Legalities of Live Streaming?

[Steve Graham]

I have a question for my fellow [ms]'rs.. here goes:
My mates and I are on the verge of launching a web site. On this site we want to showcase new talent around the Bay area to start and move outward to give up and coming artists a place to post bios mix sets and original tracks. We also want to broadcast live a few times a week having guest dj's do live mixes. My question being, what are the legal aspects of broadcasting live over the net like alot of these web sites do? Or posting a mix set I may have recorded on my web site? Or broadcasting when doing a house party.. etc.. I hope this question is clear. Much thanks in advance for any and all help/info provided.

[toasty]

Re:: Legalities of Live Streaming?

Don't quote me on this, because this is not my area of expertise:

You've got two broad issues to deal with -- content and copyrighted material. With regard to content, I'm fairly certain you would be outside of the FCC's jurisdiction. Because of what you are planning to do, you are probably not going to run into too much trouble on the copyright side of things either, because you are dealing largely with original material that folks are going out of their way to submit to your site for the purpose of broadcasting it and/or making it available for download. If I were being cautious, I'd want someone submitting something to sign off on a document giving you permission to broadcast it.

You've got a few layers of copyright issues with mixsets, i.e., other folks that could claim the work is their own -- the original artist, and, if applicable, the artist responsible for any remixing. I suspect that some of the DJs on this board that spin for profit have a better handle on the practical aspects of this and would be a better source for info, but I would think that, given the nature of the music and the way it is promoted, you're not going to see anyone putting up a stink about their song being used as part of a larger mixset.

My $.02.

[fumanchu182]

http://www.wrf.com/publications/publication.asp?id=83155222003

Remember that was only a proposal but I recommend you read it all...

[Steve Graham]

Thank you for your input, much appreciated.
As far as peoples original music that would be available for download, that makes sense to get some sort of release form to let their music available for download. Just making sure it is known it has not been stolen.

As far as just broadcasting live mixes as some web sites have dj's doing their shows, I dont see any problems my self, but I could be wrong, I just want to make sure I am not missing something.

I guess it could be looked at like playing in a club, you dont have to licence everything you play, and like you said , in this scene people are more than happy to have their music played.

[nbpgt]

http://www.wrf.com/publications/publication.asp?id=83155222003

Remember that was only a proposal but I recommend you read it all...

what?? thats crazy.. but maybe it would be different if i were living off my musical productions... still i think most of it is from greedy record companies.

[Steve Graham]

^^^^yeah, I thought that was a bit wacky also. I am under the impression that just broadcasting a mix here and there maybe under different guidelines.. or it may be do it till you get caught sort of thing. I dont want to raise too many suspicions, so thats why I asked here.

[asdf_admin]

i think it all goes with the happy respect. if you show it, not proba. but there are always those who will rename a mp3 file as there own and use it as a demo. chumps.

sad, yet true.