OH I see now. I would hope there is a first warning type of thing for people that are unaware. Pull it down or else type of thing. Yikes that's only fair for people who had their demos produced by someone that might not even be around any more

Gene, sorry for the confusion about the article. I am not in any way affiliated or represent TuneSat, and no, a company does not need to hire a lawyer to use this technology. The way I think it works as an outsider looking in, is the music library sends their tracks to TuneSat, which encodes it somehow, and then TuneSat monitors its play over the internet and sends reports to the music library owner. TuneSat also will send out demands for payment to websites or voice artists that are broadcasting the music on a website if TuneSat suspects the music is not properly licensed. I represent some of the entities that are on the receiving end of these notices demanding sums of thousands of dollars for each unlicensed usage of all or part of one of these music tracks, and I am not at liberty to publicize their names due to the attorney/client privilege.

Hi Dan.
You are correct that copyright claims can certainly be made by the owners for their copy, especially for audio books and corporate e-learning scripts. The issue with music on demos certainly affects, not only voice over artists who post their demos on their websites, but also any site that posts demos, like agencies, pay to plays, producers, etc, and in fact, some of these entities have been hit with demands by TuneSat. Distributing through tape or CD is not the same as "broadcasting" over the internet, which is where this particular issue arises.

So all the other companies that are purchasing this technology....are CLIENTS of the author? (which is why he can't mention them "Attorney CLIENT privilege"? just curious. That part of the article stumped my flow of reading when I got to it. Asking because I am wondering out of curiosity if a company has to have an atty to purchase and employ this technology. Otherwise why would attorney client privilege come into play...things that make you go hmmmmmm

Very interesting. What are your thoughts, Robert, about talent agency reels, Voice123, voicebank.net, etc. Few, if any in the past, have vetted every demo that is posted. Also, most demo copy that is used does not have written permission to use. It's probable that the prevailing attitude over the years has been one of "no one is selling demos, they're just given away. So who cares?" Even for your own gigs, do you think that somewhere along the line there should be some kind of written permission to use it, not necessarily limited just to the music element, but the whole production? If you were going by the letter of the, etc. etc.
And when demos were only distributed by CD, tape, etc, there was probably little practical way of tracking all demos. Anyway, thanx for your thoughts and any further enlightenment you can throw on this brave new Internet world.

Thanks, Robert, for the update. A lot of VO folks have had no idea that the studios who make their demos could possibly be using music without permission.

Thanks Robert - this is exciting news! I find it positive, actually, for the musicians. Of course if people have been using music without permission, it's bad new for them. So be it!
Best,
Rebecca of www.LoveThatRebecca.com