Ringtones to Require Licensing by US Copyright Office

We all love (or hate, depending on your perspective) those musical ringtones that everyone seems to use these days. A new ruling by the US Copyright Office finds that ringtones that are in whole, or in part, a reproduction of existing work will require licensing under Section 115 of US Copyright law.

“Ringtones that are merely excerpts of a preexisting sound recording fall squarely within the scope of the statutory license, whereas those that contain additional material may actually be considered original derivative works and therefore outside the scope of the Section 115 license.

We also conclude that if a newly created ringtone is considered a derivative work, and the work has been first distributed with the authorization of the copyright owner, then any person may use the statutory license to make and distribute the musical work in the ringtone. “

We’ll have to wait and see how this will affect the widespread use of musical ringtones – but we have a feeling that it will only affect ringtone downloads from carriers. The rest of us will just continue uploading MP3’s to our phones.

via: ringtonia