My Hero: Can The Foo Fighters sue the Republican party? A look at copyright law.

last week Dave Gro told us that the Foo Fighters would be suing the Republican party for playing their song My Hero and that they would give the money to the Harris campaign can they really do [Music] that so this this is an interesting case it gives us a chance to look at copyrights copyrights are comp complex not complicated maybe just a little bit but still more complex than complicated so we're going to look at this uh this situation and see what are the realities behind everything that's being said and what what's what's the truth and it gives us a chance to look at it in two ways in the real scenario and what might have happened so and I don't want to do I don't want to do politics I'm not American I don't have a right to vote in the US elections so I won't even give an opinion about that it's n of my business and I'm not here for that I'm here for the music it just happens that this is a political situation so let's try and put that aspect aside for the moment and look at the copyright aspect of it now in case you missed it or in case you're watching this video 3 years down the road and you don't know what I'm talking about last week RFK decided to pull out of the race to become president of the US and he endorsed uh Donald Trump the next day after there was a republican uh event and Donald Trump Trump uh brought RFK on stage with him now they were playing my hero they had these fireworks it it was really well done I mean I got got to give that to whoever bringed that up that was really a good show now after that Dave Gro said hey the Foo Fighters never authorized the Republican party to use a song My Hero we can't do that we don't want the Republican party to use our song so let's look at it in a different light first of all the uh it didn't happen but could have happened let's imagine that they had had a band on stage performing the song This would then go to the song's copyright now the song was written by Dave Gro Nate mle and Pat smears okay so they are the uh the writers okay the song has been P has been released to the public so it is considered published we'll have a whole episode on Publishers cuz that's a whole different aspect that we need to look into separately for the moment just keep in mind that once a song is available public publicly it's deemed to be published so whether you have a separate publisher if you don't then you are the publisher of the song So in this case if you want to do someone else's song it's called a cover yeah even if you're taking your band or just your guitar and you're going to an open mic night and you're you're playing someone else's song that's a cover even if it's not recorded it's a cover technically you're supposed to get a license for this nobody does but they should you should be contacting the publisher ahead of time saying look I want to cover your song Can I can I do this can I not at the very least you should be looking at the Publisher's website because normally normally you can pretty much cover anything you want and it's not a problem because if people cover a song then that means that the song will bring in money copyrights royalties to the songwriter and to the Publishers so normally it's just go ahead cover whatever you want but it's not always the case some song writers don't want people covering their songs or they'll put in a condition a CLA say record the song send it to me I'll listen to it if I like it you'll get you'll get permission to do it if I don't like it too bad it's rare but it does happen there haveen instances where uh it's Tuesday the album is going out on Thursday so the 100,000 copies have been manufactured the title of the album is the title of that song it's going out to the record stores it's going out to the radio stations and then the label get a cease and assist ceas and assist is a legal document saying stop doing this or I'm going to sue you and they had to pull everything out re reproduce the album without the song with a different song it's a headache you should always check that out before so in this case if the if it had been a band playing live and they hadn't checked and that there had been a clause like that then yeah they'd have a case for soon they could say no you weren't allowed to do the song period if there was no Clause too bad but in this case we're looking at the public broadcasting public broadcasting of the recorded version so first thing who owns that recording it's not the foood fighters foood fighters are on Capital Records Capital Records on the master the master today doesn't have much use I the name is pretty pretty obsolete but at the time when we were recording on tape we would get these bundles and these huge tapes and uh the final mixed version mastered version would go onto a final tape and that would be the master the one copy that everything would be duplicated from that belongs to the person who paid for the recording of the album so if you're at home recording your own album and releasing it then you w't on the master right so no problem there you are the producer of the album parenthesis here in English there are two producers who do two totally different things uh in French and probably in a whole probably in just about any other language they distinguish them the guy who's behind the board who's yelling at everybody uh give me another take on The Voice change the sound on your guitar give me some more Reverb that guy we call him is exactly the same term we use for in movies for a director and that's actually what this guy does but for some reason back in the 50s or 60s people called them a producer I don't know the history behind that if somebody does know put it in the comments let us all know the producer is actually someone will sometimes see the name of someone who should be called an executive producer in this case first of all the actual producer is the person who pays for everything and then they have someone else going in and uh they'll be making the calls to rent the studio whatever musicians are needed instruments uh getting uh someone to do the artwork getting copies made you know the person the monkey behind everything everything sorry I just had an image there and I thought of someone in particular and uh about the person who's going behind all the who's behind the scenes and who's doing all this stuff and uh that would be the should be an executive producer but we call him a producer anyways but the actual producer is the person who pays for the album in this case it was Capital Records when you're on a major label the label pays for the recording sometimes this is the same on Indie label but not always it has to be verified in your contract but they own the master right until the day where you have paid it okay paid it back they Advance the money they sell the album and they pay themselves back and when you get to the point where they've paid everything back you become the owner of the master but that never happens cuz even if you sell 20 million copies there's always going to be something that label is paid for and that remains unpaid and they'll still always keep the master for themselves it's just the way it is so public broadcasting when you buy uh when you buy an album some people still do I do now you get a license with it it's automatic you don't have to apply for it the fact of buying the album gives you a license for personal use so this license mean says that you can play it for yourself maybe you can play it in your home technically if you're playing F4 at a party you have a party in your home there's a 25 people you're playing it technically that's public broadcasting and you're not really allowed to do that nobody's going to come after you for it but technically you're not allowed to do it and technically legally someone could come after you for that because yeah you're not allowed to do it the uh personal license also means that depending on which country you live in like here in Canada I'm not expected to pay more once for this album so I bought it once I paid for it say a vinyl and I want to listen to it in my truck I'm not expected to buy another copy to pay in my put in my truck just because the technology does not allow for the vinyl to be played in the truck so I'm allowed to make a copy of it I can't give it to you I can't sell it it's for my own personal use I can also make a copy in case cuz you know what happens with albums over time they break they scratch you can't play them so I'm not expected to have to buy another one that's in Canada if you go to the US different matter you are not allowed to make a copy of the album no matter what the circumstances this was important back in the days of uh what it called whenever everybody was copying uh copying albums and uh they were all uh putting albums putting CDs on their hard drives that was important at that time now when we go to public broadcasting that means playing the album for a whole bunch of people generally in a venue where money is involved so you do need a license absolutely absolutely you have to get a license in in in all cases how does it work licensing law normally you should get a license for hat but what's the practicality of it imagine you're a DJ from a club and ni's going well and then you get this uh guy comes up to you and says hey dude I I got this girl it's going really well she's a huge hu Lewis fan could you play the heart of rock and roll and you take out your list and sorry I didn't I don't have a license I can't play I can't play that come back Saturday Saturday I'll be able to get the license and play it gu's going to look at you dude and you Lewis just happens to go by and he's heard the whole thing and he's going to say dude play the damn song and then somebody from the label go by dude play the damn song it's money right so that's yeah so the way it works is the way it's supposed to work it doesn't always work like that and clubs a lot of clubs well they don't pay we get screwed for that but it happens so but technically what's supposed to happen is you know the DJ or the club owner normally is a club owner is supposed to filling the for saying okay uh this night this day between that time and that time we played this song Here's a whole list here's my contact information and they send that off to the pr professional rights organization every country has one in Canada s and France It's s the US of course have two used to be worse they used to be three then two of them got to together so they have ASCAP and BMI so if you're in a the US doing this you have to send a list to ASCAP and one to BMI let them sort it out now once they get the list okay they have to look at it they say okay you played uh 10 songs 250 people so you owe us $2 each she'll send us $200 and then they once they get the money they redistribute it among the people who wrote the songs okay and then there's the recording license and that's something else but I don't want to get too complicated for now I want to try and keep it simple okay so no one is expected to get a broadcasting license ahead of time it's always after always so the Republican party all they had to do is pay license will they pay it of course they will Republicans democ rats liberals Tories whatever party you want nobody's going to screw over for a broadcasting license it's not worth it it's too much trouble it would look too bad nobody's going to do that and even if they didn't pay it then the pr would come after them to get the money so it's just not going to happen so could could the the Foo Fighters have really kept them from playing the song no there would have been only one possibility that would have been to never release the song but once the song is out there if you self-produce an album you put it out there anyone can take your songs and play them live and uh play them in some venue whatever as long as they pay the license after that's the only thing so there's no way that they could have kept them from playing it so even these bands who are coming out and saying uh and saying to the Republican party we don't want you to use our songs period they're talk they're talking in the wind there's nothing they can do they can't they can't keep them from playing them end of story there is no they don't have a legal leg to stand on at all at all this is not like it's something new something that's never happen it's going to no this is Old Law it's been there are precedents it's been it's been played in court time and time and time and time again there is no way that they could sue and win none they it would never even get to a court no court would accept to hear it because it's well established law so then why did they say they say that why did Ro come out and say that why are other bands coming out and saying that either they're idiots and they have no idea how the law works but the considering Dave R's career and the stuff he's done in the past guy's not an idiot definitely not and he knows how to law works so this is just them trying to use your influence to tell people how to vot that's all it is they don't want to be Associated I can understand in the fact that since the general public don't know how this work people might think that because the Republicans were using that song that the fo Fighters had endorsed them that's fine that could be one one one explanation here's my take on it it's very simple to any politicians any political party political organizers anywhere around the world if you're campaigning and you want to use my songs go right ahead just don't forget to pay the license so I hope that clears up this situation and we'll see you next time until then peace and rock on oh [Music]