Copyright Licenses For Movie Nights

Does your association host movie nights? How about events with live music? Events with music played from CDs (compact discs)?

The U.S. Copyright Act grants a copyright owner the exclusive right to perform or authorize someone else to perform the copyrighted work publicly. The federal courts have held owners of establishments (including associations) liable for copyright infringement acts of independent contractors (such as bands, disk jockeys, entertainers, etc.) that the associations may hire. Associations should not necessarily rely on independent contractors to get the necessary licensing for an event, which may include live music, music from discs or films.

Failure to obtain proper licensing can result in some big fines. The fines can range from $750 per incident to $150,000, plus penalties.

How do you obtain a license?

To obtain a license for movies, contact the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation (MPLC). As we all know, DVDs and home videocassettes are intended for home use only, and the public performance (“movie night”) of such videos requires a separate license. The MPLC offers a license that allows an organization (such as your association) to publicly perform a wide range of movies for a flat annual fee. This fee, however, does not cover showings where an admission is charged. For more information, you may visit their website at http://www.mplc.org or call 1-800-462-8855. To obtain a license, you may send them an email request to info@mplc.org.

To obtain a license for music, the following are the main organizations to contact:

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) –
ASCAP licenses the right to perform songs and musical works created and owned by songwriters, composers, lyricists and music publishers who are ASCAP members and members of foreign performing rights organizations who are represented by ASCAP in the United States. They can be contacted at http://www.ascap.com or 1-800-505-4052.

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) - The BMI repertoire contains the most performed music on American radio today, and is surely one of the top performed catalogs in the world. Chances are, if you are playing music, you are playing BMI music. You may visit their website at http://www.bmi.com or by calling 1-888-689-5264.

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