Big Bad Licensing Issues
For the past few months I’ve been working to find out exactly how to go about selling certain music related items in my online shop and at exhibits to raise funds for the charities we support. It’s a huge undertaking, especially when you are minus some key ingredients that make it easier, namely a fancy lawyer and millions of pounds to make doors open. I’m just an ordinary fan trying to do something good for causes I feel passionate about, and resources are limited. Still, I’m proud of what we are doing, so I waded in. The people I have dealt with have been polite and I have learned a lot, so I am finding it a good experience over-all.
I’ve discussed the process with friends and briefly online. The different perspectives and stances people take on licensing and copyright issues are fascinating. On the one hand you have the musicians and the licensing companies who work for them. Musicians work extremely hard to create the music and the all the trappings that go with making an image. Most reasonable people agree these things deserve to be protected, and people wanting to use them should expect to have to get permission/pay before they do. It’s only right. Can you imagine how hard it would be for a musician to look after and protect copyright/trademarks on their own with practically an entire world of people waiting to use their work for various purposes? It’s more than a full time job – answer all requests, examine all merchandise or websites to decide who has a use you find genuine…it would be impossible. They’d never be able to do anything else again if they attempted this job alone, so enter licensing companies.
Then on the other side there are fans, many who have good and legitimate reasons for wanting to use protected material. Some will just blatantly take it and do whatever, and then others will go seek permission. If you get the permission great, but what if you don’t? How you deal with that says a lot about you. Raising funds for charity, educating people, these are good reasons to want to use material that is not yours, but you may still get a no. It is a shame, and can make you feel hard done by. I’ve been unable to do some things even for charity because it would interfere with big business deals and exclusive rights to do things that companies pay major money to acquire. But I can’t complain too loudly because I’d want the same if it was my creativity in question. My webmaster and I worked hard on the MIM logo, and I wouldn’t want people taking it and doing whatever with it without my consent. Yes, sometimes licensing companies do over-step their mark and bully people. It can be an ugly thing when people have total power and are the only game in town. I applaud fans who stand up to bully tactics that are just plainly that – bully tactics and no more.
But it helps to realise too that not every thing is a bully tactic by a licensing company, and not every person who wants to use material that is protected has a good motive. Some hide behind loud righteous indignation to justify actions they know are wrong. I’ve heard lots of excuses for poor behaviour, and a fan can be just as big a bully as a licensing company, and seriously unreasonable in their quest to do whatever they want with protected material. I dislike this as much as I dislike it when licensing companies are heavy-handed.
I am working to raise charity money, so I will strive to abide by the rules even if they are harsh. That may mean that I have to pump sunshine all over things that others will resist. Whatever you do, whatever the outcome of your permission seeking, before you act, think of others, put yourself in their place, and act responsibly. That makes for a happier world all around no matter what the issue.
I found this article helpful: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html And yes, permission to link to it is given! What are your experiences? I’d love to hear from you.
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October 4th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Interesting, I`ll quote it on my site later.
Elcoj