–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
Recently violinists Rhett Price and Shiva Chaitoo got two very different lessons on the downside of posting performances on the Internet.
According to an article in The Boston Globe, a fan of Price alerted him to a video of Chaitoo’s playing. Turns out, Chaitoo was pulling a Milli Vanilli, fingering his violin over a sound-track of Price’s recordings. And he’d been doing it for at least a couple of years, and getting paid gigs from people who’ve seen the vids or his “live” performances.
Long story short: Price isn’t looking for anything more than for Chaitoo to stop his “tribute.”
What’s really interesting about the situation, though, is the copyright aspect of it, and the apparent lack of legal remedies available to Price.
According to Paul Litwin, a partner of Shames & Litwin entertainment lawyers, when Price posted his videos on YouTube and offered free downloads in exchange for email addresses, he essentially granted some use-rights. YouTube’s terms of service include “a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licenseable and transferable license to use.”
Litwin says, “If you buy and download a song, you can pretend to play and sing along with it. By posting his music on YouTube, Rhett is allowing the YouTube community to use it. [Chaitoo] isn’t saying he’s Rhett, so from a legal standpoint, he does not appear to be infringing copyright laws.”
Really? The YouTube T&S notwithstanding, it seems to me that this would usually come under fair-use category. Since Chaitoo used it for a marketing tool (and probably also “performed” the tracks at his paid gigs), I think he hit some very sour copyright notes. There’s a world of difference between playing air-violin in your living room and what Chaitoo did.
As I’ve mentioned often before, I’m no lawyer (though I play one in the living room by reading aloud Steve Baird postings as if they were my own), so what do you knowledgeable folks think about both the situation and Lawyer Litwin’s assessment?
And one final factor to consider: Chaitoo lives and works in Trinidad and Tobago, which may complicate the copyright issue and Price’s available recourse.