Copyright status of vocal tracks, Television and otherwise

cochise · Post by **cochise** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:42 am

Question for you gentlemen/ladies/neuter, I know a fair amount about licensing copyrighted works for audio and video, but what does one need to do for a vocal sample from something such as Carl Sagan's Cosmos? We'd be willing to pay license, but not sure who to contact or how to go about it. We really only need a few lines for an introduction. Thanks in advance

cochise

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:56 am

go to the us copyright office's website, search for who owns the rights, contact them. if the copyright owner get a lot of questions they may even have a faq on their site.
-bill

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:59 am

hmm...it is a sound performance, so ASCAP may have some help, if you call them with the question. Cosmos was produced by PBS, so you might try contacting them also.

He's an interesting man, and his estate may control his IP as he liked to:

From answers.com:
In 1994, Apple Computer began developing the Power Macintosh 7100. They chose the internal code name "Carl Sagan," in honor of the astronomer. Though the project name was strictly internal and never used in public marketing, when Sagan learned of this internal usage, he sued Apple Computer to use a different project name â€” other projects had names like "Cold fusion" and "Piltdown Man", and he was displeased at being associated with what he considered pseudoscience. Though Sagan lost the suit, Apple engineers complied with his demands anyway, renaming the project "BHA" (Butthead Astronomer). Sagan sued Apple for libel over the new name, claiming that it subjected him to contempt and ridicule. Sagan lost this lawsuit as well; still, the 7100 saw another name change: it was lastly called "LAW" (Lawyers Are Wimps).

deshead · Post by **deshead** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:21 pm

PBS, specifically KCET Los Angeles. I'd call them first.

Here are the other company credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081846/companycredits

cochise · Post by **cochise** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 4:25 pm

You know, I'm gonna make some calls, but this feels like an uphill battle to me. Probably easier to get someone learned sounding to record some freshly made sound samples... You guys know your shiz, that's for sure. Thanks all around

blue · Post by **blue** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:09 pm

whatever happened with your presonus?

sos tried to clear the junk we used on our album fight, but it was too much trouble and everyone wanted like $10k for shit that no one is ever going to hear.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:36 pm

I tried to clear rights for a Dixie Chicks sample and got a lot of run around. Both the publisher (for the song writers) and the agency for the (recording) made it difficult to get an answer. The PRO agent told me that since its just an indie thing I'm not selling it's prolly not worth it! Of course now I can just splice in Brody's cover version of the break

cochise · Post by **cochise** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:36 am

Well, the thing with the FireBox finally worked out. I wound up trying out 3 PCMCIA cards for the laptop before one worked. I've been testing it to make sure, but no dropouts in the last few weeks. The preamp on the FireBox isn't giving me much volume, but that's okay since I have a TubePRE in line before it now. You know that feeling where something didn't work before so you think it won't work each time after? I still get that worry, but so far it's playing nice.