How much music/singing can I get away with?

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princethomas

Member
I don't want to use any real music in my film, but I would like to have a guy say a couple lyrics.

My guy is jogging with his iPod. I'd like to have him grunt out a lyric or two periodically. How much can I get away with here?

-T
 
So make up a tune/lyrics that "sounds like" something familiar. As long it is your own invention (and not pilfered from something copyrighted) then you are completely safe.
 
Right, and thats what i have been planning to do. Just wondered if you can get away with something else. If its not really singing.
 
princethomas said:
Right, and thats what i have been planning to do. Just wondered if you can get away with something else. If its not really singing.
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Even if it's not really singing (i.e. no melody), the lyrics in their written sequence are also copyrighted. If it's readily identified, it treads on thin ice with copyright law.
 
As soon as it can be identified, you've gone too far. If it can't be identified, there's no point using it anyway.

Most likely you would never have legal issues for a few spoken lines, but it's good to be absolutely sure.
 
The intended goal of the project should dictate how much you care. If this is for family and friends, then who cares. If you think you're making a feature that will later pick up distribution, you'll need to have clearance done which will identify any infringements through the script and you'll have to remedy them BEFORE you finish or you'll not get distributed.
 
I'd go with the option of writing a line or two that sounds like it's out of a hit pop song, have the guy mumble/sort of sing it (Even a couple of catchy words with a little melody would do it), and people will just presume it's from a hit song they never heard, if your actor is convincing enough.

Also depending on the song, you could always try getting "sync" rights, which as far as I know gives you the right to use the actual composition, not the recording (aka the "master") This might be easier and far cheaper to get (especially for an indie film & just a few lines), but I'm not sure. Worth a shot I guess.
 
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I worked on a short a few years ago where the talent was doing the same thing - jogging with an iPod. They had him vocally "beat-box" - bom-chicka-bom", hitting the accents and fills, etc. - to a well known track, but I never could figure out which one it was until they told me.
 
ChrisHurn said:
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Also depending on the song, you could always try getting "sync" rights, which as far as I know gives you the right to use the actual composition, not the recording (aka the "master") This might be easier and far cheaper to get (especially for an indie film & just a few lines), but I'm not sure. Worth a shot I guess.
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Just FYI, a sync license is always required for any copyright music that you use, whether you perform and record it yourself, hire someone to perform it and record them, record a performance at a concert, or use an existing recording. The sync allows for the words and melody to be used along with the images. But the sync license by itself doesn't grant you rights to use a particular recording because recordings have their own separate copyright. So if you're using an existing recording of a song, you also need the master use license from the owners to the copyright to the recording.
 
Just FYI...
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Yup, I know. That's what I was talking about in my post. Since the OP doesn't need the recording rights though in this case ("...I would like to have a guy say a couple lyrics.") they'd only need the sync rights. Of course if they wanted to use the original recording, they'd need both licenses.
 
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ChrisHurn said:
Yup, I know. That's what I was talking about in my post. Since the OP doesn't need the recording rights though in this case ("...I would like to have a guy say a couple lyrics.") they'd only need the sync rights. Of course if they wanted to use the original recording, they'd need both licenses.
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Sync right ARE recording rights in the sense that they allow you to make a recording of the musical composition. But they don't grant you the right to use an exisiting recording. Another twist, most sync licenses don't allow one to make any signifigant changes to the music as it was written.
 
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