Karaoke Forums

Hi All

Just a quick Q about something I have been working on:

1. I run a Karaoke Show at a bar that has their own Discs and PA.
2. Some of their discs are actually home use discs, which have the WARNING page saying they are not for commercial use etc.
3. Can I get in legal trouble for running the show even though the non commercial use discs are not mine? Remember - I am the one putting it into the player and hitting play.
4. Is anyone familiar with the law relating tot his in Sydney Australia?

Thanks!

Vicm in Sydney

Well I can't speak to well to the laws in the US let alone in Australia, however I've never been able to find a justification for the claim that certain discs can be used privately but not commercially.

In the US there are two licenses that apply to what music you play in public. The first is your license for the material itself. This is the copyright license that you need in order to simply own the track. The second is the public performance license that each venue pays in order to play copyrighted material in their venue. This is the royalty that gets paid back to the original artist. As long as the track was legally purchased and the venue is paying the public performance license, I personally have never found any valid way that a claim can be made that certain tracks can not be used commercially.

Now I'm no lawyer so don't take this as confirmation that it is legal. Also you're in Australia and the laws are quite different from the US.

_________________
DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

This link might be of help...


http://apra-amcos.com.au/musicconsumers ... needs.aspx


As long as the venue is paying the appropriate business licence for the public performance of copyrighted music, then it should be Ok to use those disks. My advice would be to check with APRA/AMCOS to make sure.

there IS no such thing as a home disc, unless you're talking about a disc that is illegal. All karaoke discs can be played at ANY venue.

The ones that had the disclaimer on them had that so the venues had to supply the ascap/bmi/seasac fees. The disc is made with all appropriate licensing to make the disc, but you can't take it and say, record a song and use it for a submission to a talent agent. For that, you need a "master", and you have to pay a master license. SC used to sell them, don't know what they do know that they're manufactured overseas!