Music Licensing

[Heiwa1580]

Hoping to start the discussion on Music Licensing. Do we need to sign up for ASCAP, BMI, SECAP, and other licensing groups in order to be legally protected on Glimesh? Or are we not responsible for that?

If we do add those licenses what does that allow us to do in terms of copyright music?

If we don't add those licenses what legally do we have to do to keep the platform safe?

[clone1018]

Trying to break down the logical table a bit here to understand what covers what. @Heiwa1580 do you have more info here?

	Live Stream w/ Background Music	Live Stream w/ Music Cover	VODs
Sync	?	?	Yes?
Mechanical	?	Yes?	?
Public Performance	Yes?	?	?

Sync Licensing
This method of licensing refers to music that is going to be paired with some form of visual media. It has a broad range of uses, including commercials, studio films, streaming advertisements, personal films, internal communications, and more.

Mechanical Licensing
A mechanical license is needed for any physical reproduction of an artist’s work. Primarily this refers to the manufacturing of CDs or distribution of music in any tangible form. Artists, aka copyright holders, will have agreements with record labels, distributors, and publishers on the mechanical terms of their music, and are generally paid per-copy.

A mechanical license is also needed if you are planning on recording a cover song, even if only a portion of the original song is used. This also includes adding your own lyrics, re-mixing, or changing anything about the original recording that affects the overall integrity of the artists' composition.

Public Performance License
This license is perhaps the most common form of music license issued today. While ‘performance’ may be a limiting term, it applies generally to any broadcast of an artist’s work. This includes businesses who play music in their store, jukeboxes, or any other form of public performance — all the way up to concerts. Performing rights organizations (PROs) such as BMI, SESAC, and ASCAP generally manage public performance licenses and issue music royalties to artists on a per-use basis.

from: https://www.musicbed.com/knowledge-base/types-of-music-licenses/28

[Heiwa1580]

	Live Stream w/ Background Music	Live Stream w/ Music Cover	VODs
Sync	Yes	Yes (For Broadcaster)	Yes (For Broadcaster)
Mechanical	X	X	Yes (For Platform and Broadcaster)
Public Performance	Yes	Yes	Yes

This is how I currently understand it

• Clarifying Edit 11/06/2020 - 09:17 EST

Mechanical and Sync licenses need to be obtained for every piece of audio used.

Edit 11/30/2020 - 11:47am EST

Sync license is for synchronizing audio with video and is needed for all live streams.
Mechanical License is needed for VODs.
Public Performance License is needed to play the song.

[Heiwa1580]

Per J4SIN

The broadcaster would be responsible for the licensing but you guys as the service have safe-harbor protection as long as you address violations. The problem with that is, as a service if you have to many violations you can lose your safe-harbor protection. I did a little more digging and the definitions are really grey and many lawyers are staying on the safe side and recommending sync licenses for live and vods - this is crazy expensive but again, that would fall to the broadcaster. The one license you won't need to worry with is the Mechanical, that is for audio only and since there is video/media involved. If you were putting out a compilation album or CD that is just music then a Mechanical license is needed. PROs have blanket licenses available that can help cover live performance and streaming but the license will depend on what you as a service plan to offer (how many listeners/users/daily/hours played.. etc...).

Noah Downs is a music attorney who deals with this often and he has posted lots of good info on Twitter.. I couldn't find all the info but did find this on his page: https://morrisonrothman.com/news/2019/11/12/music-for-live-streaming

[Heiwa1580]

https://twitter.com/MyLawyerFriend/status/1324848311690530818?s=19

Some info for the licensing.

So I think the honest answer is with DMCA we will need an honest and straight forward approach.

We should eventually have performance licensing in place to help streams who may have sync licenses for cover songs. I dont believe that we will need it at launch as long as we are open about what licenses we hold.

As time progresses and profit increase i would love to explore the idea of negotiating sync licenses for streamers on Glimesh. But this is the only way we can justify having songs play on stream. We need both PRO and Sync licenses. It is the safe route to go.

Now Safe Harbor is something else we need to look into. How aggressive do we need to be to continue to be considered for safe harbor? Do we need to be proactive or can we be reactive to DMCA infringements?

[Cykotiq]

Legal info on what we need to do as a company
Legal info on streamers rights and options

The DMCA requires your service provider to notify you promptly when it removes any of your content because of a takedown notice, and you have the right to submit a counter-notice asking that the material be put back up. There is no specific time limit for submitting a counter-notice, but you should not delay unreasonably in doing so. If you send a counter-notice, your online service provider is required to replace the disputed content unless the complaining party sues you within fourteen business days of your sending the counter-notice. (Your service provider may replace the disputed material after ten business days if the complaining party has not filed a lawsuit, but it is required to replace it within fourteen business days.)

some interesting take-aways:

• we are not required to delete the content, only disable access to it.
• if they file a valid counter-notice we may restore it after 10-14 days if no lawsuit is filed
• we should to designate a copyright agent and file with U.S. copyright office ($105 fee)
• we may wish to create a form on the site to make it easier for users to file a proper counter-notice
• we can provide [non-lawyer] guidance on what is and isn't fair use, or invalid reasons to dispute a claim

I am not a lawyer, but these may also be true (worth investigating?):

• content must be removed "expeditiously", not necessarily immediately (within 12hrs?)
• we must remove the content from the site, but maybe we can provide a [prominently watermarked?] copy of the VOD to the owner, along with the takedown notice, as "evidence"
• if can wait 12hrs after giving notice to remove it, the streamer has a chance to download a backup
• we are not required to comply with incomplete or invalid (bad faith) takedown notices
• we are required to terminate the accounts of "repeat infringers", but it is not limited to just 3 strikes (could be 5, could be 10, could be 3 within a certain timeframe)
• "infringement" in this context doesn't have to mean ANY takedown notices (valid or invalid) , it could mean only takedown notices that have not been contested

[Heiwa1580]

https://www.riaa.com/resources-learning/licensing/

https://www.crb.gov/

https://www.soundexchange.com/service-provider/licensing-101/

[Heiwa1580]

Interesting article and has some straight info on what needs to happen.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/publishing/9403794/live-streaming-licensing-royalties-david-israelite-nmpa-guest-column

[Heiwa1580]

https://folk.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Legal-Landscape-of-Live-Streaming_NA_April272020.pdf

Pretty comprehensive document on it