CD cover artwork and copyright

using them in blogs and reviews

[sniffer]

Believe it or not, i couldnt find anything specifically about this topic

I have a site that reviews music, and i want to feature along side the reviews:

- images from the CD covers and sleeve notes
- sample MP3s (not in full)

these are not used for direct selling of the music itself (that is, its not an affiliate site), rather a blog/commentary that earns income through web traffic

So whats the deal with using the sleeve artwork? I have purchased all of the CDs i review, however the site generates income from the content which includes the artwork...which people want to see!

thoughts?

Thanks

[Leosghost]

the artwork is copyright ..you cant use it

[stapel]

Limited use of cover art might be covered under the "Fair Use" guidelines, but I don't know about the sampling. And since you're making money from these reviews, I would strongly advise that you consult with an attorney before posting copyrighted content. "Fair Use" is nebulous, and you'll want competent advice before taking what could turn out to be a very expensive action.

Just my $0.02....

Eliz.

US Copyright Office: Fair Use [copyright.gov]

[Beagle]

Well, you could use any or all of the material if you got the permission of the copyright holder. Maybe he/she/they would agree that it's for their own benefit and would allow you to use the material.

Other than that route:

If you don't have anything against becoming an affiliate, you might consider it. Some people become Amazon associates primarily because it lets them legally show pictures of products on their site (and if you earn a little money, too...). If you use Amazon's image links, you can get most cover art; check out the various types of links to see what kind could give you the largest image. For many CD's Amazon even provides some "listen to" snippits if visitors click over to their site. If your site is devoted to a particular band, check their record label's site to see if it might have an affiliate program of its own.

Regarding liner notes, it would certainly be a copyright violation to publish the entire notes. But I'd think (nonlegal opinion) you could quote a phrase or two from them in your review--in quotation marks and properly cited, of course. The percentage of a work quoted is a consideration legally, so with something as short as liner notes you wouldn't want to quote very much. It's not like you're reviewing a 500-page book.

[affgirl]

So, does that mean, Amazon and other sites like that, are getting written legal permission and contracts on literally MILLIONS of different artists and album photographers, and directors, and graphic designers etc. before publishing thumbnails of CD's and Movies and DVD's that they sell on their site? I don't think so! It's fair use if you are selling the physical item and just posting a photo of the actual physical item you are selling. Or if you are posting it to comment, critique or review it. Either the photo itself or the subject of the photo and what it represents.

There are however, a lot of photo banks etc. where you can purchase bulk photos and licensed unlimited use of them. There probably is for common things like products, dvd's, cd's etc. So that you don't have to take your own photos of your CD's you own and want to publish.

I have no idea about the mp3's though. Maybe someone else knows.

[mack]

The music files...
You would really need to contact the record label/copyright holder before you used mp3's. Obtaining permission to use music from artists will probably be your biggest problem.

As for cd artwork. This may be possible. Some studios have press packs for new singles/albums that they release. Often you will have the right to use any material they suppply with the press pack.

You need to know exactly what you can and cant use though.

Mack.

[Syzygy]

Wow! This is really close to my heart relative to a personal/hobby project I want to do.

What if I wanted to reproduce the cover art and sleeve notes of specific vinyl albums from c.1960 - 1975?

Syzygy

[sniffer]

Thanks for your replies :)

Im thinking about using thumbnail images of the front cover only, say 100 x 100px. They would be helping to promote the artist's album (and artwork) ... and arguably, would not be sufficient to draw any traffic in their own merit, therefore i would not be making money from their inclusion. Also, 100% of the non-template content would be referring to the subject of the artwork >> fair use?

Ill leave out the music samples for the time being - i suppose that will save same bandwith and worrying about legality

It is an interesting idea about becoming an affiliate in order to get use of copyrighted artwork - i hadnt thought of that

Syzygy - might aswell keep it in the same thread :)

[frostman]

IANAL, I could be wrong, double-check this, consult your attorney, blablabla.

I used to be in the digital music biz, but on the techie side. My best recollection is that you can use up to 30 seconds of a song for things like previews and reviews without needing clearance. And I don't think it matters which 30 seconds, meaning you don't have to use the part where they tune the guitars.

Again, double, triple check that, but I'm almost sure that was the case at one point and still may be.

Album cover art may be trickier, but I do believe you can show the basic identifying images of the thing you're reviewing without getting any special clearance.

As for other stuff, like band photos and so on, chances are pretty good the label owns a lot of the copyrights on that sort of thing, and if you're generally linking to legal places to buy the music, they're likely to give you permission on the images. Even if you pan one of their artists, the labels are looking at averages and don't care much whether you like Musician X. No such thing as bad press, etc.

Any band that doesn't have a label is going to be thrilled to get the exposure in the first place.

Also, make sure your site is as professional-looking as possible. Labels are constantly giving love (and gifts!) to the "serious" music press, and if they think you're part of it or could be soon, they'll be a lot nicer to you.

My $.02, memory-based, hope it helps a bit.

[Iwrite]

I created a CD, and the artwork for the cover is, as I understand it, copyright to my son who is an artist as he designed it - unless of course the publisher bought the rights. I would assume that as with anything written, the best thing is to give a copy to someone else in a way that makes the date of production clear - I guess emailing the art to yourself would do this. Better still, artists should register things as their copyright.

I think that you have to have the artist, or the producer, or production company's permission to reproduce anything - best thing is to write to whoever owns copyright and ask.

[Leosghost]

The amount of a peice of music such as sample of MP3 you can reproduce is limited to "it must be less than 4 bars"..

Aff Girl
The cover art is reproduced by amazon etc on their site in order to let them sell it because we the cover artists have signed the possibility to reproduce our artwork for the purposes of the music companies merchandising and that of their affiliates into our copyright deal with the record company ..
Its not because you wouldn't bother to do that in order to stay legal that they didn't..
And it's ceratinly not because you might be doing it to sell copies of the album,that that would make it any better /more legal etc..
Reveiw sites and magazines which are reveiwing the contents of the CD's or vynils do have to have written permission from the artist or the record company to post pictures of the covers..the size of the picture is immaterial ..

Where you might get away with it under fair use ( which does not pertain in all countries ) is if you posted a picture of the cover and then reveiwed the cover ,ie : discussed it artistic merits ( that does not mean saying "cool cover" and leaving it at that ..
Leaving it at that that will get you a lawsuit ..you will lose said lawsuit..

Reveiws must be serious rewiews to get through that door in the courts.
I am not a lawyer..

I design and illustrate( and have done so for many years ) book covers ,vynil record covers, cd covers and DVD covers amongst other artistic work ..

I do know the law on this one ..both US and UK ( been to court ..won the cases ..spoken in others ) ..

please people .what makes almost everyone think that you shouldn't rip off someones text without asking them ( and getting their permission )..that you shouldn't rip off someones music without asking them ( and getting their permission )..that you shouldn't rip off anyones photos (without asking them and getting their permission ) ..

But that somehow you can rip off someones drawing or painting and reproduce it without asking and obtaining their permission ..

Artists dont steal or missuse your work ..dont do those things with ours ..

And we'll be the ones to decide if we need the publicity that some of you think that reproducing our stuff might give us..

[inbound]

I can confirm that 30 second clips are OUT unless you have them licensed for online use!

I created a site for an opera singer that had her own recordings on it yet we still ran into licensing issues due to the songs being written/composed by others.

The issues were pointed out when we recieved a letter from (I forget exactly who) a legitimate music licensing body in the UK. They were OK in how they phrased things and gave us options rather than threatening us (probably because of who the site belonged to). I don't know how they would treat someone with no connection the music on their site.

Be very careful, we had to remove the samples and add a request a CD section (which we could do without an issue).

My 2p (which is waaay less than the cost of the licenses ;)

[Beagle]

So, does that mean, Amazon and other sites like that, are getting written legal permission and contracts on literally MILLIONS of different artists and album photographers, and directors, and graphic designers etc. before publishing thumbnails of CD's and Movies and DVD's that they sell on their site?

Absoposilutely -- with whoever owns the rights, anyway; all those people probably don't own the rights to the same thing. Same with book covers, "read inside the book" excerpts, and parts of CD tracks amazon makes available to listen to. Being big doesn't put you above the law, as google is hopefully learning from the publisher backlash against their "opt out" plans. Being big probably does mean that you have a department of employees who spend their time taking care of such things, and also having contracts with merchandizers that cover image use by both amazon and affiliates. But you can bet they're covered, or we'd be hearing about it big time.

I think this is supported by the fact that people/companies whose goods are being sold at amazon have some options to choose for or against. For example, they can opt out of being included in amazon's affiliate program, and in that case affiliates are forbidden to put any of amazon's text or images regarding those products on their websites.

(Not sure who's included in "and other sites like that," but if they're operating legitimately they're getting permissions. Some small sites are probably getting away without them because they're below the radar, but they can't count on that working forever.)