Long shows & Copyrights

[P3D Derek Gee <73157.2172@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

With all the recent postings regarding long shows, I thought
I'd add my .02 cents worth.  I wholeheartedly endorse Norm's
comments 100%.  Last years NSA/ISU convention showed just
how poorly some of these programs are organized.  Things
were so bad last year that projectionist Ron Labbe publicly
asked folks to trim down the length of their shows adding
that the ones he had just projected should have been about
half the running time of what they were.

One joker last year thought we should look at his entire
output for 1994.  Another set of brothers thought we should
look at every show they ever made.  The people scheduling
the NSA/ISU shows also needed to allow more time for the
inevitable projection problems.  The shows ran far too
late and some that were scheduled were never seen at all.
Keep those slides on screen around 6-10 seconds and don't
let your program run longer than about 20 minutes.  That's
all your audience can take!

Paul wrote:
>One additional point: I have found many photographers are quite
>sensitive to the rights to their work.  Slides are often
>copyrighted jealously.  The same folks will put on a show
>with no royalties paid to the copyright holders of the
>music, and in most case no credits at all.  I would
>suggest that permission be obtained, or at least
>requested.  (Sometimes the copyright holder doesn't even answer
>such requests, in which case I say "permission pending," for
>what do I, a non-lawyer know about these things?)  Still,
>since music is such a big part of presentations, we should
>honor the creativity of musical artists, just as others
>should respect the rights of photographers.

The general rule of thumb here is if your program is NOT for
profit, you can usually use the music without worrying about 
copyright violations too much.  While you might technically
have a violation, the copyright holders are not likely to 
want to pursue you if there is no money involved.  If you do
use current, copyrighted material, please credit your music in the
program titles so that others who enjoyed it may 
purchase it if it is still in print.  The big problem comes
if you are using other's music in your show and charging people
admission.  The non-profit NSA shows would not likely be a
problem.

If you are at all worried about the music for your program,
either use public domain music, write and perform your own,
or purchase licensed music from a music library.  I'd
definately want to do something like that if I were
producing a show for public presentation at a museum or
as a traveling roadshow.

Disclaimer:  I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.  For
             help with your specific situation, please consult
             a real copyright lawyer.

                               Derek Gee
                               73157.2172@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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