is it illegal to use an artist's music as background music?

Question

like, say you wanted to make a video and you want to use music from an artist or band as a background music. Is that illegal under copyright laws?

ok based on answers let me get this straight.. do you mean to tell me that people who made home videos to Disney World then used an artist's song as background music commited the crime after uploading it on youtube? LOTS of people are using home videos which is legal but they are using an artist's song as background music on youtube which is illegal. So LOTS of people commited the crime, right? Like millions of them?

Answer 1

If you use copyrighted music without permission in the form of a license you are both breaking the law and acting unethically. Musicians create works and deserve to get paid for their labor just like anyone else.

To take their music without paying is stealing.

Would you think it's legal to take bread from a baker without paying just to provide background energy? Not.

Answer 2

Mark has the Right of it. Copyright Laws only come into play under two circujmstances:

1. Commercial Use. If you are making money from a film, video or cover version, You owe the artist Royalties. That applies not only to the whole song, but to sampling as well. James Brown successfully sued several rap artists for using his songs as background to their own work without paying royalties.

2. Non-attribution. Non commercial use of copyrighted material that fails to acknowledge to copyright can weaken the copyright and enough of it can force copyrighted material into the Public Domain. So, even if you use a song as background for a video of you doing stupid human tricks that is only for Youtube, you have to use a copyright disclaimer or you can be sued.

My favorite disclaimer comes from Fandom. "Star Trek, its characters and music are the Copyright Property of Universal Pictures and are used without their knowledge."

Answer 3

If the track is from a CD, you can use up to 10% or 30 seconds of a track (which ever is less) for non-profit, "educational" situations, say if it was for a short film for a video production course. If you need more than that, then you require both a Usage License from the copyright holder and a Master Use license from the performer.

• Permission or a licence from the record company that controls the copyright in the sound recordings (contact the Licensing Department of the relevant record company); and
• A licence from AMCOS for the reproduction of the music. Generally, AMCOS will offer a “blanket” licence which allows you to be covered for all reproduction of musical and literary works for certain purposes.
Hopefully that helps...

Answer 4

You can get into interesting gray areas on this, many of which are being argued in ongoing cases in courts of law. Certainly, you cannot use such copyrighted material for anything that can generate a profit for you without having properly licensed such use of the material. Other uses may still be very gray - if you own a record or CD of such music, there is no restriction on you playing it for entertainment of friends in your own home, but what if you have a LOT of your friends at a public place, like some sort of meeting facility, that no charge is being made for their presence? The facility is probably making money, which COULD be based on the presence of the music? This is where the lawyers make their money arguing about such fine divisions.

Answer 5

NO. It is not illegal to use an artist's music for your homemade video. But, it becomes ILLEGAL if you sell that video to people. Just saying, if you want to see the video, you have to have permission to use the identity of the people in the video and you have to get permission from the company that produced that artist's song(s). But if you're not selling it, its not illegal because its just for yourself. It's ok if you put it on youtube or google video or something like that.

Answer 6

It is illegal if you do not pay the statutory royalties for using it.

Copyright laws have provisions that grant an automatic license for use of certain music IF you pay the royalties.

Using the music without paying the required royalties, and without a license, is illegal as copyright infringement.

The exception is if the music is old enough that it is no longer under copyright. To be safe, that means over 100 years old.

Answer 7

Well basically ur conclusion should have ur thesis in it, i personally would put: All in all downloading music from the internet for free is a crime, a crime that can have an unexpected lawsuit attached.... and then just summarize your body paragraphs for the last 3 - 5 sentences

Answer 8

Yes, it's illegal. Unless you ask permission and pay the owner of the song for 'loaning' you the tune.

Answer 9

In a nut shell:

Personal, non-commerical, education.

Answer 10

long as you don't make money off it you should be fine people do it on you tube all the time