Incorporate a film clip and music into my website as a background. What legal issues do I need to deal with?
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Incorporate a film clip and music into my website as a background. What legal issues do I need to deal with?
If I use a famous film clip as my website background, and also cut a piece of music
from the same film into the background. What legal issues do I need to deal with?
Copyright? Trademarks?
Asked on April 17, 2016 under Business Law, Missouri
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
You will certainly be violating copyright, unless the material is in the "public domain"; all film and music is copyrighted unless in the public domain. As a practical matter, only very old material (generally, more than 75 years old) is public domain. You may also be violating trademark, if the material is used as a trasemark. If you are violating copyright and/or trademark, the rights owner could sue you for monetary compensation and/or for a court order requiring you to stop your violations, since no one other the rights owner has the right to use copyrighted or trademarked material.
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