Blog Archives
Sweetwater Minute (part 2) – featuring John F. Bradley
Check out part 2 of the interview between Sweetwater Music’s Editorial Director, Mitch Gallagher, and lead attorney of the Bradley Legal Group, P.A., John Bradley, as they discuss various critical aspects of music copyright law. They cover the basics of publishing and protecting your music, as well as how to properly license music and samples [...]
Sweetwater Minute, featuring John F. Bradley
Check out this interview between Sweetwater Music’s Editorial Director, Mitch Gallagher, and lead attorney of the Bradley Legal Group, P.A., John Bradley, as they discuss various critical aspects of music copyright law. They cover the basics of publishing and protecting your music, as well as how to properly license music and samples so you can [...]
Marilyn Monroe losses major Rights of Publicity litigation
Last month, the estate of Marilyn Monroe lost a major court case in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California in regards to the late actresses’ post-mortem rights as to her name, image, and likeness. As you may be aware, Marilyn Monroe is still extremely popular in modern culture and her estate [...]
Single versus Compilation Copyright Filings
Filing a copyright is easy if you know what you are doing. Registration is accessible online via the United States Copyright Office, and currently the online filing fee is $35.00 USD for most works. For an introductory level discussion on this matter, there are two primary ways you can register: as a bulk compilation or [...]
What is a compulsory music license?
In the United States, Congress has enacted provisions to the Copyright Act which allows anyone to obtain a license to reproduce publicly distributed musical compositions without the consent of the Copyright holder. This is what is known as a compulsory mechanical license. The key words here are without the consent. A potential licensee does have [...]
Digital Music: Sale or License?
Historically, musicians have entered into recording contracts with record labels for the sale of music and publishing agreements with publishers for the licensing of music. When recordings are sold, musicians receive a percentage of the sale, and when a song is published, i.e. placed in a movie, tv commercial, etc, a musician receives a percentage [...]
Qualifying for DMCA Safe Harbor Protection
Much has been said recently about the qualifications of a website receiving “safe harbor” protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Receiving this protection is vital for any start up user generated content website, because the typical layout for this type of website is that a user uploads the content where the user may upload [...]
Problems with Jurisdiction of Copyright Infringement
As everyone is aware, significant challenges face copyright holders in enforcing their rights against infringers. There are not just a multitude of technological problems locating servers of those who host infringing material, there are a multitude of problems in bringing those who run the servers into Court. A copyright holder may be located in the [...]
Rights of Publicity and Privacy on the Internet
Let’s think of a hypothetical situation. Artist makes a hilarious video of himself jumping off a roof onto a trampoline, and then gets stuck in a tree. It becomes a sensation on the Internet, getting millions of views on YouTube, and shown on popular programs such as Tosh.0 and The Soup. Artist gains a bit [...]
Developments in Copyright Infringement and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Today’s blog is about a recent legal dispute with a content provider. Veoh is a website similar to YouTube, as it allows users to freely upload video content. Often times, users upload material that is copyright protected property of another individual or entity. Some examples could be background music in a video or clips of [...]