Hwk

Sita Sings the Copyright Blues

By Chris Meadows

http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/sita-sings-the-copyright-blues/

[….] According to Wikipedia, the recordings of the songs that were used were in the public domain, not having been renewed after their original 28-year copyright term expired.

However, the copyrights on the compositions were renewed—and because they came after the 1923 cut-off date locked in by copyright term extension, the compositions were still under copyright. Paley went ahead and made the film anyway, assuming that a licensing deal could be worked out with the rights-holders—after all, this was a small, independent film; it would not be making much money. How much could they want?

The answer, it turned out, was $220,000. The irony is that, since the recordings are in the public domain, Hanshaw could release them on an album or mix tape with no problem. She could even cover them herself if she liked—sound recordings are regulated by compulsory licensing, and for releasing a cover of the song, she would only have to pay pennies per song per copy sold.

But featuring them in a movie involves video “sync rights,” for which the rights-holders are entitled to charge as much as they like. As Paley says in an interview:

"It’s not Hanshaw’s estate, it’s not even the issue of her voice. It’s the compositions, which all belong to the big corporations right now. They’ve all been traded. None of the money [that Paley needs to pay to distribute Sita] is going to the artists. The only time that the companies go after you is if you’re making money. At the time that I wanted a distributor, I went to the companies to clear it, and they wanted $20K-26K per song. Plus an additional cost for a festival license."

"I don’t want a distributor anymore," says the animator.

Paley has managed to talk the rights-holders down to a $50,000 one-time payment, for which she will be allowed to release the film for free on the Internet, and sell up to 4,999 DVD copies (an additional level of payment kicks in at 5,000).

And so she is. The film can be downloaded or BitTorrented from a number of different sites, and she is in the process of having it mastered for DVD. But that does not mean Paley cannot make money off of the film in other ways; her site has a store page through which she will sell 35mm film prints, HDcam tapes, and even a 320-gig hard drive containing every possible version of the film (including the 200-gig high-definition master). She will also take in donations through her website, speaking fees, and make money from 35mm rentals of the film by distributors for screenings. [….] She spent several years and a great deal of money to make the film.