Safe to Podcast?

What things are allowed to be podcast considering copyrights? I hear radio stations always using little clips from the simpsons and stuff, and they are readily available in wav format online. Are these safe to podcast?

[imported_Alex]

I'm not a copyright attorney, but my understanding is that anything/everything produced is copyright protected by default in the US. So technically you need permission to use that material in your podcast.

Many works use some form of creative commons license - which makes it easy to find out how it can be used.

In the print media, it has traditionally been accepted practice to use quoting with attribution, although it may be a technical violation of the copyright law.

Recorded music and media seem to have a different standard. If you use it you need to either get permission, pay royalties or take the risk of being sued.

Radio stations have a blanket license with the different licensing agencies.

Somehow the playing of all these different clips is tracked and there is some formula that determines how much of the royalty payments goes to each copyright holder.

You can get lots of pod safe music at Garageband.com and at podsafemusicnetwork.com where artists have preauthorized use of their materials.

IF there's a copyright expert out there - let us know if this is a correct interpretation.

[imported_EclecticMix]

Here is a link to the best flow chart I have been able to find on the subject: http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/tra...lic_Domain.htm

Cheers -

george

[Moore]

What about things like funny sports commentary or clips that have been used on news would these sorts of things still need to be payed for or would these sorts of things be ok?

[Alex]

Again, I'm not an attorney so this is not legal advice. But I think it would depend on how you use the material. Just taking stuff and republishing it is not ok, but there are ways to use content that is covered by "Fair Use" Wikipedia has good article describing Fair Use in the US.