When Can I Use Other People's Copyrighted Music?

When can I use other people's copyrighted music? A viewer wants to know. I'm Angela Langlotz trademark and copyright attorney and I go live here on weekdays to talk about trademark and copyright law. So I got a message on my business page. One of my viewers, his name is Chris Evans, and I'm going to tag him in this video -- wants to know the following. "It's obviously not OK," he asks "to use copyrighted music in business videos, but can I use copyrighted music if the video content is only published to a Facebook profile?"

Well, that's a very good question. And the answer is no. Unless you bought a license, you shouldn't use other people's copyrighted music on your videos unless you've gotten permission from them. All right. Or pay them a license to do so. This is very dangerous, using other people's materials without permission. And there really isn't any distinction between using it on your Facebook profile and using it on like your business page. You're still using somebody else's stuff without permission.

And the copyright law doesn't make any distinction between use. We'll call it stealing. I don't mean to be morally pejorative, but the law views it as stealing. Right. So there's no difference between taking somebody else's creative work that's called copyright infringement. There's no difference between infringing and earning money from it, although it's seen as a little bit more culpable as far as damages. Right. There's but there's no difference between taking someone's property and using it and making money off of it and taking someone's property and using it without making money off.

The reason is because when you take someone else's property and use it without permission and without paying them for it, you're actually taking revenue from them. Right, or taking notoriety from them or taking something from them. But the point is, it's not yours. And the copyright law doesn't distinguish between copying that's that's, you know, less morally culpable, that from which you don't make money and stuff and copying that is less morally -- more morally culpable. You reselling it, for example, as if it's your own. You're still depriving the copyright owner of their revenue, their right to decide how their creation, how their content is going to be used.

So the moral of the story is don't copy. Don't copy anybody's stuff. There are as an alternative to copying, there are stock photo sites where you can download images for your personal use. There are also stock music sites where you can purchase a license or, you know, purchase a membership that enables you to download audio files for your use. They're specifically put out there for that. So take advantage of those resources. But please, people don't copy other people's stuff.

You're going to get in trouble because technology today makes it trivially easy for copyright holders to find both images and music that you have copied from them and are using without their permission. I'm Angela Langlotz. I go live here on weekdays to talk about trademark and copyright law. You can find me online at TrademarkDoctor.net You can find me on Facebook and ask me questions on my business page at Facebook.com/TrademarkDoctor. I also have a huge library on YouTube.

Just go to YouTube and search TrademarkDoctor and you'll find me there. Have a good weekend.