Is it infringement of the Fair Use law to perform songs & lyrics of musical artists from 1950-2012 in original form?

Are you charging the public to view this performance?

You and your principal are confused, in different ways. Fair use is a defense, but only to the use of copyright materials, which would include copying lyrics or sheet music or the like, and excuses certain uses, generally in the nature of commenting on the material. It is njot relevant here. That is because performance is a separate matter. You cannot reproduce recorded performances of sound (i.e. play them on an AV system regardless where without a license, and you likely do not have one. They are sold by ASCAP and BMI. While it is possible some of the performances you want to play publicly may not be registered I would not count on it. You can take the risk, but it would be a ‘black eye’ if the school were caught doing unlicensed public performance. And what lesson for the students if not caught? What you can do is rent the sheet music with lyrics and have they performed by students. You cannot then legally copy the sheet music but people can perform from it.

You are all over the place with this question. Fair use could be a defense to an infringement claim but it usulaly does not apply to school plays. Some folks are more aggressive in enforcing these rights - for example the copyright holders of "Rent" are very strict about school performances of the play going so far as to having created A "School Edition" for which they charge royalties. It is usually easier to get permission for an entire play than to try and get separate licenses for songs like you intend. I am in Mineola, and if you would like, you can call me next Tuesday (9-4-12) to discuss this. I would be glad to give you some guidance free of charge. Office number is 5167413222

Please search "fair use" on this site, and you will probably find some useful answers. The compositions you reference are protected by copyright. Under the facts you have provided, you would likely need a public performance license through ASCAP/BMI/SESAC or the publisher in order to legally perform the songs you identified.

The issue is not fair use---which is a defense to claims of copyright infringement. This would not be fair use, but that is not the end of the story. The issue here is whether you qualify for an exemption for this performance. If you are not going to charge for admission, you are probably ok. The US Copyright Act contains specific exemptions concerning public performances of copyrighted works. First, it should be noted that U.S. copyright law governs only public performances. Private performances can never be infringing. 17 USC § 101(1). To perform a work "publicly" means to perform it "at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered." If your performance is not open to the public, it arguably is exempt from copyright law. Even if this will be a public performance, you might be ok. The US Copyright Act creates a specific exemption for the public performance of "a nondramatic literary or musical work otherwise than as a transmission to the public, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers, if . . . there is no direct or indirect admission charge." 17 USC § 110(4)(A). To qualify, the performance must (1) be given directly by a live performer or performers and not transmitted to the public by broadcast or other means; (2) involve a nondramatic literary work or a musical work; (3) have no purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage; (4) involve no payment of a fee or other compensation for the performance to the performer(s); and (5) require no direct or indirect admission charge (such as tickets paid for in advance or at the theater door; requests that an audience make voluntary "donations" to cover the costs of a performance; or, more indirectly, charging general admission to an event where part of the admission charge will offset or go to the planned performance). Under this statute, your drama club performance will probably be ok at your school as long as you do not charge admission. There is one other concern---the play is going to include songs from famous artists. If the actors and actresses sing these songs, it is important that they use sheet music or musical scores that the school purchased from legitimate sources. Further, teachers cannot make copies of this sheet music and give it to the children. That would be illegal infringement. If the drama club intends to hand out multiple copies of sheet music to the performers, that could be a technical copyright infringement. Also, the "performance" exemption would not protect you if you played sound recordings of the songs by famous artists--Elvis or the Bee Gees. You would need a license from ASCAP, BMI or SESAC (performing rights organizations) to play sound recordings during the performance. However, you could use these sound recordings in rehearsal to help the artists learn the songs. As you can see--these copyright law issues are complicated. But most school principals know how to navigate through these issues without getting into trouble, and most school organizations have lawyers available to advise them. Catholic elementary school leaders generally have access to legal assistance for situations such as this. It would be wise to consult with legal counsel to make sure you get this right.

I think you are misquoting your principal, and that what he likely told you is that you need permission because school plays are not fair use unless done strictly for educational purposes without charge and without an audience. If you are publicly performing the songs, you need a cover license, which you can get from ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. See for example the FAQs of ASCAP on this at http://www.ascap.com/licensing/licensingfaq.aspx