RE: [Harp-L] copyright issues and permission

[Tom Ball <havaball@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Tom C.,

First up, congrats on the project and thanks for including one of our 
tunes. I hope it sells like hotcakes! <gg>

Ken Deifik's advice regarding the Harry Fox Agency is both solid and 
astute -- obtaining licensing through HFA might end up costing you a 
few bucks, but could save you a load of headaches down the road. And 
they do have low-cost options for folks who intend to press small 
quantities.

Having said that, I can also recommend you scour the Harry Fox site 
to see if any of the material you're covering might be in the Public 
Domain. In the case of VERY old blues songs, you may be able to claim 
PD and avoid having to obtain licenses on those particular songs. 
Additionally you won't need to license anything that's original.

It's true that some folks bypass these legalities and release 
recordings without bothering to license -- and it's also true that 
many times they get away with it by essentially "flying under the 
radar." But please be assured that publishing companies and 
performance rights organizations (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC etc.) regularly 
surf the internet and scour Google, searching for situations in which 
songs are released -- even in tiny quantities -- without licenses. 
That's when the ugly letters from attorneys can start arriving.

One might assume that because the amounts of money are so small, 
lawyers won't get involved.  However it's important to keep in mind 
that the loser in a copyright case is generally also held responsible 
for the legal costs of the winning party -- therefore the attorneys 
have nothing to lose by pursuing the issue, however small it may be. 
So my recommendation would be to save yourself the potential 
headaches. Besides which, I'm sure you'd like to be compensated -- in 
whatever measure -- if/when somebody covers one of your own songs one 
day....?

The whole process can done online with a credit card. I've done it 
many times myself to obtain licenses for guitar material I've 
included on my four solo guitar CDs. One potential hangup is that if 
you intend to sell downloads (via Amazon, CDBaby or anywhere else,) 
you need to acquire two different licenses per song -- one for the 
physical CD and other for downloads...

Anyhow, cheers, best of luck with the project and thanks again,

Tom Ball
http://www.tomball.us


-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of tom cox
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 1:33 PM
To: Harp L Archives
Subject: [Harp-L] copyright issues and permission


Hi fellow harpers



I have been doing some recording recently and hope to be releasing a long
overdue acoustic album soon. There are some classic blues on it such as KC
Moan, Sun is Shining, etc. Also a cover of 'Ride that Train' from Tom Ball
and Kenny Sultan, a Gary Primich number too. Tom Ball, perhaps you could
answer this??



'The other half' the guitar player is panicking about copyright issues and
thinks we need to pay to put these on an album. I know of countless blues
outfits that release self funded albums and as long as they acknowledge the
orginal source seem to get away with it. Can any of you advise me about this
as the guitarist who makes playing his living and declares his earnings is
worried about getting bitten on the ass later in life for us not going down
the correct copyright channels etc.





We are only planning on selling these cds to get more work and at gigs, it
was self funded.





cheers Tom C