I'm wondering about the legalities associated with including pop music (e.g. metallica) in a non-profit production without permission.

I'm assuming context is everything. What I've got is a special-event movie that will be shown to a room of 500 people once, and kept on file so people can borrow it for home viewing afterwards. I might want to put the movie online also. The special event is run by a university student body.

I suspect it's probably pretty illegal to use commercial music without permission, but folks do it all the time, and I've never heard of any repurcussions. Does it help that the film is non-profit? What if it was for a film class?

Any help is appreciated!
Meson42

Non-profit doesn't mean you don't have to pay for the rights. In fact, it has no bearing at all. Same a for-profit.

Why don't you try and see how much it will cost to use it? I think it's about $700. Contact BMI or ASCAP.

Non-profit doesn't mean you don't have to pay for the rights. In fact, it has no bearing at all. Same a for-profit.

Why don't you try and see how much it will cost to use it? I think it's about $700. Contact BMI or ASCAP.

I was afraid of that - can't use it without buying it, even if you don't have any income to pay for it with. Crappy. I might have to find some indie artists who agree to let me use their songs for free.

Thanks for the info,
Meson42