An Overview of Rights Clearance
Music | Celebrities | Film & TV
Clips | Photos | Texts of
Any Kind | Art | Sports
Images | Cartoon Characters | Trademarks
This is a general guide. Some clearance projects may
include complex issues that cannot be covered here.
BEFORE YOU START A PROJECT: Always check on
whether the material you want is available for your project - and at a fee you can afford.
Rights owners sometimes refuse requests or require a fee that is not within your budget.
(Synchronized with visuals [videos, slide shows, films, TV shows,
CD-ROMs])
To use a commercial recording, permissions
are needed from:
- the music publisher
- the record company
- musicians, background singers and, possibly, principal performers
To make your own recording of the music
and lyrics of popular songs, exactly as written, you need:
- permission from the music publisher
- releases from the performers you hire
To change lyrics, the permission of the music
publisher is required. Usually publishers insist on seeing and approving the changes in
advance. The smaller the change, the more easily and quickly the permission can be
obtained. Sometimes the right to change lyrics is refused. If you do obtain permission,
you can make your own recording with your new lyrics.
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If you are making use of a celebrity or public figure in your
project you need to be aware that over the last 10-20 years, legal developments have
created new rights for deceased celebrities when they are used commercially.
Celebrities now own and control the commercial use
of their names and likenesses, both during their lifetimes and for at least 100 years
after their deaths. This is true of all well-known people – be
they performers, sports figures, politicians, CEOs – or public
figures from any walk of life.
Anything from a brochure to advertise your company to a print ad in
a trade or consumer magazine to the imitation of a famous voice (Bogart, for instance) on
your in-house video can be considered a commercial use. If you want to use the name,
likeness, voice, or signature of any celebrity/public figure in your project, make sure to
find out if you need to clear their publicity rights or not.
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The commercial use of clips from movies and TV programs is
complicated and expensive because of the large number of rights involved. Permissions are
required from the current owner of the production (usually a major movie studio or TV
production company) and from each of the performers appearing in the clip.
Also, permission may be required from the Writers and Directors Guilds. Movie companies
and TV producers tend to charge high fees and some of them do not allow their clips to be
used. Some performers are difficult to locate. Other rights, such as music used in the
clip, may also require separate permission.
These considerations mean that clips often are not affordable or
available for small projects such as in-house use, and are expensive and time-consuming to
clear for other uses.
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To make commercial use of a photograph, permission
must be obtained from its owner. The photographer who took the picture is usually the
owner, but some photos are owned by organizations - newspapers, magazines, wire services,
et cetera.
Commercial use of a pictured subject may involve other
rights. Do not assume that permission from a stock photo house implies permission
to use the likeness of any person appearing in a photo, or a brand name, trademark, or
logo. If the subject is a person, does the owner have releases covering your use? If the
person is a celebrity or a public figure, you may have to obtain permission as discussed
under Celebrities in this section.
In general, you need to think of clearing a photograph as a
two-level process:
- Obtaining the rights from the owner of the copyright in the picture,
usually the photographer (who is often represented by a stock picture agency).
- Obtaining rights for anything in the photograph that requires an
additional clearance. Who or what is in the photograph? Do you need to clear a celebrity
or the use of a trademark or something that is otherwise owned or protected?
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 | TEXT: ARTICLES, NON-FICTION, LITERARY
WORKS, POEMS |
To reprint, reproduce or record a literary property,
you must get permission from the owner of the copyright. Often this means contacting the
publisher, who represents the author. In some cases, however, the author represents
himself of, if the author is deceased, rights may belong to the author's estate. Or the
material, if it is old enough, might be in the Public Domain. The legal owner must be
determined and the rights cleared before you can use the text.
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Clearance for the use of art is a two-level process (much like
clearances for photographs):
- The first level of clearance to be considered is whether the
painting, sculpture, drawing, cartoon, or design is under copyright (clearance needed), or
in the Public Domin (no clearance needed). If you need clearance, the copyright in most
contemporary works of art is held by the artist or their heirs, no matter who owns
the painting or sculpture (collage, tapestry, et cetera).
- The second level arises because you need to use a photograph or color
transparency of the work to reproduce the work, and not the work itself. Whoever
photographed the art to create the print/transparency you are using owns its separate
copyright, and that person's clearance must be obtained.
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You obviously need to obtain permission from the athletes you want
to use, whether they are living or dead. However, sports frequently involve other
clearances. If an athlete is wearing an official or team uniform, use of the uniform has
to be cleared. If the athlete is shown at an actual sports event - The Super Bowl, for
instance - clearance may be needed from the organizer(s) of the event. If you are using a
photograph or a video of the athlete, you may have to obtain separate rights from the
photographer or the videographer.
Olympic symbols: In the United States Olympic symbols, trademarks,
and names may only be used by Olympic sponsors.
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Superman, Bugs Bunny, The Simpsons et al...These are
often very hard to license and usually extremely expensive. In addition, the companies
that own them will, almost always, have to do the drawing and any animation that needs to
be done for you. They do not allow anyone to draw or animate the characters but themselves
- and for good reason. Superman could end up with his hair parted on the wrong side! This
means extra fees and requires lead time be built into your schedule. The owners also
insist on approving everything in final form before you can use it. Many companies have
worked with them successfully, but you have to have the willingness, the time, and a
significant and suitable project with a large budget. They are not interested in small,
low budget projects. Most of the characters cannot be associated with alcohol, gambling or
drugs - not even aspirin!
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They aren’t copyrighted – they are
protected. "Copyright registration cannot be made for names, titles, and other short
phrases or expressions."
All of the above and more, except titles for single works (a book or
a song), can be protected under the Federal trademark statutes of 1946 and 1989, and by
international agreement (the Paris Convention). For information about registering a
"mark," check the Patent and Trademark website or write the Commissioner of
Patents and Trademarks, Washington, D.C. 20231, not the Copyright Office.
When you want to use a trademark, the mark-owner’s permission
should be sought. Owners of trademarks have a variety of responses to requests for use of
their marks. Some grant permission without charging a fee for the public relations value
of the use. Others hardly ever allow their marks to be used for any reason. And some
companies use their trademarks as a source of profit.
Because trademarks are usually owned by companies who are not set up
to grant permissions for use of their marks, obtaining an answer about whether you can use
a mark or not can be slow-going.
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To obtain articles in more depth on these subjects, go to Free Info.
If your project involves rights clearance,
take advantage of our free phone consultation. We can give you an estimate of
what copyright and celebrity issues may be involved and what the fees might be.
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