# Illegal use of music



## Nordic Dunn (Nov 7, 2019)

Hey,

I have a situation were a semi big(?) company used my music at a public event without permission. If anyone is interested in details I can PM, but basically the event has tens of thousands of followers on facebook and seems like there was a couple of thousand at least at the event.

The music they used was featured on a big epic music channel on youtube, so that's how they found it.

I sent them several emails kindly, albeit bluffingly threatening legal action, to buy a retroactive license. They never responded and so I just started kind of spamming their public facebook with comments like why do they steal music.

So after like 2 months they finally answered me simply by asking what music did they use. I answered and now they told me they would forward the issue to "administration".

Any advice on how I could and how I should handle this? All info would be greatly appreciated. Im currently registered with BMI if that's of any interest. Also the track in question has not been registered with anyone, its just my own music.

Thanks a lot for reading this and taking the time,

sincerely,

Nordic Dunn

EDIT: oh yea, I should say Im living in Finland and the company is from portugal


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## Nordic Dunn (Nov 7, 2019)

Im pretty skeptical that they will pay anything. I think it will be likely that they will say something like they hired some DJ who played the music without their consent or something or that they are a non-profit or something. Wondering whats the fine details on this.


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## d.healey (Nov 7, 2019)

Unless you have the money to enforce your copyright there is not really anything you can do.


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## Nordic Dunn (Nov 7, 2019)

yea, I think Imma just keep spamming their public pages


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## synkrotron (Nov 7, 2019)

Nordic Dunn said:


> yea, I think Imma just keep spamming their public pages



Why? I mean, why bother? You know they are just going to ignore you.


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## Nordic Dunn (Nov 7, 2019)

others can see the messages, like on public posts


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## Kery Michael (Nov 7, 2019)

It seems like this happens all the time unfortunately. Music creators get ripped off 100 different ways, just part of the business now. A lot of people think why would I ever pay for music when it is so abundant and everywhere and so easy to download.


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## Nordic Dunn (Nov 7, 2019)

yea. do you have any experience on suing people for this kind of thing? Even if I don't sue them, I think it will be useful to know what Im talking about


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## Kery Michael (Nov 7, 2019)

No, I'm afraid that I'm not good enough to have people rip me off yet.  Maybe in the future, I can dream.


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## Consona (Nov 7, 2019)

Our public broadcasting television used The Dark Knight music in their teaser spots, I doubt Warner Bros know anything about that and it really surprised me something like this can even happen.


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## Daryl (Nov 7, 2019)

Consona said:


> Our public broadcasting television used The Dark Knight music in their teaser spots, I doubt Warner Bros know anything about that and it really surprised me something like this can even happen.


There may be a blanket licence


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## pz_music (Nov 9, 2019)

So the track is registered with BMI? I'd try to go through them. "BMI reserves the right to take legal action in order to protect the rights of its affiliated songwriters, composers, and publishers."


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## Will Blackburn (Nov 9, 2019)

You should keep it private and if they are ignoring you get BMI/PRS to fight your corner for you. Disputes in public aren't a good look on anyone involved.


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## Greg (Nov 9, 2019)

Just move on imo. This is a symptom of broadcasting your music on Youtube. Obviously the track got some good publicity that way so make sure you use Adrev or similar to collect on un licensed youtube usages. They probably would have paid maybe $200 for a license if they asked ahead of time.


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## Fever Phoenix (Nov 15, 2019)

is your music licensed, or better ask: in what country do you live and where did it happen? As legal procedures and laws are very different from country to country.

Since I am a member of a copyright collector (I don't know the correct English term, google translator says collecting society which seems laughable) every note I publish or someone uses has to be licensed through them. In Europe and Switzerland this is the way to go, as soon as you hit a certain reach. They basically make you sign the contract, if you want to keep working. Therefor.you are with a label that gets a cut from your earnings, means they go collect the money. This is great, but this means also you cannot just sell rights. Now I went into a different topic, sorry.

Back to the main question: where?

I hope you can solve the issue.

But just know, everybody does not know all the ins and outs, the digital revolution happened so fast and the industry slept on clear rights and answers to what that means for copyright.

Feel free to pm


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## Fever Phoenix (Nov 15, 2019)

ah, ok, sorry


just read that you are in Finland, sorry.


So there should be some kind of licensing procedure as Finland is EU, no?


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## NekujaK (Nov 15, 2019)

When your music is exposed on a free public site like YouTube, it becomes extremely difficult to monitor and enforce usage. Anyone can download it, so there's no chance of revenue from pure distribution. Your best hope is to earn something from ad clicks, provided your music is on a monetized channel.

The real benefit of YouTube is exposure for you and your music. To that end, it's important that your tracks are accompanied by a copyright notice and a clear way to contact you, such as a link to your website. You need to make it easy for potential licensors to reach out to you about potential usage. Your music on YouTube should be considered a teaser that steers people to your website where you have more control.

It seems you've done all you can regarding your current situation, short of pursing legal action, which would potentially cost a lot of money for very little reward in the end. Use this as a learning experience and consider carefully where and how you expose your music to the public in the future.


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