Music copyright on TV

[Tard]

Hahaa, did I just hear a collective "PHEW..."

[miker]

Do the same companies deal with licensing computer game music?

For example, I stumbled across a remix ballblazer by some guy called Freon who doesn't seem to be contactable, which leads me to believe that this remix is not licensed.

I did contact the original composer of the music, Peter Langstone who confirmed that copyright was held by the company he founded, LucasFilm Games, which then transmognified into LucasArts. He no longer works there so can't help further.

I am loath to approach the LucasArts legal machine, simply because the remix I am interested in is likely illegal, and they don't make themselves easily contactable by lowly microbudgeted filmmakers.

Any good advice?

[belovedmonster]

Lucas arts have always been very supportive of the fan community (by not sueing them at least!). They seem to relise that fans dressing up like characters or making thier own movies or whatever its just abit of fun and no one is stealing any business from them, infact the opposite, it means they always have a die hard legion of fans who will buy all thier stuff.

So i doubt they are at all bothered that some guy has remixed one of thier songs. Now what that means for you including it in your movie i dont know...

The writing credit obviously belongs to the guy at Lucas arts but the actual recording will belong to this guy who did the remix.

I would ring or email the people at the link i gave above, they are the guys who deal with this and they can tell you about it. Tell them you want to use a recording done by an unsigned artist which is a cover and then find out what legal problems come from that.

[Patriarch]

Hi Windowslaws...

My website will be up soon. Ill link you when its done... however I can see you run no budget films, and at the moment i have a quite a few budgeted projects which I give priority.

[img]smile.gif[/img]

[rocketmaster]

yeah Miker, you've got a little bit of a problem here.

Usually you go to the same people for vid game music, but this case appears to be a little different. There is no listing of that song in any of the national databases. (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, HARRY FOX)

I asked my boss and what she thinks is that Peter Langston sold the work outright as a work for hire - because he is listed as an ASCAP composer, but has zero works to his credit. There is also no apparent music publisher of record for LucasArts. Please look on your video games and see if you can find that information listed. If you can find it, we have something to go on and someone to contact. It's pretty easy to talk to music publishers as opposed to big corporate legal machines, as you put it.

It is possible that LucasArts does not have a music publishing department because they may not license their music either in or out of the company, they might just buy it and use it for nothing else, end of story. I'd be surprised if that were the case with a company of that size, but it might be.

Anyway, regardless of whether they mind people paying tribute to their creations, if you are planning on releasing something that you will be selling, you need to contact them.

A "cover" of a song does not need to be licensed in the same way as when you use an original for film. Anyone can do a cover of a song and pay the publisher the statutory fee of 8.5 cents per AUDIO copy printed. No negotiation, a flat fee, with a 500 copy minimum. (NOT THE CASE WITH SYNCHING TO VISUAL THO) So if Freon did a COVER, he's ok, if he sampled the original master and just remixed it, it's not technically his, and you're probably right about that being the case. Technically, LucasArts would own his version as well, and again, you have to go to them regardless to license it.

I'm remembering an occassion where a fairly well-known painter did a beautiful Star Wars painting and sold it privately. A few years later, the painting appeared on a set of Star Wars trading cards and I asked the artist if they could do that without his permission. He said yes, because the minute he created it, they owned it, and other than being paid for his time, he had no further say in the matter. I'm guessing the case might be similar with a remix.