Forums Tag: copyright

Forums Tag: copyright http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ Forums Tag: copyright en Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:24:51 +0000 EarlC on "Legal Rights to Sorority" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/legal-rights-to-sorority#post-42139 Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:23:35 +0000 EarlC 42139@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ With whatever relationship you have with restorefilms I would suspect you already have access to information resources regarding rights in documentary production, but... ...you would likely definitely want: Signed model releases by all participating, or incidental physically identifiable persons. I have seen in many productions, and actually myself, "smudged out" incident background individuals who I failed to get a release from, or were borderline identifiable. Some kind of release from the sorority (if this is indeed going to be public/commercial broadcast/cablecast, or produced in volume and sold commercially) giving you full rights to use of images, identifiers, trademarks, blah, blah, blah... The usual set of production rights agreements with all participating or principal parties above and below the line, who might later offer some legal contention regarding your use if you do not have them on the dotted line. Notes: People can and often do sue anytime anyway over nothing. Not so much that you couldn't "win" your case, but the expenses involved in getting a clear (sometimes) court decision will ruin your prospects unless you already have the joy of deep pocket financing. There are numerous ins and outs of documentary production as it relates to public or commercial airing, and/or distribution, etc. that you really might need to consider the advice of a licensed attorney who deals with such rights and limitations. Nothing I say is intended to be legal advice, or to offer same, simply general information of which your use is entirely your decision based on no promises or inferences made by me. Sorry, necessary. See what I mean? Videomaker magazine and many, MANY other printed and web resources (do a Google search on a variety of related terms) offer some solid information about what you want to do/accomplish. I'd seek out as much of this as possible first, before seeking an attorney's advice. Also, the scope and/or limitation of experience with folks participating here is likely not to include many in the upper stratosphere of such production work as they perceive they do not have time to participate in these wonderful, informative and often intelligent forums :-) Also, my earlier reference to show your mama or girlfriend was a stupid remark that showed my personal ignorance and the fact that I'd totally failed to take into account your unidentifiable profile with question mark as well as your "Smartsistah" designation. Oops, my bad. Smartsistah on "Legal Rights to Sorority" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/legal-rights-to-sorority#post-42135 Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:36:21 +0000 Smartsistah 42135@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ it's an international sorority with thousands of members so I should do ok financially. What rights should I as for in the release? Approval as an official film, use of trademarks? Thanks. EarlC on "Legal Rights to Sorority" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/legal-rights-to-sorority#post-41905 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:34:16 +0000 EarlC 41905@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ Actually MOST serious documentary work, unless you're into guerrilla style acquisition and trying to do an expose and keep a low profile, requires some degree of clearance and approval, even signed model release forms, if you're going to do anything with it but practice editing, and show it off to Mama, or your girlfriend. TheLoneBanana on "Legal Rights to Sorority" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/legal-rights-to-sorority#post-41897 Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:14:18 +0000 TheLoneBanana 41897@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ You can make a documentary about the sorority, no problem. If you use their trademarks (logo or shield, registered or not), you need permission. EarlC on "Legal Rights to Sorority" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/legal-rights-to-sorority#post-41854 Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:57:48 +0000 EarlC 41854@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ You cannot assume. The best route, if you are doing anything more for distribution than keeping it for yourself or showing your copy to a few close friends, is to go to the source and obtain written permisssions/release. While you are a member and certainly "represent" your sorority in public and private life (generally speaking) you are likely NOT a legal agent or representative. Donation of a portion of the proceeds could grease the wheels of approval. Who is your market, that you believe this production will generate enough funds to warrant offering a "portion of the proceeds?" Smartsistah on "Legal Rights to Sorority" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/legal-rights-to-sorority#post-41844 Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:23:23 +0000 Smartsistah 41844@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ I'm working on a documentary on a sorority and wanted to know if I am a member will it be ok to use the letters, shield etc.? Do I have the right to use them in the packaging and do I have to get written permission from the leadership? Will it be ok if a portion of proceeds is donated to the organization? thanks. chrisColorado on "Putting Legal Music in Your Video" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/putting-legal-music-in-your-video#post-36941 Wed, 28 May 2008 16:56:25 +0000 chrisColorado 36941@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ ACID is awesome. One of my last films had songs that were mostly ACID loops that I slammed together. It sounded pretty cool, so I tweaked it and it worked great. To hear an example of loop songs/experiments, go to <a href="http://mexenzoaiire.angelfire.com/demospage3.html">http://mexenzoaiire.angelfire.com/demospage3.html</a> and in the Vegas and ACID section, listen to the last three music tracks. The whistling in the last two songs are the only part that's not a loop(it's me). My last film had royalty free music. The only thing we had to do was credit the guy how he wanted in the credits. It was a creepy, awesome score! BarefootMedia on "Putting Legal Music in Your Video" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/putting-legal-music-in-your-video#post-36938 Wed, 28 May 2008 12:49:53 +0000 BarefootMedia 36938@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ I ran into a couple of questions about adding music to your video productions in other forum posts, so I thought I'd take a whack at the whole issue of putting legal music in your videos. Now we all know it isn't legal to use someone else's music without their permission. The legal term for getting permission is to get a license. If you've got enough cash, you can license pretty much anything you've heard. but most of us have rather strict limits on what we can spend to license music for our videos. If you have a $0 budget, you still have options. Many stock music providers have collections of "royalty free music" available to purchase. The term "royalty free music" or a "musical buy out" refer to the license terms. Once you purchase the "royalty free" license, you can use that music in as many productions playing back to any number of people that you may encounter. But the music has to be part of a larger program. Some "royalty free" licenses will limit the size of the audience and may require an additional or expanded license for broadcasting. So where's the music for $0? Many of the companies will give away a royalty free song or clip and a way for producers to try out the product. Since stock music songs are created in various lengths for various uses, they may give away the 0:15 version but you'd have to buy the 0:30 or 1:00 version. Or perhaps you can get the full-length version, but none of the shorter cuts. But in any case, they provide you with a license to print-out proving you have permission to use that song in as many different programs as you want. I've used these complete songs to run under graphic sequences of various programs. I've used them as theme music on a show or series of shows. But on the $0 budget, you are severely limited by what will actually fit into your production. You can't use the same tune in every show or folks will tire of hearing it. And clients never want the music in their show to be the same as in another of your client's program. (We'll come back to these "buy out" libraries later.) Now we all know that if we or someone we know can write & perform original music, that's perfectly legal to use. But what if you can't play an instrument? Or you need more instruments to round out the sound? But we're still on that limited budget. Well, there are music composition programs that any computer savvy producer can use to create custom songs of their own. The easiest to use are what are known as "loop" composition programs. The industry standard for loop composing is Sony ACID. To get composers hooked into how it works, Sony provides a number of freebies to get you started. But let's describe how loop composition works. A single loop is generally one instrument playing a rhythm or melody that loops, so the ending will blend into to beginning and create a track. There are rhythm tracks of drum beats, bass lines, horns or guitars. The software let's you stack various looping tracks together to create a full piece of music. So to make your own music, you need the software to stack the loops AND loops to stack. These stacking loops are the basis for a lot of techno, dance, hip-hop and even your average pop songs. So where do the loops come from? Well musicians make them, then they are licensed just like any other "royalty free" music composition. Except loops will usually have the requirement that they can't be used without other loops. Now as I mentioned before, Sony ACID is the industry standard for loop composition software. If you'd like to get a version that limits you to no more than 10 loops in a composition, Sony gives it away. Just click on Videomaker's "Free Software" button at the bottom of the page and you have the link to download it for free. And while you're at the site, you can download your first of the weekly "8 packs" they provide. A lot of us may have an idea of what sort of music we'd like to have, but we're not sure how to compose it. This is where the "8 packs" will help. An "8 pack" contains 8 free sample loops and an ACID file that uses just those 8 loops to create a song. The songs are written by a variety of artists and cover different musical genres. And every week they give away 8 more loops and an idea of how to use them. Using just the free software and various free loops both provided with the software & downloaded as part of the "8 packs," I have created several opening themes, music beds and even a guitar piece for my mom's 60th birthday video. And by the way, you can also get sound effects as loops and add them to your videos. In fact, you can add the loops directly into your video timeline as sound efx or a music bed. I've upgraded from the free version, now ACIDexpress 5.0 to ACID Home Studio 6.0, so I don't know if the express version supports video input or not. But my studio version (around $70) lets me import a video file and display it at the top of the stack. Then I can create a music bed in absolutely perfect synch with the video's action. And I can make it as simple or complex as I have the time, energy & desire to achieve. I've used ACID Studio to add complex sound effects and musical compositions based on movement in the video. The newest twist on music for videos is a sort of hybrid between a "buy out" song and one composed to fit your unique situation. I've seen other posts recommending Sony Cinescore. It is designed to meld pre-made themes to fit & accent your video while you edit it (hopefully in Sony Vegas, but is works with other NLE's.) This program & others like it are totally out of my price range. But the stock music retailers have come up with something for the rest of us called layered music. The brand I've tried comes from Digital Juice and is called "Stack Traxx." And in order to use them effectively, they give away a program called "Juicer" to let you create the track you need. In operation, layered custom music programs do very similar tasks. Using "Juicer" I load in the song version I'd like to use. The software then splits the song into various racks which can be selected individually. Select them all and you have a fully fleshed out song. But you can pick & choose between the four to eight tracks, each corresponding to an instrument or two. By adding or removing these tracks, the music will take on different sounds. Using the same basic song, you are able to create different themes or beds for different clients. Or you can use the same song to create different moods in the same production. Layered music is great when you don't have the time or talent to create something yourself and you can't find a "royalty free" tune that works. You have a professionally composed sound track, unique to your video production. You will, however, have to purchase a layered library so this isn't a free option. Purchasing a "Stack Traxx" library runs from $25 to $70, depending on the current sale (or lack thereof) and contains something like 40 themes with a number of run times for each theme. So there you have it, the three main ways of getting legal music for your video productions. As I said at the beginning, I have cause to use each each method on different productions. But since we're talking about sound, it sometimes is easier to understand it by hearing an example or two. So I'm going to direct you to my YouTube page where I have examples of each method posted. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/BarefootMedia" rel="nofollow">www.youtube.com/user/BarefootMedia</a> The short "A Wintery Walk" is an example of free stock music (and video graphics) used in a production. But please forgive the video, it was MP4 shot with a web sharing camcorder. That's why I wanted to add the higher quality graphics & music. The long form PSA "It's All About You!" uses a simple rhythm track I composed using ACID and three or four loops. If you want to watch the video, instead of just listen, please us the "watch in high quality" button since it was sized for cablecasting. And my "bio for Expert Village" uses a layered composition so I could pull the melody line and let the music remain in the background, but still comes in with a flash when I change my outfit. So I hope you found this helpful. I try to check back every couple of days, so feel free to ask questions. And if you have your own experiences, especially with products I didn't mention, please share them with us. Thanks for reading. DaveArthur on "Copyright and Intellectual Property Laws Explained" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/copyright-and-intellectual-property-laws-explained#post-36318 Mon, 05 May 2008 13:41:27 +0000 DaveArthur 36318@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ Duke University Law school has released a graphic novel, Bound By Law, that explains the intricacies of US Copyright Law, Intellectual Property Rights, and the legal precedent of these laws. The story follows a documentary filmmaker as it explains all we need to know about copyrights and the laws that govern us as video producers. It is by far the most accessible reference on Copyrights I've seen. You can purchase a physical copy from Amazon, or download a free e-book copy here: <a href="http://www.howtovideopro.com/public/204.cfm">http://www.howtovideopro.com/public/204.cfm</a> Or get a digital copy directly from the Duke University site: <a href="http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics">http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics</a> Dave <a href="http://www.howtovideopro.com/">www.HowToVideoPRO.com</a> TheDVshow on "Copy Protect my DVDs ?" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/copy-protect-my-dvds-#post-35940 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:46:07 +0000 TheDVshow 35940@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ DVD authoring software like Sonic’s DVD Producer, Adobe Encore DVD and others have copy protection built right in. DVDs produced by consumer authoring programs are not protected, so that anyone with a DVD burner can simply copy the entire thing onto another disc. “CSS” stands for Content Scrambling System, which is the method used to encrypt files on a DVD and prevent the user from copying the files to a hard drive from a DVD-ROM drive. Pressed DVDs from Hollywood studios use CSS and Macrovision protection methods, which sets protection on a track-by-track or marker-by-marker basis in the Track menu, but there are many programs available that will copy even these protected DVDs with one click using a CSS decrypter- not worth it in my opinion and Macrovision is an expensive option. If you want the copyright on your work to be observed, practically speaking, my best advice is to maintain a good relationship with your customers. Also use well-designed packaging, disc surface printing, cover art and inserts to support the idea that your original DVD is something of value to be respected. A few technical tricks is to make ghost or un-referenced files on a DVD - all you have to do is import the mpeg2 file into your DVD authoring program and add it to the project but don’t point anything to it - add random dummy files making it much harder for those who use ifo editors to see which program is the actual presentation. Import a blank 720x480 .bmp and make it act as if it's a movie - but make them unreferenced. Another trick is to author onto dual layer so it makes it harder to do a 1:1 copy All this is very easy and NOT really time consuming at all. videomike4950 on "Copy Protect my DVDs ?" http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/copy-protect-my-dvds-#post-35932 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:02:12 +0000 videomike4950 35932@http://videomaker.com/community/forums/ Does anyone know of a program that can be used to protect my dance recital DVDs from being copied ? Sales at these dance shows are slipping and I believe it is because some parents are making copies for their friends, on their PCs.<code></code> I read VideoMaker magazine every month, but have yet to see anything comprehensive on this topic. I need software I can use here, at my studio, where I make my master with Pinnacle Studio and burn/print dupes with a Bravo II disc publisher. I don`t want to send my master out to MacroVision or anything. Can anyone help ? Please ? Thank you ! -Mike Â