much shorter than this have been found to infringe in a number of court cases, so again I don't think that what you want to do could qualify as insubstantial, and therefore not infringing.
I suggest you give Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) a call. They are the copyright collecting society which can issue licences for using recorded music in public and they should be able to advise you. Given that they provide discounted licences for charity shops which wish play music, I would hope that they could issue you with a waiver or perhaps charge a nominal amount for a licence. They should also be able to advise you on whether it is necessary to contact the other main copyright collecting society known as PRSfor Music, because technically speaking you may be infringing the so-called mechanical rights (by making a copy of a sound recording) which this second organisation is responsible for. In the unlikely event that you do need a joint licence, the most appropriate one would seem to be the Limited Manufacture (LM) one, the rates for which can be found at the bottom of this page.
I assume that this would involve you re-recording the snippets you wish to include, in which case that might amount to infringement of the sound recording, although clearly your motive is well meaning and trivial by comparison with the pirating of sound recordings which is the bane of the industry.
While a new exception to copyright law has been enacted to allow the private copying of legally owned recorded music etc for the purposes of format shifting (eg from CD to MP3 etc) this only applies for private use and where the use is not directly or indirectly commercial in nature. On that basis I don't think it would cover you.
Even though 5 second bursts seems pretty short, samples much shorter than this have been found to infringe in a number of court cases, so again I don't think that what you want to do could qualify as insubstantial, and therefore not infringing.
I suggest you give Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) a call. They are the copyright collecting society which can issue licences for using recorded music in public and they should be able to advise you. Given that they provide discounted licences for charity shops which wish play music, I would hope that they could issue you with a waiver or perhaps charge a nominal amount for a licence. They should also be able to advise you on whether it is necessary to contact the other main copyright collecting society known as PRSfor Music, because technically speaking you may be infringing the so-called mechanical rights (by making a copy of a sound recording) which this second organisation is responsible for. In the unlikely event that you do need a joint licence, the most appropriate one would seem to be the Limited Manufacture (LM) one, the rates for which can be found at the bottom of this page.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007