Media Laws

What is copyright?

• Form of legal protection given too many kinds of created works such as musical compositions. The work must be protected under copyright laws such as it must be not be copied from other sources or have a minimum degree of creativity. 
• Once an original work is fixed in a tangible medium the creator has copyright protection. 
• The Rights of a the copyright owner:
• Reproduce the work - has the rights to make more copies 
• Distribute the work - sell copies of the work to the public 
• Perform works in public - performances in public areas 
• Make derivative works - remix the song 
• Display the work - displaying the lyrics and musical notation on a karaoke machine 

Two types of copyrights:

• Sound recordings - a sound recording is work that is comprised of recorded sounds - performance of a song 
• Musical works - both the music and lyrics to a song  - constitute as copyrightable musical work.

Sampling:

• Occurs when a portion of a prior recording is incorporated into a new recording

Trademark:

• A tradework is a work, name, symbol or device used by a business in commerce to identify its goods and services and to distinguish them from other. 
• Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a similar mark. 

UK Regulation

• Regulation is done to ensure that record companies and other media organisations pay the band or artist a sum of money, everyone a song is performed publicly for their use.
• There are multiple regulators such as:
• MCPS - Mechanical Copyright Protection Society - oversee collection of royalties for album and single sales - physical and digital formats and pay these artists 
• PRS - Performing rights society - License the use of members musical compositions, when their lyrics are played in public, broadcast or TV
• PPL - Phonographic performance limited - license the use of recorded music when played in public 
• VPL - video performance limited - deals with the licensing of music video when they are played in public or broadcast. VPL distributes the fees. 
• Youtube is becoming very popular as a way of listening to music. However, Youtube does intervene by removing videos content which creates copyright, at other times it allows the video to remain but directs the alerting revenue to the copyright owners.