Creating a Compilation CD

[PVDFan]

Recently someone told me they were going to create a compilation CD from You Tube songs, they intend to distribute it and collect money for a charity, say approx £2 per CD, I told them this is illegal, am I correct, or not please, if anyone knows the procedure for doing this legally, if at all can you please enlighten me. Many Thanks.

[ChuckFickens]

Well it would certainly be illegal for sell other peoples copyrighted work

I guess they'd have to contact the copyright holder of every piece they want to include and get permission to use it, either for free, or for a fee.

[Postdog]

Of course it's illegal!! Technically it's illegal if you do that just for your own use, let alone making a profit from it, charity or not.

[squarebear]

Yes, totally illegal, whether or not it's for charity.

[Dusty Bin]

It's certainly illegal to "sell" the CD, but they could ask for a donation in exchange for a free CD. No sale then...technically.

[andy-hughes]

Chuck is correct - although it's highly unlikely that the Performing Rights Society who oversee the payments for use of copyrighted material would even know about it, but why take chances?

Dusty Bin's idea sounds perfect - photcopy a little disclaimer that says something like 'No money was accepted for this CD' and put that on the sleeve, or insert it in the disc case, and you should be fine.

[Buenchico]

Sorry, I've got to disagree.

Simply saving copyright music from Youtube to your PC, yet alone putting it onto a CD, is a civil offence. Distributing such recordings to others (whether by file sharing or by putting them onto a CD) is both a civil offence and criminal offence as well. (No money was changing hands when people were using Limewire to distribute music but it was still illegal).

The copyright holder (either the band or the record company) has the right to receive a payment for every copy of their work that comes into existence. Denying them that payment is effectively theft.

Chris

[andy-hughes]

Let me clarify my answer in the light of Buenchico's post -

he is absolutely correct in his response, but as I mentioned, it is extremely unlikely that the PRS will even hear about this endevour, unless your are shipping thousands of copies. They tend to spend their time going after the bulk-copying merchants who are making serious money, and denying serious money to copyright holders.

Your friend must decide if the risk, minimal though it is, it's still a risk, is worth the result.

Remember, pleading ignorance is no defence in law, neither is copyright theft in the name of a good cause.

[Tuddypat]

andy-hughes - I love they way you've inserted a disclaimer to your post about inserting a disclaimer. :-)

[andy-hughes]

Eye thenk yaou!!!