Who thinks it a coincidence that the day Ellen announces her new role as American Idol judge, her show is sued by several record companies?

True, they were in discussions with the show’s producers for months about the lack of production licenses for music used on the show.

But, her show’s bank skyrocketed with that announcement.

What does that mean to you? It means you should brush up on music licensing law — because if you skirt the law now, you might become an attractive target as a defendant in the future if you ever come into some cash.

We all know not to download illegal music (hopefully), so when is this realistically ever going to affect us?

Ever make a home movie or photo montage and sync it to your music? Guess what, that’s actually a legal gray area. Even on your own computer with your own music for your own private viewing. A sync license covers the use of music synced to photos or video.

Most likely that will never bite you on the butt. Gray area simply means you could be sued, but it’s doubtful that the recording companies would actually win. They could make you rack up thousands of dollars in legal fees in the process, though.

As I was recently told by a music executive, the recording industry doesn’t sell as many CD’s or records any more. Their money comes from licensing and lawsuits.

What about when you show that same movie to others in a public venue – say a wedding reception, funeral home, or family reunion? Now it’s no longer a gray area – it’s flat out illegal.

Most funeral homes will no longer allow you to bring in a homemade photo montage with your own music. They know it’s illegal. That’s why they offer you their own premium photo montage service with a premium price. They don’t want to be sued.

Reception halls have been slow to adopt the same policy. With any luck, they will continue to avoid lawsuits.

Oftentimes, you’ll hear people say, “it’s fair use of music I already own.” Wrong. The recent Tenenbaum case in Massachusetts greatly restricts the definition of “fair use”.

In fact, if you look at your iTunes user agreement, your content is for personal use. You might be able to get away with stretching your personal use to include syncing the music to photos and showing it to family and friends. But, I’m no lawyer.

The fact is, that the recording industry will probably never look at any video montage you produce and show to your family. But, if your family winds up on some reality show and that montage is rebroadcast, both the reality show and your family can become defendants in a legal case.

So what are your options? Royalty free music are tracks that you can legally use without paying royalties per use to the recording industry.

The quality of this music ranges from stuff my 2 year old could produce to high quality soundtracks. The prices range from free to $500 and up (per song per usage).

Here are some companies which offer a good selection of royalty-free music:

• The Music Bridge caters to independent film studios, non-profits, etc.
• Freeplay offers a wide range of songs with modest rates
• RoyaltyFreeMusic.com offers a limited assortment of high quality free royalty-free tracks

Another option is the more adventurous route. Search out independent recording studios in your city. Contact them about obtaining a sync license for their artist’s work. If they are small enough, they’ll be happy to hear from you. This can usually be done quite affordably.

If you are musical, you can use a program like Garageband to create your own music loops on your computer. I list this as a last resort as it could turn into one of those should-have-been-easy-but-really-took-80-hours projects.

In summary, it’s somewhat, quite possibly, illegal to sync your own music to your own photos/video and show them in a public venue. Unfortunately, the recording industry has set up no legal way for you to use popular music in a photo or video montage.

This is similar to the days when you knew it was illegal to download music, but there was no legal way to do it. Along came iTunes, and the record companies suddenly had another avenue of income. And we now had a legal way to download music.

If the recording industry were smart, I know it’s asking a lot, they would also open up this avenue of income by offering sync licenses to consumers.

So, the RIAA won the second trial against the Minnesota woman accused of copyright violations. She made songs available for download on a peer-to-peer network.

Now, I didn’t follow the trial and am not claiming to be an expert in this field of law. A $1.92 million dollar fine for sharing 24 songs sure sounds out of line.

Is the RIAA alienating their customers with these types of actions? Sure. Were the applicable laws written for recorded music? No. They were written for player pianos!

Then again, the law is the law. I don’t like the fact that the speed limit where I live is 55 MPH, while it’s 75 in Michigan.

I have choices. I can ignore the limit and risk a ticket. I can lobby my legislature to change the limit. Or, I can move to Michigan.

What I can’t do is tell the officer that the law is unfair and expect to be told to go on my journey.

People have a choice regarding recorded music. If they think the RIAA is the tool of the devil, or that prices for albums are too high, then they can simply stop buying.

If enough people take the same action, the laws of supply and demand will lower prices. Or they can work to have the laws changed.

For those who think music should be free, do they expect to work without being paid? The creators of the songs and music have a right to protect their work. Now, how the RIAA is included in the mix is another long discussion.

And don’t forget that copyright laws extend beyond simply sharing music files.

Synching songs to slideshows, home movies, web ads, etc. are also covered and have their own set of fines.

Just read the iTunes legal document that you agree to every time you purchase a song and you’ll begin to understand how big the issue is.

I’d love to hear your comments and opinions regarding this highly volatile topic. You can read the details of the trial here.

Have you ever seen a video online or watched someone’s slideshow DVD and heard a commercial song that immediately made you think of some time or event in your life? You probably didn’t even realize 15 photos went by while you were remembering the girl in the dorm that the song reminded you of.

It’s not just personal videos that make that mistake. There was a Wendy’s commercial a while back that used Violent Femmes song that made me think of my Freshman Year in college. I still can’t remember if they were marketing burgers or chicken with that ad.

Don’t forget that music should enhance the visuals – the photos and film/video footage. Sure that song might have ’special’ meaning, but that is going to compete with what should be the main focus.