X-rated Bob wrote
deefstes wrote
Excellent stuff. Thanks for posting this HWC. The page also has a link to an article she wrote dealing specifically with the issue of uploading cover songs to Youtube. It turns out I was completely wrong in my understanding of copyright law. Thanks, this was well worth the read.
Caveat by the blogger herself: "This blog is about law and music and film and design business in the United States of America. If you are from a different nation, your laws are different. "
So it's useful and interesting and all of that, but everything she puts there is from the perspective of US law. The mechanical licenses that she talks about are entrenched in law in the USA but not are not valid in other territories or even provided for in law.
True that, but:
1. I suspect when I upload a cover of an American band onto Youtube, I'm probably bound by US copyright law. I can't remember exactly what I agreed to when I ticked the "I have read and agree to the Youtube terms and conditions" but I suspect it would have included something to that effect.
2. Even though that is Youtube and this is GFSA, it's probably still a good article to take into consideration. Besides, we'll probably upload our entries to box.net or soundcloud and no doubt, those would have had their own terms and conditions to which we agreed.
Let's face it though, you can probably record an exact cover of any artist and upload it here, you will most likely not get into trouble for it. But at least, it's good to know what the copyright law really says, even if it is US copyright law.
