What
You Need to Know about Copyrights for Your Next Meeting
An article on meeting planning and copyrights by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Look
out! You may be violating heavenly and earthly laws without
realizing it. That's the message of Al McCree of Musical Concepts,
Inc., a speaker, songwriter, and owner of Altissimo! Records.
"Some
speakers are using the intellectual property of others without
credit or compensation," warns McCree "This is a very poor
role model for everyone who comes to hear them."
McCree
says that many items commonly used by speakers may actually
belong to someone else. These include.
cartoons
photographs
videos
movie/TV
clips
audio-taped
interviews
music
written
material
signature
stories
logos/trademarks
overheads
other
proprietary materials
"You need
to make sure that you have permission to use anything that is
the intellectual property of a company or individual," McCree
warns. "This includes in handouts or publicity materials as
well as any visual or audio used during your presentation."
(All major newspapers, magazines, and book publishers have a
Permissions Department, but you rarely get a quick response.
Allow several months to complete the process.)
Using Music in Your Presentation
Music can add punch to your presentations, but be careful. "It
is unlawful to use someone's music at a public performance without
permission or license," McCree cautions. While there are many
types of music licenses, speakers are usually concerned with
four.
1. A performance license allows you to perform or play music
during a live presentation. Individual licenses may be obtained
directly from the publisher. Blanket licenses for a broad range
of songs can be obtained from ASCAP (800-952-7227) or BMI (800-925-8451).
ASCAP even has a license especially designed for speakers. Many
meeting planners will already have performance licenses that
will cover your presentation, so check with them first.
2. A synchronization license is required if you use music in
conjunction with another media such as slides or a video. This
license is obtained from the music publisher. For some songs,
this license may be very expensive or not available.
3. A mechanical license is necessary to reproduce or copy music
to tape. Under the law, the music publisher is required to give
you this license. The current royalty is 7.55¢ per song per
unit distributed, paid to the publisher. This license allows
you to reproduce your own production of a song, but it does
not give you the right to reproduce a CD or tape that you have
purchased commercially.
4. A master license. To duplicate a commercially purchased recording,
in addition to the mechanical license, you must obtain a so
called "master license" from the record label. Again, depending
on the song, this may be very expensive.
While a lot of older music -- like Bach and Beethoven -- is
in "public domain" and can be used freely without getting permission
from the composer, the issue is not always clear cut. For example,
some marches by John Philip Sousa are in public domain and some
are not. "I would recommend a copyright search through a competent
firm," says McCree. "Often a new arrangement of an old song
can put it put it outside the public domain exception. Many
people think songs like 'Happy Birthday' or 'Take Me Out to
the Ball Game' are in public domain, but they aren't."
Music licensing can be complex and confusing, McCree says, "but
with a little persistence you can at least determine if you
are using music legally."
"Appearance of Propriety"
"I also encourage speakers to tell the audience that they have
gotten permission to use copyrighted material," says McCree.
"Patricia Fripp does this routinely in her speeches and it adds
tremendously to her creditability.
"At a recent National Speakers Association Western Workshop,
a general session speaker used clips from 'The Tonight Show'
with Jay Leno. She had gotten permission from NBC, but, regrettably,
she didn't inform the audience of this. Many assumed she was
using the material illegally, which didn't help her reputation.
"A few people in the audience may have decided that using a
tape of a celebrity was such a good idea that they would do
the same thing. But how many of them will get appropriate permission?
Attendees, especially, first timers might conclude, 'I saw someone
else do it, so it must be okay.'
"If you commission materials for your presentations, be sure
to state this in your hand-outs, or say something like, 'I had
these cartoons created especially for me,' or 'I commissioned
these photographs just for this meeting.'
"All intellectual property laws are complicated, but problems
can easily be solved by seeking permission. In most cases, if
one honestly seeks permission, then even if the use is wrong,
there are rarely any legal implications.
"All a speaker has is his or her own intellectual property and
reputation," says Al McCree. "If you 'borrow' intellectual property
that doesn't belong to you, you give others permission to steal
from you. It's that age old thing called the Golden Rule."
(802
words) |
