Copyrighted music on sites and in animations
 

I have a song (quite an old one) that i assume is copyrighted
Its flying purple people eater
I want to put it as backgroung music on my site and use it in an animation (in fact it will be the base of the animation, its basically a music vid)
whats the law on this, i live in the uk but its all gonna be online so that could change things
bare in mind its an old song
if its a cover version does it change anything?

Hmm not too sure to be honest, as its personal use and not commercial then it might be ok, look on myspace....???

Might be worth asking the citizens advice brough?

i believe that as long as you don't make a profit on it it's ok, but in school if we wanted to use music in our projects it either had to be original and made for the film or we actually had to show proof that we got permission to use it - although that might have been a lesson in the whole filming process including small legalese-type-stuff, so *shrug*

right ok
ill have to look into it
its a pretty old song so does that change ought?

sometimes it does... older songs (like most from the glenn miller band era) go into some mode where they can't be owned anymore and they become uhhh public domain or something like that.

my friend went to VFS for sound engineering (I believe that was the degree) and he had to go through a whole legal course so he knew the process of getting the rights to use anything that is copy written, and this was his reply

"yeah, contact the artist. tell them you would like to use their song in a demo-animation for educational purposes not involving money and only used on your website. most will look at it as free publicity."

hopefully that is the information you were looking for.

If its for your animation and you are posting up online somewhere like here or your own site and not selling it all you have todo is have the words "Promotal use only" for more than 30 seconds - It can be split before and after your animation. You can not post it on u-tube or send it in a show reel without permisson from the artest. It does not matter how old the song is or who sings it - you must get permisson.

I got permisson for dolly parterns "Working 9 til 5" but I had to pay £4.75 for the paper work

I used it in the trailer fr my finaluni project

right ok
but i dont even know if the artist is still alive
or who the artist is for that matter

as far as I know you may run into trouble if it finds its way into the wrong hands and you do not have permission.
If for example the creator of the piece is deceased usually someone in there family or network owns the rights. And then you would have to obtain permission from the owner of such rights.

With all the drama about the music industry you might be better off making 100% sure before you go to the trouble of making this thing based on a song. Do some research and see what you can find about the song and its creators and try to find the necessary permissions. If you can't you would be taking a chance on it. Otherwise I'd suggest you find a new song or better yet someone who can create a song similar to what you've got that will give you permission to use it.

Does anyone know where i can find the rights holders name and contact details?

All depends on the song, google it and see if you can find the company that produced it (like sony, Warner etc)

The writer of the song in question was Sheb Wooley, released in 1958 on the MGM record lable.
This might help you discover who owns the copywrite currently.
A possibility might be the Bear Family lable since they are the last lable to release the song by the original artist in 2000.

right cheers, ill look it up
so does this mean that im not the only person thats ever heard of this song?

i am a music collector so i know a lot of songs ;)

flying purple people eater? I thought everyone knew that song, at least everyone I know has at least hear it or knows the title.