sampling movie lines for use in music...royalties?

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:59 am

Is there a set rule for clearing movie samples for use in music?

Is there a time duration that determines if royalties are necessary?

Thanks.

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:06 pm

You should contact ASCAP or BMI for more information, or Google "motion picture score royalties" for more info.

mckelly · Post by **mckelly** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:52 pm

David Polich wrote:You should contact ASCAP or BMI for more information, or Google "motion picture score royalties" for more info.

If what Hollywood is asking about is movie dialog, then ASCAP or BMI are not going to be much help. His question with respect to timing is prescient - this is a matter of de minimis use of a portion of a copyrighted work (motion picture). Assuming that he is not using dialog from entire movie, then there should not be a problem. I would restrain to a few lines. A dissertation in copyright law and a treatise on 9th and 2nd circuit court opinions would be required to explain the consequences of using artistic works.

And as an aside, I would admonish against 'googling' anything when it comes to law.

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:39 pm

Yes, dialog is what I'm referring to. Sorry about the confusion.

Everyone has heard a song I'm sure where there are a few lines used from a movie. Some lines when taken out of the context of the movie itself produce very cool results.

I prepping some instrumental stuff that I'd like to make available commercially, but I haven't included any such samples for fear of copyright issues.