As an independent artist, understanding the term of a copyright and fair use is vital. Once you begin selling the rights to your songs and people begin writing about them, you need to know exactly where the boundaries are in terms of what's allowed, what's not, and when you're allowed to back out of a copyright agreement. In this video, Maggie Lange, an attorney and professor of music business and management at Berklee College of Music, lays down the very basic foundation of what copyright term and fair use mean for you as an artist.
00:06 - How long your copyright will last
01:00 - Taking back the rights to your songs and how to get out of an unsavory deal that you made when you had no leverage
02:39 - The importance of the fair use exception as a "balancing of First Amendment rights and the monopoly that copyright gives you"
03:58 - The critical and educational purposes behind the fair use exception
Learn more about when fair use is applicable and, more importantly, when it's not.