I love making highlight DVD slideshows of my clients wedding photos. To be honest, it’s great marketing for me, and it saves your friends and family from looking through a million and one photos from your wedding day, which I imagine is much like looking through someones vacation pictures. “Oh, look, here is an awesome photo of my cousin twice removed, she once had an affair with an Ambassador and let me tell you WHAT….” as you are silently thinking “Yeah, I don’t care” while nodding politely. In our new culture, we have about a 4-5 minute attention span on things we are actually interested in, so I go with that theory when creating a slideshow.
I use unlicensed music in my slideshows, and have for a few years.
If you asked me if I’ve ever used only royalty free music in my slideshows in my career, my answer would be the same if you asked me if I always report items paid in cash to the gubment ;
“As far as you know, I have”
In all seriousness, a few years ago I got a clue about copyrighted music when a popular photo I took went viral and ended up on every wedding blog/bridal blog/stock photo site with nary a print credit.
Then, I got it. It sucked. Someone took something I created and used it for their own financial gain.
In my mind, all I was doing was synching some pretty pictures to my clients first dance song to “personalize” it so they could watch it at home, I wasn’t charging for it, so it was fine, right? I was wrong.
You know, assuming I ever allegedly did that…
So when I make the slideshows for my clients and they ask for a copyrighted song, my answer is that I cannot do that.
Still think it’s okay?
Read this.
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