Recently Asked Questions

Is it a violation of Copyright Law to publicly share a video recording of a DJ playing music from his music library for a public library archive and make this available for on-demand viewing?

The elementary is planning a virtual Halloween parade this year. The students will parade through the building in costume. As they pass through the entrance hallway, there will be a video camera live-streaming the parade via zoom (to families watching from home). The parade committee would like to play a purchased CD of spooky music in the background of the video.

Does this violate the music copyright?

Is it permissible to make digital copies of choral music that is legally owned by the institution to students in choral and instrumental ensembles? Some students may be studying remotely and mailing physical copies may result in lost or non-returned copies.

We have received several questions about setting graduation ceremonies to music and streaming them or recording them and sharing them with students. What are the laws surrounding this? There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there. Below is a question I received:

The slideshow for the [public] high school graduation is complete. [T]he students would like to have songs from “High School Musical” added to the slideshow. Is this possible? If copyright comes into play and we can't there will be no music added to the show. Please advise, We have viewed many other shows from various high schools and at the end of the show it simply states "we do not have rights to this music."