Klarinet Archive - Posting 000057.txt from 2004/05

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Ownership/copyright
Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 14:53:49 -0400

Bryan Crumpler posted:

> Yeah... HFA and all that crudd is annoying. But the scenario is........
>
> ...it's a recording of concert that I played as a result of winning a
> Young
> Artist Competition. No performance contract existed, and no waivers were
> signed regarding ownership of the sound recording. It's a non-union,
> community orchestra... different personell for almost every season.
> Getting
> a waiver from all those performers would, thus, be a pain in the bum -
> especially considering some of died already. My intent is only to submit
> uploads to MP3.com.au and send in a copy to NPR Performance Today for
> publicity sake, but they both require the same sort of indemnification.

By relying on your indemnification, MP3.com.au is being sloppy. If this
were to be a commercially-released recording, they'd be quite careful to
make sure that all the paperwork was in place and the rights properly
accounted for. By requiring your indemnity, they're foisting the
intellectual property obligations on you; the hope is that since the lawsuit
against them will be paid for our of your pocket, you'll be careful enough
to follow the rules.

Note however that your indemnification does not absolve them of liability -
it only means you get to declare bankruptcy right before they do.

While it wouldn't be my advice, you could always neglect to get the
paperwork in order, and simply gamble that no one will sue. Since the scope
of distribution will be limited, the damages would be quite small unless
there's a music publisher that would want to stick you with statutory
damages (probably not likely in this context). If it's public domain stuff,
you're much better off.

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