Each of us is a copyright owner. And each of us uses content or media that was created by another copyright owner. Technically, just by fixing an original work in a tangible form, such as a photograph, drawing, or piece of music, we have copyright. You can’t copyright a fact or an idea, but you can copyright a story.
So, why should you worry about copyright at all for your works? Basically, if you register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, this gives you a record of your copyright ownership. Also, registration is necessary before you can sue someone else for infringing on your copyright.
But if you want to use the work of another person, you will either need to purchase or license the rights to use that work in your creation. And in order to do that, you will need to figure out who owns those rights. There are many tools that you can use to find the copyright holder. Please see the page Copyright Duration Databases and Tools on this site for more information. The articles “Copyright for Filmmakers” from Library Research Guides at Indiana University and “No Budget, No Problems? Intellectual Property Challenges for Film Production Start-Ups” from producer Adam Litwin are very good overviews of the issues that filmmakers will need to deal with. These include dealing with derivative works, licensing copyrighted material, avoiding copyright infringement, and getting cast and crew releases.
It is also possible that a work has fallen into the public domain, in which case it is free to use. You can use those same copyright duration databases and tools to help you determine whether a work has fallen out of copyright. However, you should still take care, because many works are multilayered. For instance, a motion picture, its screenplay, and its soundtrack may each have a different copyright. Also, if you can’t find the copyright for a work, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the work is free to use. Orphan works are their own problem, and people have been sued when a rightsholder comes out of the shadows to claim copyright. See ‘Deconstructing “Orphan Works”’ from legal intern Jacqueline Crispino for more information.
Also, be careful to not violate the right of publicity of others, whether the person is a celebrity or not. Even public domain material may be subject to right of publicity laws. And always make sure that you are not saying anything defamatory unless you a.) have a very good reason and b.) have all of your facts straight.
Another exception is the fair use doctrine. Fair use holds that certain uses of a copyrighted work may be legal if a certain set of factors are present. Typically these are determined according to the nature of the use, the nature of the work, the amount of the work that is used, and the possibility that the use will harm the market for the copyrighted work.
Music is its own beast, since it is inherently multilayered. Almost all music has different writing and performance rights, and also sometimes multiple rights holders per song, which are held by performance rights organizations, such as ASCAP and BMI. So it will also have its own set of pages. The most reasonable place to start with music is the Issues and Pitfalls page on this site.
If you want to go ahead and dive into a larger resource on copyright, please check out the Books and Trainings page, there are a number of good resources there on contracts, clearance, and legal necessities.
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