MTSU has a contract with at least one of the major music producers/distributors that covers any song in their "catalog" for use in student projects. Before you proceed to ask the students, or try yourself, to secure rights to the individual songs, I recommend you check with your university counsel's office or student affairs/programming office to find out if your campus has such a contract. If so, ask for details. If not, proceed with the advice already offered.
Good luck, Gail ________________________________ From: videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu [videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu] on behalf of Cary Jardine [cjard...@antioch.edu] Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 11:57 AM To: videolib@lists.berkeley.edu Subject: [Videolib] Use of music in student productions Dear list...I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this question but this is not really my forte so I'd love to hear from those whose forte it is! Here's the situation: Every spring, students in one of our programs put on a dance performance on our campus for students, staff, faculty, and I think anyone else who wants to drop in. This year they also put on the performance in the evening at an off-campus venue, filmed it, and have now asked the library to make the DVD available for circulation. I'm a reference librarian but also our cataloger and as I was watching the DVD to get some information about it for the catalog record, I saw the list of dances and the specific music (most of it current/modern/popular) that had accompanied each piece. Of course now I'm wondering whether the students A, needed permission to use this music in this situation (I think so) and B, if so whether they actually obtained permission (I doubt it). Here's my question: should permission have been obtained for the music used in the performance, and if so should the library accept and circulate the DVD if permission was not obtained? Thanks in advance for any advice. I'm an avid reader of this list; you guys all know so much more about this stuff than I do! Cary Jardine, MLS Research and Instruction Librarian Antioch University New England Keene, NH 03431 603.283.2405<tel:603.283.2405> cjard...@antioch.edu<mailto:cjard...@antioch.edu>
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.