Hello, declan!
Let's break your question down into its parts to answer...
You may indeed be able to use songs by Tagore. If he's been dead for
more than 50 years, you yourself (or your employee) may perform the
songs as long as they have been released into the public domain.
You'll need to check with the office that handles copyright concerns
in your country just to be certain, though:
Intellectual Property Unit
Dept of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Earlsfort Centre
Lower Hatch Street
Dublin 2
Telephone: (353 1) 631 2121
http://www.entemp.ie
For songs by people not yet dead, you need to contact them each
individually through their music companies - for instance, if you're
looking to use your own performance of Enya's "On My Way Home", you
must contact the entity which holds the copyright to that music - in
this case, EMI Songs Ltd (Administered by SBK Blackwood) BMI.
And so on for each artist and song you wish to use. (If you're unsure
of who holds copyright for an individual song, flip open your copy of
the artist's CD, and check the lyrics list. Copyright information for
each song usually appears at the bottom of each song, or on the last
page of the booklet if all songs are owned by one entity.) You may
also find copyright information for each artist through performing
rights organizations, such as BMI and their international affiliates:
BMI's Involvement In The International Marketplace
http://www.bmi.com/international/index.asp
Royalty costs will vary from artist to artist and company to company,
provided you are granted permission at all. In most instances, you
would be required to sign a contract designating a certain percentage
of the profits or a flat rate for each artist. I strongly recommend
you retain an attorney well-versed in international copyright issues
for this.
A great place to begin when looking for information about copyright,
especially as applied to works sold internationally, is the World
Intellectual Property Organization. The WIPO specializes in all
manner of copyright issues, and explains what copyright is and how it
is enforced in several sections:
About Intellectual Property
http://www.wipo.org/about-ip/en/index.html?wipo_content_frame=/about-ip/en/copyright.html
For a music specific explanation of copyright, BMI offers a step by
step FAQ explaining different rights associated with music:
What music copyrights are there, and how do they affect my business?
http://www.bmi.com/licensing/broadcaster/faq.asp
There is, unfortunately, no centralized agency that will answer all of
your questions on copyright law, especially as it applies to
internationally distributed works:
"There is no such thing as an International Copyright that will
automatically protect an author's writings throughout the world.
Protection against unauthorized use in a particular country basically
depends on the national laws of that country. However, most countries
offer protection to foreign works under certain conditions which have
been greatly simplified by international copyright treaties and
conventions. There are two principal international copyright
conventions, the Berne Union for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Property (Berne Convention) and the Universal Copyright
Convention (UCC)."
International Copyright - BitLaw
http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/international.html
...however, the UK, including Ireland, is a member of the Berne
Convention, and the copyright rules set forth there apply in all
signatory countries.
As to the question of James Joyce, it appears that "The Dead" is in
the public domain, so there would be no limitation as to the number of
lines you quote (just be certain to credit them correctly in your
liner notes!)
Dubliners - James Joyce
http://classiclit.about.com/cs/joycejames3/
For more information you can contact the offices which oversee
copyright in the countries in which the individual works were created.
There is a directory of these offices here:
Directory of National Copyright Administrations
http://www.wipo.org/news/en/links/addresses/cr/
Good luck, declan! Do come back and let us know when your CD is
released, I'd love to hear the Joyce reading!
--Missy |
