{"id":15571,"date":"2013-08-19T00:16:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T07:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/?p=15571"},"modified":"2013-08-19T00:15:52","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T07:15:52","slug":"radio-copyright-infringement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/","title":{"rendered":"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY&#8217;S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.danoday.com\/copyright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6098\" alt=\"music copyright infringement in radio commercials\" src=\"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Gavel.jpg\" width=\"297\" height=\"188\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">A Loyal Reader Writes:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">&#8220;I&#8217;m working in television these days, and ran into a rather interesting challenge the other day. Here&#8217;s the situation: the client is a small market car dealer who uses a little 2-person ad agency. In my role as a consultant working with a television station, I met with the agency last week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">&#8220;The agency subsequently sent me some of their commercials for evaluation. Included in the bunch was one that makes use of copyrighted material. There is a jingle using the infrastructure of an extremely well-known classic rock tune. The instrumentation sounds the same, the vocalist is a dead ringer for the vocalist on the original hit, and the lyrics are altered just slightly to refer to the savings a customer might receive by shopping at the dealership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">&#8220;I did not know this one was in the mix when we had the meeting, so I did not have a chance to ask where it came from, and whether the song had been properly licensed. It&#8217;s possible that everything was done correctly and all is fine, but it&#8217;s also possible that these guys just hired a band and did it without asking any questions. The ad is now running on multiple television stations, and there is a version on radio as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">&#8220;If the ad was produced by an ad agency and they didn&#8217;t pay for a license, can the television and radio stations be held liable?&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">I&#8217;ll quote from my own book (first having carefully sought permission from myself to do so), <a href=\"http:\/\/danoday.com\/copyright-laws\"><em>THE ULTIMATE, NON-LAWYER\u2019S GUIDE TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IN RADIO COMMERCIALS\u2026And How To Avoid It.<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">I&#8217;m the person asking the questions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">The person answering the questions is a well-known Intellectual Property attorney who is widely quoted in legal circles in relation to copyright law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\"><strong>Q:<\/strong> An advertising agency creates a commercial for a submarine sandwich shop, using The Beatles&#8217; &#8220;Yellow Submarine.&#8221; They rewrite the lyrics and record it themselves. It&#8217;s the same melody, but they&#8217;ve changed the lyrics a bit to work in the client&#8217;s message. For example, instead of &#8220;We all live in a yellow submarine,&#8221; they change it to &#8220;We all eat at the Yellow Submarine.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\">The agency delivers the new commercial to my radio station. Can my station go ahead and air it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\"><strong>A:<\/strong> Has the advertiser or the advertising agency acquired a license to use the music?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\"><strong>Q:<\/strong> No.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\"><strong>A:<\/strong> You&#8217;re taking a big chance. One of the things about copyright liability that people often don&#8217;t understand is that it is what is called &#8220;Strict Liability.&#8221; That means it doesn&#8217;t matter what your intent was.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\">For example, you can&#8217;t commit fraud by mistake; you have to intend to commit fraud for it to be fraud. But you can commit a copyright violation by mistake. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know&#8221; or &#8220;I was just playing what they gave me&#8221; or &#8220;I didn&#8217;t really mean to&#8221; don&#8217;t help you at all. Anybody who is involved in infringing a copyright owner&#8217;s rights is an infringer and is liable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\"><strong>Q:<\/strong> If you&#8217;re an attorney representing the copyright owner, who will you go after?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\"><strong>A:<\/strong> I will go after everybody I can find.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\"><strong>Q:<\/strong> So in addition to the advertising agency, that might be the submarine sandwich shop and the radio station \u2014 which might be part of a huge corporation&#8230;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; font-family: times new roman,times;\"><strong>A:<\/strong> Exactly.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Loyal Reader Writes: &#8220;I&#8217;m working in television these days, and ran into a rather interesting challenge the other day. Here&#8217;s the situation: the client is a small market car dealer who uses a little 2-person ad agency. In my role as a consultant working with a television station, I met with the agency last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY&#039;S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY&#039;S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Loyal Reader Writes: &#8220;I&#8217;m working in television these days, and ran into a rather interesting challenge the other day. Here&#8217;s the situation: the client is a small market car dealer who uses a little 2-person ad agency. In my role as a consultant working with a television station, I met with the agency last [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DanODayRadio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-19T07:16:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Gavel.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan O&#039;Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Dan_ODay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Dan_ODay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan O&#039;Day\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan O'Day\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c\"},\"headline\":\"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY&#8217;S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-19T07:16:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":568,\"commentCount\":2,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/Gavel.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/\",\"name\":\"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY'S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/Gavel.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-19T07:16:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/Gavel.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/Gavel.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/radio-copyright-infringement\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY&#8217;S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO\",\"description\":\"Straight talk about radio programming, radio advertising, radio production...Well, you get the idea.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c\",\"name\":\"Dan O'Day\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/assistant\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY'S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY'S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO","og_description":"A Loyal Reader Writes: &#8220;I&#8217;m working in television these days, and ran into a rather interesting challenge the other day. Here&#8217;s the situation: the client is a small market car dealer who uses a little 2-person ad agency. In my role as a consultant working with a television station, I met with the agency last [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/","og_site_name":"DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DanODayRadio","article_published_time":"2013-08-19T07:16:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Gavel.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Dan O'Day","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Dan_ODay","twitter_site":"@Dan_ODay","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan O'Day","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/"},"author":{"name":"Dan O'Day","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c"},"headline":"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY&#8217;S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT","datePublished":"2013-08-19T07:16:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/"},"wordCount":568,"commentCount":2,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Gavel.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/","url":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/","name":"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY'S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Gavel.jpg","datePublished":"2013-08-19T07:16:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Gavel.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Gavel.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/radio-copyright-infringement\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"RADIO OR TV STATION LIABILITY DUE TO AD AGENCY&#8217;S COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/","name":"DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO","description":"Straight talk about radio programming, radio advertising, radio production...Well, you get the idea.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c","name":"Dan O'Day","url":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/author\/assistant\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15571"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15588,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15571\/revisions\/15588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}