Response to inquiry about legal recordings for performers

Keith,

First, if the choir performed in public, it should have had a public performance license to cover the performance of the songs - unless the songs are in the public domain (i.e., the copyright in the songs has expired). If the venue was a concert hall or similar establishment where music is frequently performed, it's likely that the concert hall has the public performance licenses
(which it obtained from one of the performing rights
organizations - ASCAP, BMI and SESAC) necessary for the songs performed by your choir.

To make copies of and distribute the choir's recorded performance of the songs, you need a mechanical license - unless the songs are in the public domain. The Harry Fox Agency is authorized to issue mechanical licenses on behalf of more than 20,000 music publishers. Hopefully the songs recorded by the choir are in Harry Fox's catalog. That will make it very easy for you to obtain a mechanical license. You can find the Harry Fox mechanical license request form online at http://www.nmpa.org/hfa/mechanical.html. The minimum number of copies for which Harry Fox
will issue a license is 500 so your minimum license fee will be $40 (i.e., 500 copies X .08 which is the statutory mechanical license rate = $40).

To read a brief article that I have written on public performance, mechanical and other licenses associated with music publishing, visit
http://www.GuideThroughtheLegalJungle.com/resource.htm The article is called "Music Publishing: How Your Songwriting Generates Income".

Best Regards,
Joy Butler

Law Office of Joy R. Butler
Entertainment, Intellectual Property & Business Law 1717 K Street, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 309-2656/Fax: (202) 478-0386

E-mail: info[_at_]joybutler.com
Website: http://www.joybutler.com

Sashay Communications, LLC
Audiobooks, Newsletter & Resources on Entertainment Law http://www.SashayCommunications.com

Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 17:00:17 -0400
Message-ID: <redirect-1540552[_at_]cni.org>
From: "Keith Rutkowski" <krutkows[_at_]nmu.edu> Subject: [CNI-(C)] Legal recordings for performers

Recently a choir that I am a member of performed, free to the public,
various written works that are copyrighted. The choir director recorded the
performance, but is now reluctant to make any personal copies for the choir
members because of copyright concerns from the material performed. Are we
allowed only to have one recording for the choir as a whole, or is it also
legal for each choir member to have a copy of the recording they performed
in? Or putting it another way, what methods of distributing the choirs
recorded performance to its members, if any, are legal? Thank you for any
assistance you could give me on this issue.

Keith Rutkowski Received on Thu Oct 16 2003 - 00:11:01 GMT