Is this legal?
I have a fan site for a band, and I'm wanting to know if I can put song clips on the site. I own the music legally, and I just want like 30 second clips. I just wanted to know if this was breaking any copyright laws or anything before I started.
Answers:
The answer is that it depends. There is such a thing as "fair use" that allows you to use portions of works without infringing copyright. It's a four-factor balancing test, where courts consider the nature of the work copied, the amount of the work copied, the nature of the work in which the copied portions are inserted, and whether the copier is making money or whether the copyright holder loses money from the use.
Length matters; the way you promote the work matters, so no one can bless your use without fully reviewing everything and giving a legal opinion (we hope provided by a lawyer in your jurisdiction).
Let's just say this: Short clips that are a small percentage of a song done not for profit, and not discouraging people from buying the original song--not likely to constitute copyright infringement per the fair use defense.
Let's also say: It's really bad publicity for a band to shut down fan sites that are acting responsibly.
by owning the music legally do you mean you bought the cds..buying the cd does not mean you own the music it means you own the right to listen to it...technically putting music on a website without written permission from the artist is a copyright infringement
my understanding is that yes you can as long as it is not used in conjunction with or to promote a business and you are not selling or illegally allowing this music to be downloaded.
I am pretty sure your not allowed to do that. however you are making a fan site... post the song clips but if the band or its reps want them taken down then do so. It is not like the first thing a group does is sue you.
You don't own the rights to that music, so it's not a good idea.
Imagine if you wrote a book and the person who bought the first copy decided she owned the book and would put all the chapters (or segments of the chapters) online.
Now there is a concept called "fair use," which might help you, but the question is if you're making any profit from the fan site or if it's serving an educational purpose.
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