4 ms·
Simply playing a song "in the background" without any critique, educational purpose, or other transformative fair use is almost certainly an performance of the
by pdkl95 6y ago
Simply playing a song "in the background" without any critique, educational purpose, or other transformative fair use is almost certainly an performance of the original work. If the cop doesn't have an appropriate license, they could be liable for statutory damages up to $150,000[1] per work.
Unfortunately, enforcing this will probably only happen if someone with standing files a lawsuit. I doubt many music labels that hold the relevant copyrights are interested in suing the cops.
[1] damages normally start much lower, but the performance of the copyright protected work is patently willful
- DrJokepu 6y agoThere are also sovereign immunity issues, see Allen v. Cooper.
- willcipriano 6y agoWouldn't you have to be a party to the infringing work for that to be true? Presumably you can sue the copyright holder of the film and not the "actors" as it were? For example, if a romcom rips off some music I created can I sue Ben Affleck because he appeared in it? I doubt it. I especially doubt it if he didn't want to be in the film.
- vidarh 6y agoThere are two separate potential copyright issues here: The public performance, and the recording. The cop was the one responsible for the public performance.
- akeck 6y agoASCAP, etc. will eventually want their bill paid for the public performances. That was my experience volunteering at small church coffee houses.
- oxfeed65261 6y agoIf I were an artist and learned that my work had been used in this manner, I would be outraged and would absolutely want to pursue damages for the unauthorized public performance, or demand that my record label pursue damages. I wonder how the members of Sublime feel about this.
- rlaabs 6y agoThe lead singer died decades ago, but I think it is still very clear what the band would think: the lyrics of one of their songs are about very similar issues: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_29,_1992_(Miami) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_29,_1992_(Miami) TLDR : Sublime is about as "anti-cop" as you can get.
- jariel 6y agoA cop, playing music for himself and one other person, most certainly is not in violation of anything. The person making the video 'without critique or educational purpose' is probably in violation, hence the take down. A label would never sue the cops first and foremost because they have no standing.