(I put your thread in the musicians section, as they are most likely to know.)

Thanks Easy Livin. Sorry I didn't know in which exact section to put it.

 

 And about it, I still think that one might need to seek permission for them to claim royalties for profits. I might ask Ivan as he is a lawyer graduate (I'm just a student 2nd year); although I'm not sure if he handles these kind of matters

 

 Yes you're probably right; but there's the doubt that the one who violated the law was the person who released it or the person who recorded it and sold it.

 

 I just sent a PM to Ivan, I'm sure he can give me more clearance on this. Thanks anyway for your contributions. I'll wait for more opinions in this thread.

 

  Yes, I got more or less the same answer from Ivan. Thanks bhikkhu.

 

(1) Independently of the author's economic rights, and even after the transfer of the said rights, the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation.

 

The text doesn't mention if there must be profit or not.

 

Now I have to give you worst news, the list of coutries who signed the WIPO Convention (Which accepts the Berne Convention) is bigger, 184 nations:

 

 

 

Yes, you can ask him permission while giving him a brown moose ice cream.

 

 And Thanks again Ivan, I'm sure this post made public will answer people here with the same question.

 

Yes you're right Bob, there are 192 nations recognized by the UN (This makes 193 because the Vatican has chosen not to be a member of the UN and one that used to be a country but no longer is Taiwan) but not sure how many more not recogtnized there are, because every day a small country appears somewhere splitting from an already small country.

 

Most of the countries that have not signed the treaty are those who are in terrible civil wars and have other issues to worry about.

 

Iván

 

Vatican is not part of the UN (To avoid political participation), but it's a nation and have signed the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), you can find them in the above list as Holy See.

 

Even more, The Holy See signed the WIPO in 1975, so was one of the first countries toi do it.

 

So, no you can't copy Black Sabbath neither Hells Bells by AC/DC

 

Iván

 

Madre de Diós, Iván! I searched City of Vatican, The Vatican... never was able to figure that the only Holy See in the World is from our beloved RC Church!

 

 

 

Yep, it's the only Holy See with status of nation.

 

I also thought Vatican was the official name, but this is copied from the WIPO page, so seems the real name accepted by other nations is Holy See.

 

Iván

 

Other "sees" existed in the past like some muslim sultanates in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia Major, that were independent then; also some buddhist holy cities. I think that some of them have until now some autonomous status but nothing compared with The Vatican - a real nation.

 

 

Live music.  As someone stated above, live music venues pay money to be licenced.  In the UK this is administered by the PRS. So you can play those cover versions OK.

 

Recorded music.  This is administered in the UK by the MCPS.  If you record it, you need to get it cleared.  There is no exception to this.  If you post a cover on myspace and it's not cleared, it's illegal.  Even if you don't sell anything.

 

If a cover song is going to appear on a CD you need to obtain a "mechanical licence" which is my reading of the MCPS info means that you need to pay 8.5% of the unit price pro-rata in time by the total length of the CD. (I.e. if you have a 6 minute track which is the only cover on a 60 minute disk, then you need to pay 8.5% of 10% of the cover price to the MCPS.)

 

if it is web-based you need to obtain a digital licence.  In the UK if this is likely to mean less than 45,000 streams it will cost you ... wait for it... £100 for a "Limited Online Exploitation Licence "

 

see all the details here: http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk - http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk

 

In the US things are a little easier.  the Harry Fox agency ( http://www.harryfox.com/index.jsp - http://www.harryfox.com/index.jsp ) handle things painlessly on behalf of most publishers and you can even pay by credit card online.

 

Other countries have similar schemes.  You will have to research it for yourself.

 

But basically.  If you are going to present a version of someone's music in any form, CD, MP3, stream, wax cylinder, or crystalline lattice memory player... THAT SOMEONE IS DUE A CUT, AND NEEDS TO GET PAID.

 

Hope this is helpful

 

Well, it's hard because the limit for an artistic material to be public domain is 120 years after the death of the author.

 

Independently that Jesus resurrected, his official dead was in 33 AD, so the official date in which the Lord's Prayer becomes public domain is 158 AD

 

BTW: I don't believe that Israel or Rome had signed WIPO or Berne Conventions in 32 or 31 AD,. To be honest I doubt Jesius copyrighted the prayer because in those days there was no copyright.

 

Iván