13 second songs

[Russell Moore]

Someone told me you could use 13 seconds of any song in a film, past or current and you could do so without paying a cent.
I find this kind of hard to believe.

Does anyone know how valid that is?

 

[Steve House]

Someone told me you could use 13 seconds of any song in a film, past or current and you could do so without paying a cent.
I find this kind of hard to believe.

Does anyone know how valid that is?

Completely false. If it's copyright - and 99.99% of anything you'll find recorded will be - you need permission for any use at all, no matter how brief, unless your intended usage falls within the quite narrow definition of 'fair use.'

 

[SMuir]

All intellectual property that is not in the Public Domain is protected in some way by copyright law. The person who told you that a 13 second music clip is automatically considered "fair use" has been misinformed, and you should probably bring that to their attention. Acting on that kind of copyright myth can open a filmmaker up to some rather nasty legal action.

Consider this: plenty of sound effects and production music pieces are shorter than 13 seconds, yet are protected under copyright law.

Here's a link that should straighten you out on the topic of "fair use" ("fair dealing" here in Canada): http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/backgrounddocs/bestpractices.pdf

Unfortunately, "fair use" is a legal gray area, and these "best practices" are no guarantee that you'll be safe from legal action. However, some "errors and omissions" insurrance providers now recognize that particular list of "best practices," which we can take as a tacit endorsement of a kind.

For a broader examination of "fair use" principals, take a look at Eric Faden's short film "A Fair Use Tale" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo

 

[Russell Moore]

I had my doubts about the information (it just didn't make sense to me) and I knew this would be the place to get the answer.
Thanks for all the info, I appreciate it.