Don't let copyright disputes ruin the holiday mood. When it comes to Christmas music, avoid legal entanglements by making sure the songs you use are not copyright protected but belong to the public domain. Here are some guidelines.
Say a company wants to use Christmas songs as part of a holiday video or presentation. Or a school wants to produce a CD for a fund-raising project featuring its students singing Christmas carols. Or someone decides to burn holiday music on CDs to listen to on Christmas or share with friends. Would they be able to do all this without the hassle of infringement lawsuits from big record labels or copyright holders? Answer: It depends.
Public domain Christmas songs
This may be the safest route: songs that are not owned or controlled by a person or organization and are, therefore, public property and can be used by anyone for any purpose for free. Public domain is most often discussed in contrast to works whose use is restricted by copyright. Under modern law, most original works of art, literature, music, etc. are covered by copyright for a limited period of time. When the copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. (Since there is no international copyright, public domain rules will vary with every country.)
According to an article by Dana Hinders in christmas.lovetoknow.com, in the United States, while most of what was written in the 20th century is under copyright protection, music and lyrics published in 1922 or earlier are considered to be in the public domain. Among the Christmas songs in this category are: Deck the Halls, The First Noel, Jingle Bells, Joy to the World, The 12 Days of Christmas, What Child Is This?, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and others. Hinders warns, however, that it's possible for a song's music to be in public domain while its lyrics still under copyright protection.
Creative Commons Christmas songs
For many, current copyright laws create problems for information sharing. That's why Creative Commons (CC), a non-profit organization devoted to increasing the creative works available for others to legally share, has released copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. Songs released under these licenses allow creators/copyright holders to grant some or all of their rights to the public while retaining others through licensing and contract schemes including dedication to the public domain or open content licensing terms. Examples of Creative Commons-licensed Christmas songs range from the traditional (Jingle Bells, We Three Kings) to the contemporary (The 8bits of Christmas, Christmas Impro) to the happy (A Happy Puppy Christmas, Santa's Gone Surfing) and even funny (How George Stole Christmas).
Using copyrighted Christmas songs – while avoiding potential legal problems
Can one record or duplicate a copyright-protected Christmas song without fear of any legal entanglement. According to a posting by Richard Stim (a copyright, patent and legal expert) on the nolo blog, one cannot depend on copyright owners' not finding out about it, not caring when they do find out, or exhibiting Christmas generosity about it. His suggestion: getting permission by paying a fee (9.1 cents per song per unit plus a per-song processing fee of about $15) at the Harry Fox website and using their Songfile system. It's quite easy to do. You pay 9.1 cents per song per unit plus a per-song processing fee of about $15. For example, duplicating 1000 copies of "The Christmas Song" would cost $106.
The composition may be in the public domain but the modern recording is not
A guide by Jonathan Bailey of "five copyright hazards" during the holiday season poses a conundrum. While a public domain holiday song like The First Noel can be duplicated, can one do the same thing with a Nat King Cole rendition of the same song? Probably not, because modern-day performances of such songs may still be copyright protected. And modern adaptations of classic songs (Jingle Bell Rock) may likely have copyright-protected elements as well. Bailey notes that while disputes over holiday music (rather than major artists) are rare, they can arise and must be dealt with.
One can say that even thinking about such things as copyright and IP issues can destroy the spirit of the season. But ignoring them and violating someone's copyright may strike a sour note even with the merriest Christmas songs. |
