I was wondering if anyone knew laws regarding to music online. I've heard some debate over posting lyrics being illegal, but there's a lot of sites doing that. Also, what about having song demos on your site. Amazon.com has 30 second demos like several others and what's the law regarding that?
The vast majority of sites posting lyrics are doing so illegally. Several of the larger sites have been sued and the record industry was even pushing for jail time. Some larger sites have cut deals to post lyrics for a fee. Record companies can give companies like AMAZON permission to play demos - but you need permission, and I would guess a small site would have a hard time working directly with the record companies.
Very well said. Best thing to think about is: Do you own it? Have a license to use it? If not, stay clear!
I noticed a few of the bigger sites are putting disclaimers on their sites stating that the lyrics are not owned by them and copyrighted by their owners. Also, that it was for entertainment purposes only. Does this make a difference? On the other subject, if the music is streamed through a flash player where they can not own it. Does that still make it illegal, because it's basically like a radio.
Disclaimers are just telling people that it is obviously illegal, and that they don't want to take responsibility for it. I don't know about the streaming music. You are making it public without paying royalties (you do realize that there are royalties don't you). 'http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60906,00.html' Please forgive the link mods. I didn't want to put the link (not enough posts yet), but the article was far too long to quote. However, this is sort of a silly topic. There are many things that are illegal, but people do it anyways. Are you anticipating to have hundreds of viewers, or just your family? Most musicians could care less if you loan a CD to a friend, because they only lose $13 in exchange for hooking someone else on their music. If you put it on the internet for hundreds of kids, even though the kids are now hooked on the music they have no incentive to go buy any. I know what you are talking about w/the lyrics, but I don't remember why the lawsuit occurred. Anyone care to remind me?