DVine Wrote:
You are allowed to use copyrighted music on your demo reels as long as it is not televised or sold.
Ummm – Nope!
I can’t think of a single exception in the copyright law that would cover this. (I am not a lawyer, but I am very sensitive about copyright issues and I am well-read on the subject and can point you to cites if necessary).
As soon as someone other than you or your immediate family watch the demo, you are violating copyright. Copyright has nothing to do with broadcast or being sold, and profit or lack of it has absolutely no bearing on whether copyright has been violated or not.
As far as I know, Disney is the only media owner ruthlessly enforcing their copyrighted material used this way. (Just put your demo reel online with Disney music on it, and you’ll hear from their copyright cops fairly quickly).
The fact that almost everyone does it doesn’t make it legal. It’s just not at a level of occurance that gets on the copyright owner’s radar. Yet.
