if you are making any type of profit from your movie, yes it is breaking the rules...does not matter if you do the song or not. i always have my friends make the music for my movies.

Michael R Vallier II

hi,

newbie poster here!! thought i would try to be a bit helpful before i start with the spam! ?;)?

i am not sure that is entirely true, it is definitely not the case here in the uk....read this....

The 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act states the duration of copyright as;
For literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works
70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies, or, if the work is of unknown authorship: 70 years from end of the calendar year in which the work was created, or if made available to the public in that time, (by publication, authorised performance, broadcast, exhibition, etc.), 70 years from the end of the year that the work was first made available.

i assume us law is similar, so the chance are that a folk song from the civil war is now public domain..and of course if you perform it yoursefl, there will be no performance copyright issues.

i would google for the us laws, and try to find if the song has been registered anywhere...but my guess is you will be fine.

I have to agree with pauldrystonewall on this one... even in the U.S. after so long everything becomes free for use as long as u make it yourself. U still need to get the right to other ppls renditions. For civil war music i garantee its free for ure own use as long as u record ure own version.

Life is the art of making movies without editing