Music Copyrights - do you have permission to use music in your gigs?

[angelaprtt]

I have a quick question regarding music copyrights. Are people selling videos set to music and they don’t even have the right to do so? Have these sellers purchased the rights to use this music? I have bought several gigs set to music, and I would like to use them as commercials. Am I going to get into copyright trouble?

[Guest matt_garry]

yes most likely if it is a popular song they don’t have the rights. I could help you create custom music that is royalty free. please check out my gigs

[voiceoverwork]

@angelaprtt



Good question! It’s great to see someone who actually cares about the rights of others.



A lot of the video software (such as whiteboards or PowToons) grant the owner or licensee of the software some sort of limited or unlimited, commercial or non-commercial use of all images and music.



I see video gigs on Fiverr where I’m pretty sure the Seller does not have commercial rights to sell the images and music used (and others have made this claim on the forum).



Once you find a buyer who you know (do your on-line research) the software they’re using allows them to sell unlimited commercial usage, then go for it!



Good luck!

[digbythedog]

almost half of the videos in the video greetings category have copyright music in them, or are offerng to put it into the final video.



It very unlikely that they have permission to do this.



l recently researched how one would go about getting permission. In the UK, you can buy a blanket liicense for about £125 to cover your website for use of the music. you name all the songs at the end of the year, but this would not cover me in the usa.

supposing the usa has such a license, it makes it very difficult on an international website like fiverr, for fiverr sellers to get all the licenses for each country.



Fiverr’s position is that it will only deal with copyright claims from the copyright holder,



I do not believe that this position has any status in law at all.



Fiverr’s current position make’s it ok to steal copyright music as long as the copyright holder doesn’t know about it, or has not contacted fiverr to make a claim.



If, or rather when, Time Warner who own the copyright to “Happy Birthday to you” did find out that the song is being used illegally, in over half of the greetings videos on fiverr, and that some power sellers have made over $10000 dollars from the music that they own the rights to. (That’s not including extras) Not to mention how many dollars fiverr have made from the illegal use of this music.



Fiverr’s policy seems to suggest that if Time Warner did contact them and claim copyright, that they would be happy with their answer, sorry about that it won’t happen again. Absolutely not, they would want to pursue fiverr for the royalties.



Add to that the fact that fiverr insists that these services are not linked to any other website, they are exclusive to fiverr.com. This means that they are the only website that would have needed a license and perhaps the only people responsible.



I think that at some point fiverr needs to take responsibility for this and that at some point they approve the use of copyright material, everytime they approve a gig with it in.

You can argue whether TimeWarner should own the rights to “Happy birthday” and indeed they will in court later this year, but for the moment they own the rights to it everytime it is sung in the media. Even by one unaccompanied singer. Fiverr is now part of the media and is making money illegal from music it does not own.

[davidlustrup]

yes they most likely don’t have the right to sell it. I canmake you all the royalty free music you need. Feel free to hit me up!

[inkpetal]

I wonder this all the time! Maybe eventually an artist will complain and Fiverr will step in and do something, but until then it’s just going to be standard practice.

[solow13]

I use my music that I’ve created and I can also create royalty free music for you!

😉

[theslackjaw]

Reply to @digbythedog: Very true. Couple of points. That 125 pound fee for use on the website is only for use, not resale. (I’m sure you are aware, I’m just putting out the clarification here for any who didn’t pick up on it.) So you can play the music on your site but you can’t resell it to someone else in a video. (You could sell advertising for the video or website, just not the video itself.) At least that is how it works in the states. When you buy a license like that it does not include resale. Considering we yanks got most of our copyright law from the British, I would imagine this is true here as well.



Second point, Fiverr isn’t going to touch this with a ten foot pole. They are probably going to continue to handle it the way they have. This is also how Etsy handles it as well. They don’t get involved and leave it up to the sellers, buyers and holders of the copyright to deal with it. If they get a notice of complaint from a copyright holder, they’ll shut the gig off or ban the user. In this way, they stay legally neutral. Since they put the responsibility on us, they won’t get dragged into any legal battles. No lawyer would allow them near this.



Just throwing my two cents in.

[digbythedog]

@theslackjaw

absolutely it’s for streaming only but there’s a separate limited manfacture license for CDs and DVDs

[neophonic]

I would never sell a video without proper rights. If you are not sure if your seller does have rights to provide music track for commercial use, ask before order. If you do not trust your seller, get a CC0 soundtrack or hire an artist to prepare your jingle.



It is always good to buy from proven sellers. If you are looking for video with written permission for use of soundtrack for commercial purposes, do not hesitate to contact me.



Every real professional does have a library of copy-safe multimedia to provide, and it is not only about sounds, but also graphics, templates, scripts and much more.



Cheers!