With the rise in digital content consumption and the continuous creation of new videos, shows, and films, there has also been an increased demand for music to accompany visual content. Professional content creators and producers often source music from platforms that facilitate licenses with the permission of musicians and authors, and pay accordingly for the use of the works. However, newcomers to the field or less informed individuals may unknowingly use songs in their videos without consent. Unauthorised use can lead to legal consequences, and ignorance does not absolve responsibility. This article summarises the possible ways violators are held accountable, provides guidance on avoiding violations, and offers tips for musicians and managers on how to act in situations where someone has used their works without permission.

The Copyright Law (in each country respectively) grants authors exclusive rights to use, copy, and distribute each musical work. Any individual, company, or organisation wishing to use the work in any way must obtain the appropriate license for its use from the authors and from the owners of the neighbouring rights.

To understand when permission is needed, one can essentially consider the following – works can be used for personal needs and shared within a narrow circle of friends and family, but in almost all other cases, adding music to another work (video, computer game, etc.) and making it publicly available requires the permissions of authors and other rights holders. It is also important to mention that removing the author(s) name or altering it and/or the work infringes on the authors' personal rights.

If a song is used without the appropriate licenses, it is considered a violation of 1) the property rights of the author and 2) the owners of neighbouring rights and, as an example, in some countries can be punishable under the criminal code with a fine of up to €1200 for individuals and up to €6400 euros for companies/organisations. It is also punishable to alter or remove information about the author or the owners of related rights without permission (e.g., changing the author's or record company's name or removing a performer). Additionally, the author and the owners of related rights may demand compensation for reputational or material damage and the cessation of unlawful use through the courts. It’s also worth noting that avoiding fee payments can lead to similar penalties for violating property rights, depending on the juristiction.

Therefore, it's crucial to be careful about how you use someone else's music in your works. If it is not essential to use a specific music track in videos, we recommend using platforms that offer royalty-free music (e.g., artlist.io, Pixabay, Youtube Audio Library). Music that is not available royalty-free must have the appropriate permissions or licenses obtained by contacting the authors and respective rights holders.

Remember that adding music to moving images (also called a synchronisation) and publicly performing works in a restaurant, concert, sports club, dance school, etc. requires a different approach to obtain the licenses. In such cases, a license must be sought for public performance and, if necessary, reproduction from performance rights societies. For adding music to moving images (film, video, advertisement, trailer, computer game, etc.), you must directly contact the rights holders to get permissions and to license the work from all authors and owners of neighbouring rights.

A How-to For Musicians and Managers

If you find yourself in a situation where someone has used your musical creation without permission, here are steps you can take to potentially resolve the situation much faster and affordably before turning to lawyers and the courts, considering that legal time is costly and court proceedings can be lengthy. Here, we summarise the steps to take if your song has been used by any physical or legal person.

Having identified unauthorised use of your work, investigate and collect the following materials:

• Contact details of the person or organisation who used the work without consent;

• The name of the work used;

  • The place of use of the work (e.g., Facebook post or TV advertisement) and the content (the video material itself), for example, in the form of screenshots and screen recordings;

  • Date and time when the relevant content was uploaded (according to each place of use);

  • The time range in the video where your song was used and the time range of your song that was used in the video (e.g., your work named ‘x’ was used for 40 seconds at the third minute of the video).

Contact the content creator or publisher to end the violation or agree on a licensing fee for using the song:

• First, introduce yourself and explain why you are contacting them;

• Then summarise the content of the violation and propose possible options for resolving the situation;

• If desired, submit a notice for the removal of content related to the copyright infringement;

• Include the information collected in the first step to precisely and thoroughly document the violation;

• Set a timeframe for receiving a response before taking further steps (typically 5–10 business days);

• Use a polite and professional tone in the letter, based primarily on facts. Remember, the violation may have occurred unknowingly, and the violating party, having learned from their mistake, might become your client and wish to enter into a licensing agreement.

If you want the violator to enter into a licensing agreement with you for using the work:

• Negotiate the terms of the licensing agreement (start and end date of the license, place and channels, geographical location, form of use of the work, licensing fee);

• Sign the licensing agreement and determine the fee for use – situation resolved!

If the violator does not respond or is unwilling to cooperate:

• Check the contacts again to ensure that the letter has reached the recipient (e.g., there isn’t a letter in your spam that notifies of non-delivery);

• Contact the violator again and remind them of the possible penalties for the violation, giving 1–2 business days to respond. At this stage, you can use a more decisive tone and emphasise that non-response will compel you to turn to law enforcement;

• Sometimes, a reminder letter and recalling the consequences may be enough to get the violating party to cooperate. If so, congratulations – situation resolved!

If there is no response a second time, file a complaint with the respective local authorities (you may ask for advice from your performance rights organisation, for example) and/or contact an intellectual property/copyrights lawyer and provide them with all the information collected in step one and all the conversations you have had with the violator.

• In some countries, the police handle the documentation and punishment of copyright violations.

• With the help of a lawyer, you can demand compensation in court.

• If the violation occurred abroad, then look at that country’s copyright law (e.g., Copyright Law in the USA) and follow the local legislation and procedures. For example, in the USA, using a song without permission for commercial gain is criminally punishable by up to $150,000 or up to five years in prison. With such punitive consequences as provided by the laws of the USA, we can infer that copyrights are of significant importance to governments, and violations are not taken lightly, nor should you. The Berne Convention provides equivalent protection of copyrights, meaning that all member countries treat each other's authors' works as equally as their own.

If, for example, the violation occurred in the USA, the procedures are slightly different, so approach the violation as follows:

• Document the situation and collect all materials (similar to the first step in the previous list);

• If the violation occurred on a well-known platform (e.g., Facebook, WordPress, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, etc.), there is generally an option to report copyright infringement directly from the post or song (links to forms at the end of the article);

• Be prepared to prove your authorship or ownership of rights (publishing agreement, phonogram agreement, screenshots of your song’s registrations in PRO/PRS's etc.).

• If the violation occurred on a website or in another place where it is not possible to report the infringement directly, send an email to the content publisher with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice:

  Notice of Copyright Infringement

  
  

  I am writing to you with a DMCA takedown notice for content appearing on your site/channel. The copyrighted work at issue is [Your artist and song name] which appears on my pages at [link to the original on Spotify/YouTube etc. environment].

  
  

  The URLs where our copyrighted material is located include [link/links to the content where the violator published/used your song]. We hereby demand that you immediately remove this content from your site/channel and provide us with an accounting of any and all distributions thereof to date.

  
  

  You can reach me via email or phone for further information or clarification. My phone number is [phone number with area code].

  
  

  I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law, and request that you remove the content.

  
  

  I swear, under penalty or perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

  
  

• Also, add the last date by which you expect a response from them so that you can plan your next steps;

• Offer the possibility of obtaining a synchronisation license (if the use of the song in the given context is suitable) and state your conditions.

  
  

  If the violator wishes to license the work for use, set the terms and enter into the corresponding agreement.

  
  

• In negotiations, I recommend being decisive, as the time for negotiations was really before the violator used the song without permission.

• If there is no response, find a lawyer in the country where the violator operates and hand over all materials and an overview of the communications.

• A lawyer in the USA, for example, can be found from Redline's Lawyer Connect network.

• If the case must go to court, then in the USA, for example, the song must be registered at the copyright office within five years after the work's first publication to be eligible for statutory damages compensation.