I would like to start a small, side job creating DVD movies from people’s digital photos for different occasions such as anniversaries, weddings, funerals, ect. I would also put music to them from their own CD’s that they have. Now here is the question. Is it legal for me to take songs off their CD’s and put it on a DVD video and make money off of the work that I have done? Thanks!

P.S. And YES i will give back their CD's!

If they own the original, I wouldnt care. I would if you were not the owner of the music and using it to make profit.

But all your doing is to take their files, putting them together, and give them back.

But if you care, you can download full of royalties free music on the web. Just use Google.

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(" )ώ(" ) This is my bunny..terminator!!!

I'd say no it isn't illegal - They own the music, and they are paying you to put their music onto a DVD slide show. You're charging for the service or making the DVD, not the music itself.

</font color=red><b><font color=red>■ ■ <font color=blue>■ ■ <font color=orange>■ ■ <font color=green>■ Dirty Little Sausage ■ </font color=green>■ ■ </font color=orange>■ ■ </font color=blue>■ ■</font color=red>

ROFL - Your sigs always make my laugh!

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Ahh.. it is now terminated...

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(=<b>˚</b>.'=)That was my bunny..terminator!!! Now terminated...

I disagree. They own the CD the music is on, not the rights to the music itself. The CD sleeve will have a paragraph prohibiting unathorised "distribution, reproduction" yadda, yadda.
By ripping the music files and inserting them onto the DVD, the OP would be reproducing the music.
The fact that he's also intending to do this for profit makes it 100 times worse.

An analogy would be a movie you see at the cinema. If the Director uses a piece of music, he must pay royalties to the artist. Usually the artist will also insist on a listing in the credits too. The OP's intention is essentially the same - whilst the audience is of course much, much smaller.

As Pat says, you need to find some royalty-free music. Either that or find some local musicians / bands who will let you use their music cheap/for free. You'll be supporting local talent and they'd probably appreciate the publicity.

The other alternative is to look into how much it would cost to pay royalties for music. I don't know how much this would cost, or how easy it is. I know that pubs, etc, can buy CDs of music with the royalties pre-paid, but I don't know if they are allowed to be used in recorded media or only to be broadcast directly.

As far as I know as long as the videos are for private / personal use of the person you made them for, it is legal. I know a few business that do this.

The slideshows with music cannot be made for presentations, public viewing, or for the the person you made them for to make a profit from the showing of the video / slideshow.

If the person requesting the videos will be using them for public display or for profit, then either you or person requesting the video must own the rights or pay royalties.

I think there also some royaly free exceptions too (so long as the person owns a copy of the music), possibly for weddings etc. I am not 100% sure about that though.

I think it's legal, because I've been doing it for awhile 8O and I agree with pkquat.

Aaah, denial

forget what people think, they are not the law.

law is very simple, if its copyright then you can't do nothing with it. done.

If it becomes morally acceptable, go for it. You're charging fees on the service you render for creating the package which is not an offense. Indeed you're giving a favor to song makers.
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I disagree.

He would be violating copyright law by reproducing the recording without permission - which is expressly forbidden on the CD cover! How could this be any clearer?

Why do you think film and TV producers pay artists royalties for using their music? By your argument they wouldn't need to do so, since the "service" they provide is making a TV show, not copying music. and how is it a "favour" to the artist to not pay them royalties?

I mean no offence, but your logic is flawed.

The OP should get some professional legal advice, rather than relying on the opinion and hunches of people with no legal training.

Because being associated with a picture of fat cousin joe from Alabama is really going to build a bands sales..

Sorry but from everything this non lawyer has read whilst it might be on the smaller scale it would almost certainly be infringement of rights [/IANAL][/quote]

The OP posted it about 18 months ago, odds are the OP has come to some sort of decision.

Let's bury it.

Guess I should clean off my specs.. 8O

It was the llama scent that dragged me down here..

Odds are the OP has finished serving his sentence by now...