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Licensed Music in Background of Live Event

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pandalion

Hello,
I'm making some short films involving mixed martial arts competitors. Up till now I have only used footage from training and overlayed creative commons music on top.

I filmed at a live event this weekend and the fighters entrance music plays in the background over the crowd. Is that fair game to include without any license concerns? I am not making any money on this project at all. In fact, I'm losing money but it's fun.

I know the UFC only allows the music on the live event, but for replays they overlay their own stuff to avoid paying anything. But that is definitely for profit, my project isn't.

Thoughts or ideas on where to find the answer?
 
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It's illegal whether you make money or not. The issue is not YOU making money, it's the record labels not wanting people to hear the music without paying for it.

If this were a documentary or journalistic thing, normally it would be fine.

But in your case, you can't use this footage if the music is the slightest bit understandable.

Fortunately, there is a process called "ADR"
 
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And if ya wanna get extremely technical, those martial artists with the entrance music are also violating copyright law.


Copyright Law would require a license for any public performance.

Definition:

A public performance is music played "in a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered." Performances transmitted or otherwise communicated by means of any device or process (e.g., broadcast, telephone wire, etc.) to the public are also public performances.

Obviously it's not a law that is actively enforced by police or anything, but if the record labels saw your films, your footage would be evidence for them to use in a lawsuit against whatever organization ran the martial arts competitions. You may be screwing yourself as well as the organization that let you film the live event. This is of course, under the assumption that they do not have the right licenses.
 
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99.99% of the time you are out of luck. There are a few work-arounds if you are doing documentary or ENG work, but these are highly technical in the legal sense; you need a really good entertainment attorney to navigate this.

mussonman said:
And if ya wanna get extremely technical, those martial artists with the entrance music are also violating copyright law.
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Not necessarily true. The venue may be paying an annual blanket fee to ASCAP or BMI so that they can use music under copyright. Clubs, bars and restaurants as well as major venues like concert halls, arenas and the like, and even malls all pay this annual fee, otherwise they could not legally have bands, DJs, juke boxes, muzak, etc.
 
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pandalion said:
But that is definitely for profit, my project isn't.
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It's irrelevant whether it's for profit or not.

The only thing that matters is if you have permission or the right to do so.

I know the UFC only allows the music on the live event, but for replays they overlay their own stuff to avoid paying anything
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Same thing for many sports events. They'll have a license to play certain music at the live event, but if you buy a DVD of that event they'll either skip the intro altogether or substitute something in that they have clearance for.

Up till now I have only used footage from training and overlayed creative commons music on top.
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If you're getting tired of pretty bland public domain or limited creative commons material, start actively hunting down permission from unsigned or small-label bands. There are thousands of awesome bands out there who'll happily grant you permission to use their songs. Email some, and ask. If they say yes, get them an SASE with release inside. If no, move on to the next.

Good luck. :)

.
 
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Thanks everyone. I guess I should have clarified this is a non profit amateur DOCUMENTARY film. I'm just following these guys around and showing what they do.

I have some decent sources for CC music, but I just wanted to capture the "feel" of walking out to the cage with crowd noise and all that stuff.

Based on a few of the responses it may be ok with documentary? I'll look in to the copyright laws a little more.
 
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This was a well organized event at a well established club. It will even be broadcast on Comcast. I'm confident they had all their ASCAP and BMI stuff together. I expect Comcast to not film the entrances however for obvious reasons.
 
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mussonman said:
They could film the entrances, but with audio editing the music can be changed.
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I realize that, and I see that done all the time for replayed sporting events. But this is a documentary thing. I can easily overlay my own music but that cuts the crowd out as well. I was hoping to portray the event as it unfolded but only if I know that nobody will get in trouble. Especially the promotion or the fighters who were gracious enough to allow me access.
 
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Hey, mussonman I can handle that I think. I could use crowd noise from during the fight when there's no music playing and just overlay it to different entrance music.

Would rather use original if possible, which I gues is obvious by now...
 
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