As counselors to content creators, regardless of medium, we are constantly asked by our clients: I want to use this song in my film/tv show/web series. Do I need to get permission?
Unless it is a slam dunk fair use case (which, as we know, pretty much only exist in theory), the majority of times the answer is yes. Inevitably, the next question is: what happens if I don’t ask for permission? Well, it’s not a problem until it’s a problem, right?
The recently released film Baby Driver has done exceptionally well at the box office, and some commentators believe that the soundtrack of the film played a large role in this. Unfortunately, at least one of the songs in the film was not authorized to be used. If the film was not successful, this probably wouldn’t be an issue. Since it was successful, however, the producers now have a problem.
Rolan Feld, the son of T.Rex’s Marc Bolan, has filed a lawsuit alleging that producers and various third parties failed to get permission to use T.Rex’s song “Debora.” Only time will tell for sure, but the general rule is that now that the film has proven successful, the rights to the song will probably cost the producers a lot more than if they had asked for permission beforehand.
You can read the complaint here, and more about the case here.