This thread is for the posting of relevant information about copyright law and how it applies to IL-2 movie productions.

Please post any links to relevant explanations of copyright law, or how to obtain rights to pieces of music, or whatever, and other relevant things.

But please, no opinions, only facts as they are known (i.e. give a reference to the information, either a website or reference book, or something).

S!

In the UK you must be registered with the MCPS, registration allows you to obtain rights to music, becoming a full member allows you to register your work. Once your work is registered the MCPS will collect and send you royalties earned from it.

The MCPS is a complete one stop shop for all music copyrights. Every company from the largest film producers to TV companies and amateurs like ourselve use the MCPS.

All relevent information about every aspect of music copyright, obtaining permission, registering your own work ect. is on their website.

http://www.mcps.co.uk/

Of course this is only for the UK, but all countries have the equivelant organisation for licencing music.

I discussed this topic with an intellectual property attorney and a few others in the gaming industry (see the link to our discussions below). They said anything that is copyrighted by another cannot be used without permission, even if you are not profiting financially from the use. To do so is a breach of copyright.

However, the attorney felt that the most likely course of action a copyright holder would take against you for using copyrighted material in a film would be a cease-and-desist letter. If you did not comply (by making your film unavailable to the public), then the next step would be a lawsuit. To my knowledge, nobody in this community has ever received such a letter, so it doesn't appear people here are attracting too much attention.

Here is a link to our discussions. It starts with the first post by "Filmmaker."

http://www.igda.org/Forums/showthread.php?s=2531efc631c...stid=90943#post90943

Here are some other sites on this topic:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Over.../chapter9/9-b.html#3

http://www.copyright.gov

http://www.licensemusic.com

http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/copyright.html

http://www.benedict.com/Info/Law/Notice.aspx

http://www.creativecommons.org

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/backgrounddocs/copyrightterm.pdf

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GL2,

This is a question, If I use say photoshop or maybe bryce 5, 3d Max, lightwave to make something why don't those companys want a piece of my action? What is different about v-Games?

I asked about a month ago, how much it costs in the UK for copyright permission on a piece of music and it was about 50 pounds. That was before I told him about the piece going on the web, at which point he gave me a slow-punctured tyre impression and told me that 'it will be judged on a case by case'.

p.s. Newbie here, but how do you guys get your pictures by your name?

Doesn't anybody know the answer to my earlier question?
snatchio ,As for music copyrights, I have a lot of them and I can tell you it is very simple.
# 1. always copyrights your music in the United States. Most of the western world will honor the copyright. #2. it is $30.00 per form .If you have say 10 songs and all the info on the forms are the same for all 10 songs you can put them all on one form ( Form PA) and only pay $30.00 for all 10 songs.

quote:

This is a question, If I use say photoshop or maybe bryce 5, 3d Max, lightwave to make something why don't those companys want a piece of my action? What is different about v-Games?

If you bought the software, you will have a license to use it to make commercial work.

The exception is if you have a educational-only license. Some software you can get cheap educational-only copies, but you can't sell work you made with them. Or such is my understanding.

Here's my view on the whole subject...

As long as you distribute the content created with these tools freely and you don't make any money off of it, you should feel safe from any legal liabilities.

Hello, sorry for my bother. But i am working on a project of my own. Called ''Ghostly Apperance'' And is quite interesting. I my self, don't have the tools,to edit this film.If enyone would like to help upinfection@hotmail.com

CopyRight Pylon Films, & Keenum Films, with Aø Motion Picture Events®

Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by Alexandrian:
Here's my view on the whole subject...

As long as you distribute the content created with these tools freely and you don't make any money off of it, you should feel safe from any legal liabilities.

Then by that logic I can purchase music and movies, make all the copies I want and just give them away, but I do know that if I did such I would be in big trouble with the entertainment industry for distributing copyrighted material without permission. It is permissible to make a copy for personal use only, not for distribution, regardless of money. Technically speaking, if you add a music score to your own video and then distribute that video, you need to have permission to use the music.

More often then not you get a cease and desist letter telling you to take down the video or stop doing whatever your doing, it isn't logical for a record company to go after every person on the net that uses their music it would cut into their profits entirely too much and they would most certainly go bankrupt. As it is now they are attacking youtube for allowing copyrighted material on their site, but all they are doing is sending out cease and desist letters to the users. Movies are another deal, I wouldn't recommend using clips from movies on any movie you create unless you own the appropriate copyright for it, because this is handled by the MPAA and they pretty much go for anyone for anything...Music is handled by the RIAA (These two are for the states, don't know what it is in other countries). Most often than not your okay using music in a film, but take it down if you get a letter or legal action can be taken against you, clips from movies probably not a good idea you won't necassarily be taken to court but you will have a heart ache to deal with. As far as sources go check out the yearly earnings for any given big company and then figure out how much a good million court cases would cost.

My view on copyright is that its a dog-eat-dog world and they can kiss my ass. If they think i pay any attention to copyright, they're feckin' wrong!!!

this post is ©2007 Richy...