Stream or not to stream...

[cdplayeron]

I am taking over a website belonging to a camera club. They want to view small AVIs that are produced by members of their camera club on line. These AVIs are created using software such as Pro Show Gold.

The music use is copyrighted by the maker(s). For the most part since the AVIs are shown at the club, no one's making money off of them nor are they circulated I guess for the most part this is okay.

My question is will the camera club run into any legal problems if they want to stream these types of videos via the web?

Is this question for another mailing list? If so, what mailing list should I visit?

Thanks!

[Mattress]

just ask for permission from the author's of the AVIs. You said they were camera club members, shouldn't be too hard to ask. They will probably say yes.

[S-uper_T-oast]

I think he was more worried about the music in the AVI's instead of the AVI's themselves.

[Mattress]

he said the music is copyrighted by the makers, which I took to mean the makers of the AVIs. Perhaps I was mistaken.

If there is copyrighted music in the movies that probably won't be a problem, so long as it's not like full songs and the purpose of the movie is to distribute the music. This would probably be considered a derivative work and you aren't making money from these movies either .

[cdplayeron]

Originally posted by Mattress
he said the music is copyrighted by the makers, which I took to mean the makers of the AVIs. Perhaps I was mistaken.

If there is copyrighted music in the movies that probably won't be a problem, so long as it's not like full songs and the purpose of the movie is to distribute the music. This would probably be considered a derivative work and you aren't making money from these movies either .

Thanks Mattress!

I am talking about the music they use with their images. The music they pick goes along with their images used and the mood they want to project. So the music could be any body's. Not their's .

[cdplayeron]

Originally posted by S-uper_T-oast
I think he was more worried about the music in the AVI's instead of the AVI's themselves.

Correct!

[rockouthippie]

Originally posted by cdplayeron
Thanks Mattress!

I am talking about the music they use with their images. The music they pick goes along with their images used and the mood they want to project. So the music could be any body's. Not their's .

So, you are talking about broadcasting full tracks or large sections of music tracks. Not legal. Also, you don't have a synchronization right, which would allow you to synchronize video with music. Also illegal without permission.

The only legal way is if you have the permissions of musicians that have donated (or you've paid them) for original work. That means it's a song they wrote and played. For example, they can't be playing a Rolling Stones tune.

Find, the ascap, bmi, sesac and government copyright websites for more information. Some explicitly public domain (license free) music is available from archive.org, although it's mostly synth mixes.

If you search at brainwagon.org, you'll find about 300 license free classical music tracks. Enter "classical music" or something and you should find it.

It's kinda hard to stay legal, but I would err on the side of caution, because the laws are so punitive and ridiculous.

[Mattress]

chances of being noticed and procecuted are pretty much nil, however.

[rockouthippie]

When these guys can sue you for everything you will ever own ... and win .... because you shared some music on the web, I'd pay attention to the law.