quote:

Originally posted by 007bond-jb

As long as you don’t play the song exactly like the origanl recording, Same tempo, key, lyrics & note for note, Its ok. Most all copy bands never play the songs Exactly like the origanl recording, I know we didn’t. We allways changed the words too.

who told you that? There’s a ton of incorrect ideas in that statement. Truth is, JB, you posting your band playing cover songs on the Internet is an infringement of the original song – no matter what arrangement you created for your performance.

quote:

Originally posted by 007bond-jb

I have been envolved in sound & lighting at churches for some time now. I noticed many worship songs are old rock songs with the lyrics changed to religious words & phrases.

Those songs have all been protected. The rights have been legally acquired. The printed hymnals have gotten their permissions. The church has acquired its rights to have that music performed.

When a song has been published, the doctrine of Fair Use has been successfully argued in court for the allowance of other people to perform the song without permission. There’s no stipulation the song cannot sound exactly as the recording. However, there cannot be a recording of the performance made without permission (except for archival purposes under some circumstances) All performance spaces pay ASCAP fees to cover the royalties for the public display of the copyrighted music. Bars included. Non-profit organizations, such as churches, are not exempt from this fee. In addition, some performance groups, such a s community bands, who exclusively play protected music, may be responsible for additional royalties, especially if the performance space has not payed any ASCAP fees.

If you acquired permission to make your motion picture from the copyright owner of the song(s), then you can actually claim copyright in the motion picture and the sounds accompanying the motion picture. However, you cannot legally publically display or sell the recording without aquiring those rights and permissions, becvause the songs contained on the motion picture are protected. If you did not receive permission to make the recording, you have what’s considered an illegal copy of the work and cannot claim and rights in the motion picture.