Copyrights when sampling old tv/radio broadcasts

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RainyWoods

New member
I know these are murky, quite dangerous waters i'm diving into..

I've been working on a piece of music inspired by the Hindenburg airship disaster of 1937. I have been downloading tv broadcasts of the event and sampling parts of the audio. The trouble is that I have just realised the particular video I have been using isn't a stock video or in the public domain. It's actually owned by "British Pathe".

I've sampled..

- Crowd noise
- A small spoken section by the radio reporter (i've added tonnes of distortion to it)
- A very small section of strings (again very distorted and in the background)


Since making the song I have found videos of the airship in the public domain and free for use which is great for when I make a video to go with the song. These videos even use a lot of the same clips from the video I originally used. However they contain different audio. I'm ecstatic with how the song is in it's current state. I really don't want to tear it apart. How much exactly can I get away with when it comes to sampling if anything at all? It is after all not a song i'm sampling (although I have taken strings which can be removed). I at least hope that I would be able to keep the sound of the crowd.

I don't plan on releasing the song at this moment in time but I would at least like to be able to share it on youtube without the worry.
 
Stick it on Youtube all you want. As long as you're not making money from it and it's on the web only, no issue.

However, when it comes to sticking it on a CD or distributable media and selling it, there could/would be a problem.

I, for many years agented independent films for mainstream release in North America and have seen no end of top notch indy films (award worthy) ultimately with no ability to market due to clips and music from other shows and artists. Not to say you can't apply for synchronization after the fact, but it is usually far too cost heavy to keep it legal and move ahead.

Hope this helps.
 
Thank you very much for the advice there. Much appreciated.

I'll carry on with the song in it's current state then. At the moment i'm just enjoying the creation of it and would like to share it with others when it's done. I just didn't want to get seriously in trouble for it. I've never sampled before and was unsure of what problems may arise from sampling something that isn't music. I suppose if way down the line I wanted to put the song out there to buy I could just rerecord it.

Could there be trouble from giving the music away for free from say... a blog or sharing site?
 
Ah, something I know a bit about from my days with a TV News agency.

There were actually 4 newsreel cameras recording the disaster: British Pathe, Movietone, Universal and Paramount. The classic "Oh, the humanity" voice over was NOT done live, it was from a Chicago radio report and dubbed over the newsreel footage later.

The Pathe and Universal footage is freely available from government archives; copyright of the Movietone and Paramount remains restricted.

Why do I know this shit? The company I worked for had bought the Movietone copyright and actually DID sue people who used it without paying a licence fee. However, the suits only went as far as networks and broadcasters--nobody was sitting there checking every music video on Youtube.

...and if you know the version you have is from Pathe then all is cool.
 
HTLA Radio One said:
Stick it on Youtube all you want. As long as you're not making money from it and it's on the web only, no issue.

However, when it comes to sticking it on a CD or distributable media and selling it, there could/would be a problem.
Click to expand...

This ain't right. Profit or revenue doesn't matter if you use other people's material, nor does its presence on the web. If you use it, you should pay for it regardless of whether you sell it or not. If it's in the public domain, as is this particular case, then it doesn't matter.

Having said that, if you use it without a license and don't get any/many views/listens/publicity/etc, no one is going to waste their time coming after you for royalties.
 
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