Legalization of Music / Copyright Information

Subject: Legalizing music

Dear All
As I have been struggling with this for some years I have gleaned some knowledge which I would like to share with all of you.

In the Harmony E Note - the March issue of this year - there is the third in a series of articles by Nancy Foris who is HI's recording coordinator. Please read this! (And the first two in her series as well - see links below.)

Also, on the HI website under Education there is a section called Copyright. This contains two pieces of important information; one is the copyright test and the other is the document full of information about the latest copyright data. PLEASE READ THIS. It refers to several other websites for information including the BHS website from which most of this information was taken. Go there and check it out. I would also suggest that you delegate one member from each chorus to attend the copyright class being given this year at ACC by Sara Stone.

Each chorus should have at least one resource person (preferably the music librarian but whomever is willing is good) who is able to deal with these issues.

As a subset of this, I know that some of you also order learning tapes from other sources. You may not realize it but in order to distribute these tapes/CDs/MP3s to your chorus you also need something called a mechanical license. The information on the above websites refers to the American way to do this. I contacted Nancy Forris last year for the Canadian route.

Here is that information.

http://www.cdmanufacturing.ca/newheader/documents/mechanicals.pdf
The rules are a little different for Canada, and I think they're to your benefit.

The CMRRA is the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Limited (!). You can access forms from their site and all the information you need to get a licence. This allows you to make up to 500 copies (!) of your audio file for about $40 a time. (price has just changed).

If you have any questions let me know and I will pass you on to whomever has the correct information if I don't know it already myself.

Good luck and thank you for pursuing this - it is very important for us to legalize all of our music!

Cheers

Jane Risley
Area 1 ACJ

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IMPORTANT LINKS REGARDING THE LEGALIZING OF MUSIC

• From Harmony, Inc.
  • Harmony, Inc.: Copyright Information
     
• Section 10 from the Corporate Manual (Pages 13-18)
  This has explicit information about learning tapes
  (If a Quartet in your Chapter makes a learning tape and distributes it to all members in your Chapter you do need a mechanical license — see Jane's letter above for information on how to obtain a mechanical license. There are work-arounds, however; see page 16 in Section 10 from the HI Corporate Manual.
   
  
• Copyright Basics for the Barbershopper
   
• Copyright Test
   
• Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (Mechanical Reproduction)
   
• Information on Copyright from Barbershop Harmony Society
   
• Proof of Copyright for Competition (BHS)
   
• Providing Proof for Copyright Clearance for Competition
  This is the same article as the above item on the BHS website
   
• Articles by Nancy Foris (Recording Coordinator - Harmony, Inc.)
  • Legal Music: Licensing—To Whom Should We Turn?
     
  • To Whom Should We Turn—Or How Do We Know If It Is Legal?
    (Also available at http://www.harmonyinc.org/docs/Resources/MusicLegalities.pdf)
     
  • To Whom Should We Turn?
     
• Other Useful Links
  • www.ascap.com – American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Very good website for title searches to find who owns the rights to a particular song.
     
    
  • www.barbershop.org – Copyright basics for Barbershoppers
    Gain some basic knowledge about copyright, including some examples specific to Barbershoppers.
     
    
  • www.bmi.com – BMI represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers. Their search engine will also assist you in securing the copyright owner of a song.
     
    
  • www.copyright.gov – Copyright Office of the United States provides information about copyright protection and the laws pertaining to the topic.
     
    
  • www.harryfox.com – Harry Fox Agency Excellent source for information related to royalties for recording CDs. It includes searchable databases of songs and publishers for confirming copyright owners.
     
    
  • www.pdinfo.com – Public Domain Information This website explains the conditions when a song would become public domain and lists about 3500 PD songs.

 

 

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