What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Hawaii
I am in a church gospel quartet and we have sheet music from a lot of different sources that we perform within our small church to some acclaim. Folks want us to record a CD and we would like to be able to share our talent with friends and family that live elsewhere or don't come to church. We would rent a studio and hire a professional mixer/editor and would therefore try to sell the CDs for a nominal fee to recoup those costs, but do not view this as a money-making endeavor.
We are pretty clear in our understanding that this would be an infringement of the copy write of the sheet music we may be using. My question is this: Could a judgment against us, in the unlikely event of an infringement suit, be for more than the value of any profits we might realize from the sale of the CDs? Some of the sheet music has been purchased but some other pieces may have been copied illegally. If we were to go out and buy four copies of each arrangement we want to use, does this typically give us the right to record the music for sale?
I am in a church gospel quartet and we have sheet music from a lot of different sources that we perform within our small church to some acclaim. Folks want us to record a CD and we would like to be able to share our talent with friends and family that live elsewhere or don't come to church. We would rent a studio and hire a professional mixer/editor and would therefore try to sell the CDs for a nominal fee to recoup those costs, but do not view this as a money-making endeavor.
We are pretty clear in our understanding that this would be an infringement of the copy write of the sheet music we may be using. My question is this: Could a judgment against us, in the unlikely event of an infringement suit, be for more than the value of any profits we might realize from the sale of the CDs? Some of the sheet music has been purchased but some other pieces may have been copied illegally. If we were to go out and buy four copies of each arrangement we want to use, does this typically give us the right to record the music for sale?