numberstrong
Junior Member
I live in Massachusetts.
Here is my situation. I have re-written the lyrics to a very popular song so as to turn the song into a topical political satire. I want to post a recording of this song on YouTube. The audio would be a backing track lifted from an existing karaoke version of the song, with me singing my own lyrics over that track. The visuals would be a series of still images meant to humorously illustrate the lyrics of the song. Technically I would not be making money off the video itself, since I would refuse to accept advertising on it, but I would hope that the video could generate enough public interest for me to sell merchandise associated with it (t-shirts, hats, stickers, etc.). These merchandise items would NOT contain an audio recording of the song or a depiction of the original artist who performed it.
Now that I've laid out the situation, here are my two questions.
1. Is it legal for me to use the existing karaoke version for the backing track of my song? Would I need to write for permission to the creator of the original work? What about the creator of the karaoke version? (I actually suspect that the karaoke version is a digitally altered version of the original work - does that matter, from my perspective?)
2. When creating this video, can I use images from the Internet as the visuals? Would I need to restrict myself to using only images specifically listed as being in the public domain? (The alternative is me hiring an illustrator to do cartoons, which I am willing to do, but obviously if I can get at least some of the images legally and without needing to pay an illustrator, that would be ideal.)
Thank you so much for your help!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Here is my situation. I have re-written the lyrics to a very popular song so as to turn the song into a topical political satire. I want to post a recording of this song on YouTube. The audio would be a backing track lifted from an existing karaoke version of the song, with me singing my own lyrics over that track. The visuals would be a series of still images meant to humorously illustrate the lyrics of the song. Technically I would not be making money off the video itself, since I would refuse to accept advertising on it, but I would hope that the video could generate enough public interest for me to sell merchandise associated with it (t-shirts, hats, stickers, etc.). These merchandise items would NOT contain an audio recording of the song or a depiction of the original artist who performed it.
Now that I've laid out the situation, here are my two questions.
1. Is it legal for me to use the existing karaoke version for the backing track of my song? Would I need to write for permission to the creator of the original work? What about the creator of the karaoke version? (I actually suspect that the karaoke version is a digitally altered version of the original work - does that matter, from my perspective?)
2. When creating this video, can I use images from the Internet as the visuals? Would I need to restrict myself to using only images specifically listed as being in the public domain? (The alternative is me hiring an illustrator to do cartoons, which I am willing to do, but obviously if I can get at least some of the images legally and without needing to pay an illustrator, that would be ideal.)
Thank you so much for your help!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?