The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #145501 Message #3366521
Posted By: Genie
22-Jun-12 - 02:26 AM
Thread Name: Is it legal to video a group sing?
Subject: RE: Is it legal to video a group sing?
Videoing and publishing/sharing the videos are two separate issues. Regardless of the law(s), I think it is common courtesy as well as generally accepted policy in many musical gatherings to ask permission before doing either. I don't think it's acceptable - legal or not - to put a video of someone on YouTube or the like, for public access, without their permission.
I have been videoing some song circles and informal concerts and workshops for several years now and have really not had a problem with this because I do not share/publish any video without the permission of those in the video. It's not feasible to stop the video temporarily, to avoid recordinging a particular performer - I am using a MacBook - but when asked, I have averted the camera aperture so that I did not get any video image of the performer, just the audio. And in those rare cases where I've been asked to delete the audio as well, I have done that.
As for the glare of the MacBook screen, that's pretty easy to fix. You can adjust the brightnness of the screen at will. If you have the camera set up so it's a fixed visual field (not needing adjustment for each new performer), you can just darken the screen entirely. If you do need to check the screen periodically, to make sure the image is framed properly, you can still dim the screen quite a bit and still be able to see it.
My MacBook's screen is set to automatically go to black after about 3 to 5 minutes if I don't hit the space bar. So it usually "blacks out" well before a particular performance has finished.
BTW, these issues apply not just to audio/video but to still images as well. Some of us really don't like to have gawdawful photos of us "shared" widely, especially if we are "tagged" in those photos. I say the same principles of common courtesy should apply. ASK PERMISSION before publishing or "sharing" photos, audio files or videos, especially if you are identifying the people in question.
Genie