Am I allowed to use that song?

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Willy
Posts: 711
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:42 pm
Location: Antwerp Belgium

Am I allowed to use that song?

Post by Willy »

What a mad world! Our Belgian copyright organisation, called SABAM, wants lorry drivers to pay for the music they are listening to while driving their lorries. Also taxi-drivers must pay ! The question is : does SABAM pay the composers and the singers ?

The depression is not over yet. Everybody needs money "to make both ends meet". Exorbitant profits are made and exortortinate prices are asked. Maybe also in Britain and everywhere else. I have read the chapter about copyright music on this website again. If I understand it is even risky to use the song "Happy Birthday" in a film without any copyright permission. Some years ago I saw a funny animation film called "Fly Me to the Moon", made by one of our friends in the North West. Now I wonder : was he allowed to use that song? I have just visited one of the best IAC-clubwebsites. I have watched one of their films on U-tube. At the end of that funny film the actors start to sing a song. It would ridiculous if they had to ask permission for it or if they had to pay for it.

Now I intend to make a film about a short man. He's one of my clubmates. Bad friends always call him "lilliputter". He feels very sad from time to time. People can be very hard nowadays. The mentality has changed in the course of the last decades. That's my opinion. Or maybe I have become one of those old men who is moaning all the time and who thinks that everything was better in "the good old days".

Now I have written a story about a little man for my new film. At the end I would like to use the song "Short Man" sung by Randy Newman. It's a controversial song, but it would evoke strong emotions. My question is : Am I allowed to use this song? Do I have to pay to get the persmission? How much would it cost ? After having read the chapter about copyright on this website I think the rules are similar to those on the continent.
Willy Van der Linden
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TimStannard
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Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2011 5:20 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: Am I allowed to use that song?

Post by TimStannard »

Willy wrote:It would ridiculous if they had to ask permission for it or if they had to pay for it.
Why would that be ridiculous? Suppose someone wanted to use a bit of one of your films in the backgrund of one of theirs. I'm sure you'd be delighted. But I'm equally sure you'd either like to be asked or to have granted that permission in respect of a small fee or even no fee. The point is it's your work and should therefore be under your control.

I entirely agree that copyright laws are complex and in need of simplification and revision in the light of the digital age (and hats off those in the IAC and the various organisations for making this so simple for us in the UK for amateur films), but they exist for a good reason: allowing someone to protect their creations (and their living) from someone else simply stealing it and passing it off as their own.

And there's another argument in favour of copyright laws that I don't often see aired: evey time you use a piece of music without paying a fee, not only are you preventing the composer, performer, publishers etc receiving a fee (who may well be able to afford it) but you are preventing the struggling composer or performer down the road from receiving a fee for work he would have done if you'd gone to him.
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
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Willy
Posts: 711
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:42 pm
Location: Antwerp Belgium

Re: Am I allowed to use that song?

Post by Willy »

TimStannard wrote:
Willy wrote:It would ridiculous if they had to ask permission for it or if they had to pay for it.
Why would that be ridiculous?
... allowing someone to protect their creations (and their living) from someone else simply stealing it and passing it off as their own.
.
Many thanks for giving your opinion, Jim. I am not against copyright you know. I agree with you. Composers, performers etc. must be paid for their work. The question is however : does the "copyright company" (in Belgium it's called SABAM) really pay the composers, performers, etc... ? Do they really receive the money ?

Some years ago I made a film about the town where I lived. I asked SABAM the right to sell my film in order to raise funds to help the people who suffered from the tsunami in ther Far East. The local authorities aksed my club to contribute to this charity campaign. Some years before I had filled in a SABAM-form in order to get the right to use the music I wanted. I also paid an annual fee to the Belgian IAC which included SABAM copyright. SABAM replied that they didn't want to look for the form anymore. It was somewhere in their archives. They asked me to make a new soundtrack for my film. Maybe it is wise, Tim, to ask the permission to use the song "Short Man" by Randy Newman. I think Newman must be my age. So the song is not too old. But for songs like "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Happy Birthday" ?...

In Belgium our copyright organisation SABAM has employed people who were supported by political parties. Everything has been politicized in Belgium. Once I read in "The Daily Telegraph" that Italy is the most corrupt country in Europe. Belgium came second. That was about 5 years ago. Luckily now the situation is getting better.

Copyright is normal. Not only for music. Your Charles Dickens was furious because his books were published in the USA without any permission. He told the American president.

But now things are going too far I think. The number of films made by hobbyists has dropped in Belgium also because of the new rules. Imagine that you are filming a busker singing a Paul McCartney song. What do you have to do, Tim? Hobbyists in Belgium and also in France are puzzled now.

If someone would ask me to use a bit of my film I would accept it, but he of she would ask me the permission. I would not ask money for it. So partly I agree with you, Tim.
Willy Van der Linden
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