Karaoke Forums

Hi, I am a karaoke manufacturer from England and here is what its like for a manufacturer in this country.
We have to submit a list of songs we wish to make on karaoke to MCPS who then send a form back to confirm which songs are registered with them. You can only produce tracks that are registered with them.
Once they give their approval the discs are made.
Because the backing tracks are not the original artist there are no other licences or permissions required.
Copyright of that disc belongs to the manufacturer and the rights of what happens to the disc also belongs to the manufacturer including format shifting.
MCPS say it is not their responsibility, so in response to this I have given permission for anyone who has an original Laughing Gnome Karaoke disc in the UK , to convert it to any format they choose.
Future discs will also have a statement on the sleeve confirming this.
That is what it is like here in the UK. Other manufacturers don't seem to want to allow people who have bought the original discs to be allowed to convert them, but we are in 2008 and they need to change with the times.

welcome to the forum, gnome!

I read with fascination on the karaokeinfo uk forum about the conversion and the A.V.P. and SC conversations with MCPS.

I wish our country's copyright folks were easier to deal with like MCPS is!


I visited your site, and like it a lot. Good start!
gnomekaraoke.co.uk

Do you take requests? There's a lot of stuff that many of us would love to have made, but the US stuff is harder to get approval for.
"
I see you did Manfred Mann's "Earth Band"... would love to have "For You" released!!! It was SUCH a kewl hit in the seventies... it was recently redone by another artist with much of this song still in it...

What does MCPS stand for (Minestry of...?).   How does a song get on the registered list?  Do the karaoke manufacturers solicit artists to add songs, or do the artists do it independently?

I'll be picking up all seven discs before too long.  I love the fact that you cover more rare songs.  How great would it be to have a bunch of stuff other local KJs would have no clue how to get or where you got it?

Thanks for the welcome.
MCPS stands for Mechanical Copyright Protection Society and as far as I am aware the artist or the record company do it independently.

Reading the disc list of songs, many are from the United States.  What about the American copyrights for the songs?  Won't that still be a violation of our copyright law?    Just because it may not be a crime in UK doesn't make it exempt over here.

Just wondering.   The International copyright laws.

sw, I buy stuff from the UK all the time (Zoom, STTW, Sunfly) and as long as it's made overthere, the only copyright they have to deal with is the MCPS. That's why they can release a lot of songs the Americans can't! At least those that try thru legal channels!

Gnome, you didn't answer my question... do you take requests?

Thanks,

Matt

Sorry,
Yes we do take requests.
Just email me a list and I will see what we can do.

So you do not have to get the sync-rights, which are an addition to the mechanical rights, for the lyrics like all the American companies do?

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_ ... b57b8bd251

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This link appears to contain more info:

http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/musi ... s/KAR.aspx

No the sync rights are not needed.

The karaoke sync issue is split amongst district courts and will be decided probably by the Supreme court.

More info

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Ollie, that information is irrelevant to the topic of this thread which deals with UK law.

However, I do believe that "Gnome Karaoke"  is incorrect in stating that synch rights are not required in the case of karaoke products in UK law.   If "Gnome Karaoke was correct, then what would be the purpose of a special MCPS/PRS licence for karaoke whereby

?

Agreed that the opinions regarding synch rights appear to be divided amongst the District courts of Utah and California.   However, the opinion of United States Court of Appeals provides a very compelling argument as to how the Judge in Utah erred.  I bring your attention to footnote 2 on page 11 of the decision.

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopin ... penelement

Separate sync rights are not required, they are covered under the MCPS licence.
Until I came to this site I had never heard of sync rights.

I agree with you on that Gnome Karaoke.  But that is not what your answer to TTown's question implied.



Gnome Karaoke replied:



I was merely clarifying the fact that yes, you do have to obtain the synch rights as well as the mechanical rights.  However, the MCPS in their infinite wisdom, created the "KAR Agreement" which provides both the mechanical rights and the synch rights in the one package, simplifying the process.

How about "Rocket Queen" by Guns N' Roses.  Tons of people love that song and it isn't available at all...

And one that a lot in the US probably don't know but was relatively well known in Europe... "Taking on the World" by Gun.

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Murrlyn, sorry you were right I didn't answer the question.
It is probably due to my ignorance in not understanding the question. As previously posted I was unaware what sync rights were until I came here.

Perhaps a request thread should be started here for Gnome Karaoke?  Lots of KJs here in the US to make good suggestions for the creation of karaoke songs.

I noticed Gnome  says "in the UK".  Does this mean the MCPS licence is only valid for karaoke tracks distributed within the UK?

if you buy a foreign disc here, one that is made and produced overseas, you are no longer liable for the "rights"... if you buy a pressed disc, you have no responsibilities for any of the rights that are "behind the scenes" to the making of the discs.

Now if you KNOWINGLY buy a disc that you KNOW is 100% not legit, you may be liable. But the overseas part of this negates that.

Otherwise, STTW, Zoom, Easy Karaoke, Legends or Sunfly, etc COULDN'T be sold legally here!