legality questions.

[xxjoesusxx]

As an XNA creator's club member, and an avid musician, I've decided to start advertising myself to local bands as a means of getting their music into Rock Band 2. I've explained to quite a few bands what the Rock Band Network is, and worked out deals where, to save them the hassle of learning the software or paying the creator's club membership fee, I would chart the songs and publish the songs for them.

My question is, is there any legality issues I should be concerned about ? These are all local unsigned bands, with our own worked out contracts. If a band has had a professionally recorded album, does the studio that recorded it own any rights to those tracks that would prevent the band from letting me use them ? If so, I have the equipment to do fresh recordings.

Second question, to do this legally, should I apply for something like a small business license, or am I still within legality by just doing it on a personal level with the bands ?

Thanks for the help.

[davidshek]

My question is, is there any legality issues I should be concerned about ? These are all local unsigned bands, with our own worked out contracts. If a band has had a professionally recorded album, does the studio that recorded it own any rights to those tracks that would prevent the band from letting me use them ? If so, I have the equipment to do fresh recordings.

The band themselves should know if the studio owns any part of the copyright to the song (and most likely the answer is no, the studio owns nothing). I would recommend talking to an entertainment lawyer about the contracts, since you're going to have to prove to HMX that you have the proper authority to use these songs that you don't own.

Second question, to do this legally, should I apply for something like a small business license, or am I still within legality by just doing it on a personal level with the bands ?

Again, talk to a lawyer. But yes, you probably should do that.

[xxjoesusxx]

Thanks for answering that for me, that was my biggest concern was proving to Harmonix that I had the right to use those recorded tracks.