Use of music for Hidden Earth AV's

4bags

New member
Can anyone give any advice or guidance on the use of music tracks with AV's for Hidden Earth presentations, with regards to copyright law?

Thanks, Neil
 

Les W

Active member
Copyright law requires that you have permission of the author to use music for public presentation.

However, Hidden Earth has a license to use copyright music for presentations we have commisioned, so, obviously, we must have comissiond your presentation.  :-\

If this is for the video salon then You ought to check the rules as there used to be a rule forbiding copyright music, although that may have been relaxed as it predated our license. If not you may get marked down for using copyright music.
 
Les W said:
Copyright law requires that you have permission of the author to use music for public presentation.

However, Hidden Earth has a license to use copyright music for presentations we have commisioned, so, obviously, we must have comissiond your presentation.

That is not strictly true, Les.  Hidden Earth has only "commissioned" the opening and closing videos. But, regardless of the semantics of that, the rules of the Video Salon are as follows...

The authors should not include any pictorial or sound material for which they do not either hold the copyright or have the
express permission of the copyright holder. Entries that do not meet this stipulation will be disqualified.


"Express Permission" means "something definite in writing" but you should note that this permission can, in fact,  be granted via a performing rights licence rather than your actually contacting the copyright owner personally. (That point does, perhaps need making clear in the documentation). It is quite cheap and straightforward to purchase a licence.  You have plenty of time to do this before Hidden Earth!.

The salient point is not one of "scope of the Hidden Earth licence" (as I think Les was hinting) but is one of recognising author's rights, and comes from the point of view that if youre entering a competition and are likely to win a prize, then we would like to see some demonstration that  you have thought about other people's copyright and have taken the trouble to obtain clearance. Its all part of the process of making a video film.

There is a bit of a difficult area when someone who has been commissioned by us  to produce the opening or closing video decides to enter it in the competition and has not obtained their own clearances. All I can really say is that the judges are aware of these particular circumstances and that a certain amount of leeway has to be allowed for in this special case. But for the rest of you - you should, please, obtain the necessary clearances.

David Gibson, Video Competition Co-ordinator.

 
4bags said:
Can anyone give any advice or guidance on the use of music tracks with AV's for Hidden Earth presentations, with regards to copyright law?

OK. After posting that reply to Les, Ive got around to formulating the following "guideline" which is now on the web site.

Copyright Clearance. The Video Salon rules state that you should not include any pictorial or sound material for which you do not either hold the copyright or have the express permission of the copyright holder. As a  clarification to  this, please note that you do not have to locate each copyright owner and ask them individually - you can, instead, pay a fee to one of the copyright licensing bodies. (The rule will be re-worded for 2012 to make this clearer). The reason we ask you to seek your own copyright clearance is because we feel that it is an important part of making a video film - you are making copies of other people's works; and you probably wont only be showing your video at Hidden Earth.

Perhaps the simplest method of obtaining copyright clearance is for you to become a member of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers and then to purchase (at a very low cost) a licence that they supply to their members, which will allow you to record and copy music as well as to play it in public. For information, see the web page on their Copyright Clearance Scheme.

If you are in the exceptional position of having been commissioned by Hidden Earth to produce a video or AV for the opening or closing ceremony then Hidden Earth's site licence will cover the performance of your material only. Strictly speaking, you should still obtain clearance for any copying that you do. If you are in this position and you wish to submit your video to the Video Salon, please contact us to discuss its copyright clearance.

David Gibson - Video Salon co-ordinator
 
4bags said:
Can anyone give any advice or guidance on the use of music tracks with AV's for Hidden Earth presentations, with regards to copyright law?

Oh. Just noticed - youre asking about Presentations, not the Video Salon. I was confused because your question was drawn to my attention at the same time as one about the video salon.  My remit is the Video Salon - in which we would like to encourage a certain attitude towards copyright clearance. As you are asking about something else entirely, you should disregard what I said.
 

4bags

New member
Thanks all - I managed to catch up with Les in the Hunter's, and he explained how it works. Dave - glad I at least prompted a train of though for you!  (y)

Cheers,
Neil
 
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