This might not be the correct community, but if anyone knows anything about dmca and the like here, i guess it is you guys!
I am wondering what is likely to happen if i made a blog where i would make songs available? Not in a “here are a thousand albums to download for free”, but more discussing a single song in a blog post and embedding it in a playable state (and thus also downloadable) served directly from my server (and not some spotify / soundcloud / whatever link).
The blog would not be anonymous, it would be possible to trace the server and everything directly to me. Blog would likely be obscure and not grow much. There would be no ad revenues. I am based in norway (in europe, not in the eu but in the eea in case you are not aware).
Am i looking at a couple of dmca takedown requests, legally enforceable fines, lawsuits? I dont expect to get legal advise i can use as a basis for my defense in a potential legal case in the future, but just wanted to know if you had any insights in what could happen.
I don’t know Norway copyright law, but DMCA really isn’t the issue. This comes down to basic International music copyright. DMCA is just an enforcement mechanism in the US for that. Assuming this blog site is in the US and that’s why you mentioned it, note that you are also liable for any punishments in your country of residence. Usually these are fines per download/stream which can easily total millions or billions of dollars for even just a few songs downloaded or streamed often.
That said, if your site doesn’t catch anyone’s attention, then it all comes down to if you want to risk being that one easy target that gets made an example of. If you’re OK with that risk, then the most likely thing to happen is the blog host site will get a takedown notice and take down the post or ban you from the site. Unless the song is protected with logins or is hosted on an obscure site, it’s likely not to take very long to find by either the blog host or the record company.
The only way to avoid this would be if you have a valid fair-use argument for why you should be allowed to keep it up. But note, the way fair use works in most countries is you’re still breaking the law, it’s just a defense, so you still may need to go to court to present that defense and lawyers are expensive.
If the song is on youtube or something else that you can embed, you could just outsource the responsibility.
obligatory disclaimer that i am not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice.
legal answer:
i think distributing a song in full on your blog is pretty unambiguously copyright infringement. i think having select snippets that you highlight and talk about would be fine though, as that would likely fall under using the work for critisism. the general rule for fair use is that your work should not replace or supersede the original (which uploading the song in full could). if you absolutely need the songs to be accessible in full, you would probably need to link to something like a streaming service. also be aware that things like album covers might be considered their own works under their own copyright, so reproducing that without critique could also constitue infringement.practical answer:
i don’t think there are scrapers on the general internet looking for copyrighted content so if you’re sufficiently small and/or the artists are sufficiently lenient you’ll probably be fine, and at worst you’ll get a cease and desist and take down the tracks they complain aboutCheers - it is the “practical answer” that i hope will be the case, ie being able to comply with a request to take it down. I am fine with complying with this. In most cases it will be single songs from some artist i enjoy listening to with links to their pages on bandcamp or qobuz or the like where any reader could purchase the full album drm free.
I think the album cover is usually no issue at all. Album covers are basically advertisements.
pudding.cool did a blog post with quite a few song snippets in it.
That was pretty cool!
i guess it depends on how famous your blog is and what kind of song you share.
Either they tell you very sternly to stop, and you do. If not, they may take action, either against you or your host. They can’t do much from another country but they can negotiate with your country to bring you into their jurisdiction. Or they may take action with you not there (it’s early, I believe in absentia is how they say it) and if you come into their jurisdiction they can do something. If you continue to violate their copyrights, they may (attempt to) take more drastic actions.
You might be physically and even financially safe, but it’s still not a bear I’d recommend poking when you could just link to YouTube and have the same effect.
I mean, if you want to facilitate piracy, that’s one thing, but don’t consult social media about it — consult a lawyer instead.
Either they tell you very sternly to stop, and you do. If not, they may take action, either against you or your host.
This is mostly what i am hoping will happen - that the first step is always going to give me a chance to comply with a request to remove it.
I mean, if you want to facilitate piracy, that’s one thing, but don’t consult social media about it — consult a lawyer instead.
On the contrary, it is not to facilitate piracy (as in the goal is not to serve files for illegal download), it will include links to legal avenues of purchase and download. Its just that i am thinking about a particular style of embedding this within a blog post that would require me to host the file on my own server - and then that song would be downloadable for anyone who want to (even though i have no explicit “download button”).
Ah, got it. If there’s no obvious way to download, that might count for something, and if the blog doesn’t get huge, you might escape notice altogether.
If you aren’t trying to facilitate piracy (as in, that’s not the goal), maybe the YouTube link would be safer. Or, if you don’t like YouTube (I mean, fuck Google), you could upload the songs yourself to the Fediverse alternative. It’s still you, but it’s another layer of bullshit they have to go through to do something about it.
Yea im leaning towards embedding it externally instead - too many uncertainties. Ill see what i can find that could fill the same role i had envisioned :)
I don’t think that Norway is one of the countries that look the other way when it comes to DMCA requests (which are only valid under US law), but they aren’t required to. However, what I would do is go ahead and then wait for the DMCA request. I think you could then decide what action to take going forward.
You could provide links to YouTube, SoundCloud, Qobuz and loads more like ReverbNation (mainly for new/upcoming artists), with links to online tools for downloading etc.
Or something like Radio4000
or
However, what I would do is go ahead and then wait for the DMCA request. I think you could then decide what action to take going forward.
Id be fine taking stuff down if there was a request, but id then want to only take down whatever song/songs triggered the request. Just dont wanna be on the hook for a lot of fines before i had the chance to respond.
You could provide links to YouTube, SoundCloud, Qobuz and loads more like ReverbNation (mainly for new/upcoming artists), with links to online tools for downloading etc.
The idea is to make it pretty integrated and keep things inside the blog post with a simple player widget. And im not a big fan of spotify and youtube etc so would want to avoid linking to them if possible. I intend to include links for legal purchase and downloads of the song (+ full album and any other thing from the same artist/band, on qobuz or bandcamp and similar sites that sell drm-free music).
Well DMCA doesn’t apply outside of the US. Lawyers continually try to enforce it abroad, though, so be sure you pick a web host that adheres to Norwegian law only.
My impression was that most countries have been forced to implement similar dmca laws (as per corey doctorow’s account at least)? I thought that most of these things were enforceable cross-border
DMCA no, but probably some kind of rights claim process. The international agreement on copyright is the Berne convention.
I don’t understand how you could have such an idea:
- playable state: bad, downloadable: worse
- not anonymous: lol what?
- no ad revenues: irrelevant
- the best that can happen is it’s taken down, the worst is you lose money
it is not to facilitate piracy
You said it would be downloadable, which one is it?
You don’t have the rights to do this, the owners don’t want you to do this, why would you do this with your real name?
Lol not very imaginative then i suppose? I want to make a fun hobby project for myself and a niche audience. Thats how i can have this idea. And i am simply gauging if this approach could be used without getting fucked with fines and legal issues.
It would be downloadable because im not sure how i would serve it for playback without it also being possible to download. There would be no big “download the song here” button. The goal is not to share song files but to discuss songs i like and allow readers to play along (whole song, parts of song, whatever suits the blog post). Side effect of that is that it would be downloadable.
If you mean that “facilitation of piracy” is anything where someone would be able to obtain an illegal copy of the song then yea sure, but in that case youtube is already the biggest facilitator of piracy there is because it is trivial to download any song from there.
YouTube has lawyers, listening is allowed by contracts (have you ever heard of YouTube Music?), and downloading is forbidden by the terms of services.
You’re not YouTube.
