HCPS Copyright

Music is another big issue for schools. Students always want to use popular music in their presentations and movies. How much can they use? What are the rules? Many teachers are too busy with all the other stuff they have to do to look up all the relevant laws. Well, we recognize that. So we did that part for you. Here are the rules for music (if you’re a music teacher, consult with your Henrico County Music Specialist.)

You can always use -

• ALL music you compose
• ALL musical compositions in the public domain that you perform
• ALL music from sources that permit educational use as stated in their conditions of use
• Up to 10 percent of a copyrighted musical composition may be reproduced, performed, and displayed as part of a multimedia program produced by an educator or students.
• A maximum of 30 seconds per musical composition may be used of a copyrighted work.

You can sometimes -

• alter and change music when parodying a work

You can never -

• use an entire recording of a musical work in a multimedia presentation.
• copy without permission rights
• copy to create an anthology or compilation
• make alterations to the musical work which change the basic melody or the fundamental character of the work.

Multimedia

Creating one product that uses music, pictures, and video really isn’t some magical different category. If you follow the rules for other categories of media when mixing them to create multimedia you’ll be fine.

Image credit Snow Rider Guy