BSA and the MPAA (redux)

[Beavah]

Yah, I was mostly done with this thread, but I promised Fred I'd respond here to his comments in the Disobedience thread, and then OGE went and disappeared it. So here yeh go Fred, and anybody else who still cares...

 

We had a thread here just recently about slide shows at Eagle Courts of Honor. All of the ones I've seen over da years have included commercial, copyrighted music. While I may be wrong, I'm willin' to bet that not a single troop or CO payed the fee required to include those recordings in a public performance. I bet they even "borrowed" da tunes from the collections of different kids and adults, eh?

 

Seems like a fair number of Scouters use recordings of commercial, copyrighted films as discussion items for learnin' leadership as part of Troop Leader Trainin'. That's an organizational use, not "private, home" use eh?

 

But we didn't see any cries of "Piracy!" "Stealing!" when these were discussed.

 

Fact is, some things are just societally "natural." Laws that get in the way of that don't serve the common good. Yah, sure, you can spend a lot of time and resources fightin' 'em, and sometimes that's necessary. But mostly, you begin by just goin' about your business and asserting your own liberty.

 

Yeh keep using music for Eagle slide shows, because darn it, it's a one-shot reasonable use, and it isn't worth spendin' 10 years of your life and resources tryin' to out-lobby the RIAA.

 

Yeh keep usin' a tape measure even though some nitwit managed to get a patent on tape measures, rather than spendin' $100K in court tryin' to get the patent tossed.

 

Not everyone can afford to be a civil rights attorney or lobbyist, eh? But that does not excuse us from makin' our own decision about the justice of rules, and our own decision about whether it is right to comply.

 

Wish I were with GE though. It'd be fun to try one of them licenses like those computer guys have. "In purchasing this GE lightbulb with proprietary filament technology, you agree that at no time shall it be used to provide more than two (2) people with useful light." What a great scam, eh?

[OldGreyEagle]

WOW, thats a perfect copy of the first posting Beavah, I can only think you saved a copy, for which I am grateful. It may just be me, but I always thought that you could use music as a soundtrack for such things as Eagle Slideshows and Courts of Honor without a problem, the issue becomes real when you charge admittance (IE make a profit) and a sound track is used. Then it becomes illeagal.

 

Then again I may be wrong

[scoutingagain]

I'm no copyright lawyer, but one library site had this statement in a guide to copying, use of copyright material which would seem to include scout COH's as long as they're not televised or broadcast.

 

"iv. Certain Other Nonprofit Performances. Section 110(4) exempts the performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work (excluding broadcasts) "without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers" if

there is no direct or indirect admission charge, or if the proceeds after deducting the reasonable costs of producing the performance, are used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes and not for private financial gain, except where the copyright owner has served notice of objection to the performance. "

 

You can now rest easy OGE and continue to play Green Day. But don't take my word for it. As I said, I'm not a lawyer.

 

SA

[fgoodwin]

The original thread is staill available here:

 

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=144015