Copyright law for music in not for profit tutorial

[Lynn Novoselac]

Illinois

I work for a Domestic Violence agency. We are putting together a DVD tutorial which acts as information about our program and services. We would like to use some copyrighted music for the for the DVD. It would be something that we would show other businesses and agencies about our program. We are curious what the laws are for this particular circumstance and what are the channels we will need to contact and paperwork that will need to be filled out.

 

[divgradcurl]

Illinois

I work for a Domestic Violence agency. We are putting together a DVD tutorial which acts as information about our program and services. We would like to use some copyrighted music for the for the DVD. It would be something that we would show other businesses and agencies about our program. We are curious what the laws are for this particular circumstance and what are the channels we will need to contact and paperwork that will need to be filled out.

Well, there is no general exception for not-for-profit use of copyrighted materials. In order to avoid a potential lawsuit for copyright infringement, you'll need to obtain licenses to use the music. You'll need to contact the particular record company of whatever songs you want to use for a license to use the sound recording, and the Harry Fox Agency for a license for the underlying musical work.