Friday, December 30, 2011

Licensing Concerns And The Legal Issues

By Alfred Lambert


Intellectual property breaches have been widespread even before the Internet made it easy to spread unauthorized copies of works. People keep sharing and selling thoughts, merchandise, and even secrets unlawfully. The arrival of the Internet just made it easier for them to steal someone else's works and spread them. Distribution, however, is not all that bad with proper licensing agreement. It can even help the author market his composition. But all the legalities involved would make the process complicated so it is just smart to ask someone knowledgeable in that specific topic or hire counsels.

A widespread example is a track a musician has released. Say you have written and recorded a tune independently or through a studio company. track stealing incidents are widespread. There are even artists famous today who have charged others or have been charged of copyright breach.

Naturally, you want it to spread as far as possible so many people would learn about it and you also like them to recognize you as the composer. You don't want other people to claim your music as theirs. A licensing arrangement with others would let them play your music lawfully. You and the other parties would indicate the terms and conditions of the deal beforehand.

Record labels and artists don't leave it to chance when there's a copyright infringement. With millions of dollars at risk, they know they need the best solicitors specializing in licensing issues to help them. They could either lose money or tarnish their name. Worse still, they could lose both.

A lot of indie musicians don't know much about the song licensing business. The whole process is rather very technical to them. And for many listeners, they don't give much thought on it. Attorneys can help simplify the subject to their clients, advising them on what is deemed permitted and what is not.

If an artist wants to cover a popular music originally recorded decades ago, he or she would have to get a license to record it. With a counsel acting as a guide, the artist would ask for specific permits to use, like the right to play the music on a TV show or use a stanza of the lyrics to incorporate in a new tune. The whole process includes many legal matters so it would be wise to hire counsels for this kind of game.




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