Some legal questions

[A Dying Breed]

I have a picture I found on the internet I'd like to use for my demo. I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and use it or if I'm gonna have to worry about some shmuck trying to shake me down 15 years from now because I used a picture he took on an old demo or a few shirts. I was under the impression that images posted on the internet are "in the public domain" but I am in no way confident that this means I'm legally entitled to use it on shit I plan to sell. Of course, the chances of any possible owner of this image ever finding out about some noname band stealing it are pretty small, but I'm curious in any case. Anybody know anything about this?

More importantly, I was wondering if it is necessary to go out and copyright the songs that are going on this demo before sending them out, and how that whole process typically works.

Finally, does anybody know what legal issues are involved with having cover songs on releases?

Thank you kindly.

 

[sumairetsu]

Anything that is on the Internet should certainly NOT be considered public domain - this is why Napster was initially shut down. If you are planning on using a picture, you had better hunt down the photographer or the copyright owner before attempting to use their intellectual property. Granted, as you said, the chances of getting caught are small, but do you really want to have to pay ANY legal fees? If you are planning on making copies of this photo, some printers will require that you actually have permission to make copies of someone else's copyrighted material because they could be sued as well.

The same also applies if you are planning on using a cover tune. You must get permission from the writer or publisher.

Nobody said that you HAVE to copyright your own material to put it on a demo, but it's a good idea - if you come up with a song that someone else likes and you don't have any way to back up your statement that you wrote the tune, they can claim they wrote it and you'll be getting hosed out of money with every copy they sell. Copyrighting is handled through the US Library of Congress and you can find them here: http://www.copyright.gov/ The cost is $30 for each submission and you may submit a recording of each song or a group of songs.