Legal information about music distribution

Hello,
I was wondering if someone can point me in the direction of a resource/advice where I can find out what is and what is not allowed when it comes to distributing music.
I know that this is very vague but I have an idea for a website that involves songs/mp3s and I need to know if it is legal or not.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Try the UK IP Office (here). Generally speaking, if you do not hold distribution rights to the material (or it is not posted by those that do) then you will be in violation. Fair dealing is the term used in the UK. The only two fair dealing uses that apply to music are criticism/review and news reporting (research/private study is the third but music is exempt from this category). Fair dealing only allows for a single copy. I do not know how that would be applied to a web page. There is one other exemption (incedental inclusion), but it does not apply to music.

 

Thanks for that.
I think my idea is somewhat unique so it is difficult for me to actually tell you the exact idea I have in mind without actually giving the idea away completely.
Is this scenario illegal?
I have an album on my computer. My friend also has an album on his computer.
I no longer want my album but my friend really wants the album I have and I really want the album my friend has. Could we swap albums legally?

 

Doubt it. Unless it was a physical CD, not .mp3 files.

(Not 100% sure)

 

Yeah, hence my problem of getting advice without actually giving my idea away lol. There is something I haven't mentioned that is important but I cant.
If someone would be willing to give me some advice and sign an NDA that would be great.
Otherwise I might have to get a lawyer for this lol.

 

Maybe this helps. The only thing they have a right to do is sell or give their purchased copy away. Any attempt to trade it digitally (even if they claim they throw the original away) would not be legal. Selling or trading a copy would not be legal.

In all likelihood, your idea is not legal. If you want, I could sign a NDA for you and look at the actual idea.

 

Thanks for that info. I will contact you about the idea just to check.

Thanks

Any other advice is also appreciated.

 

You cannot use mp3 or any other format online if its not yours or is bounded by copyrights. I would suggest you to take permission from the copyright holder of that music/video.

 

Thanks for that, but I already knew that. But this is slightly different.
I have all I need to know now, thanks everyone that gave me some info.

 

So what about bit torrents then? i am curious as to how they work/ get roud it?? or is that just straight up illegal?

 

Yes they're illegal if they're sending copyrighted files.