Im looking to create a site which enables users to create profiles and upload there OWN music to there OWN profile page! the site will be smiliar to Mymusicstream.com, but for a different audience. but i wanted to know how to protect myself against copyright etc Please Help Thanks
I do not understand your question. Can you be more clear? What copyrights do you feel like you would be violating?
I assume your concern is that people will upload music they don't have rights to - a valid concern, and one that Myspace has definitely had to deal with. You should probably talk to an attorney who can craft a good terms of service for you. You should also read up on the DMCA safe harbor provisions. http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/faq.cgi You need an easy way for people to report copyright infringement, and be willing to quickly take down infringing content. Myspace has taken the added step to check uploaded music against a database of copyrighted songs and cut deals with record labels to share revenue with them for their uploaded songs. http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/29/myspace-moves-to-protect-copyright-holders/ http://mashable.com/2006/10/30/myspace-music-tackles-copyright/ Keep in mind, though, that even if you do everything you can, you still can get sued if there is copyrighted music on your site - Myspace got sued too. http://news.cnet.com/Universal-sues-MySpace-for-copyright-violations/2100-1030_3-6136829.html
But it is legal! Its legal aslong as the the person who uploads it, has the permission to upload it! So say you were part of a band, and recorded a song and then uploaded it to my site, its legal because YOU own the rights to the song! am i correct?
Yes, if it's the musician or band's original song. It's a bit more complicated if it's a cover of someone else's song, at least in the US, because there are two copyrights involved - the copyright of the performance (which usually belongs to the band/musician) and the copyright of the song that's being performed (that usually belongs to the songwriter). If musicians perform a cover song, they are supposed to get what is called a "mechanical license", through the Harry Fox Agency or similar, and royalties are supposed to be paid for each time it's performed or downloaded (even if the downloads are free). Now practically, I know that many bands upload cover songs to Myspace without paying for the mechanical rights, and I haven't heard of any legal repercussions. But just because I haven't heard of any such repercussions doesn't mean there haven't been any. It may very well be that Myspace is actually paying for the mechanical rights in the same way that a nightclub pays a licensing fee for the cover songs live bands play, or a bar pays a licensing fee for its jukebox or a restaurant pays a licensing fee to have recorded music playing in the background (and yes, both bars and restaurants have been fined big bucks for not paying). If you aren't in the US or targetting US musicians different laws will apply.
Thanks for your reply, but as long as i can get them to agree that they own the rights and its there own original content? i should be ok? Thanks
No. Not really. How are you going to police that ? If they still upload music that they have no rights to , you are still in trouble for making it available. Usually sites like that, have an agreement, or pay a blanket fee to ASCAP/BMI. You can allow embedding of widgets and play lists from other sites like You Tube, My FM and others, and the fees are already taken care of by the distributor of the widget...or, if you are also promoting music with news and articles and such, many times the record labels will give you links to music, widgets, videos, mixes, MP3's and so on to share with your readers. You could also only make it available to people only after you have verified that they have the right to upload the music...like A and R, Artists Management, and Musicians. I wouldn't take the risk of trusting the general public to do the right thing and care about your legal problems.