27 replies
Hi everyone, I had this idea in mind. There's this music artiste in my country and he's really popular. Searched his name in the keyword planner he gets at least 30,000 searches per month. I wanted to create a blog centered on him. his music, picture gallery, videos, news etc and make it unofficial, like a fan site and include his name in my domain. Is that safe or I can be sued?
#adsense #music #sued
  • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
    You need to ask an attorney that knows the laws of your country, not a marketing forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author JosephC
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    • Profile picture of the author maxigee
      Originally Posted by joecason View Post

      Yes you can be sued for that, but you can be sued for anything these days. The odds that you will are very low, I have seen fan page blogs before. If its just a fan site, the music artist will most likely not care. In fact, he might be happy if he ever sees it. He might start to care if you are profiting from his music by selling it or selling his tickets.

      From a legal standpoint, the reason you would be sued would be slander. Do not mean to scare you, but that would be the reason if you were.

      I'm not going to sell his music. He gives out free lots of times for him to still be in the radar... that's wah im gonna put there... Thanks for the info
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  • Profile picture of the author Katie Rich
    Ask the artist, or his office, if they would mind you having his name in your domain for a fan site. If they say ok then ask for that in writing.
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  • Profile picture of the author tonio79
    Hi there
    If you are using images then best to be careful so as not to step on the wrong side of the law - starting your blog talking about the musician and giving out info as an excited fan is probably not going to get you in trouble though. You can monetize the blog in numerous ways without getting into copyright issues though.

    Good luck
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    • Profile picture of the author maxigee
      Originally Posted by tonio79 View Post

      Hi there
      If you are using images then best to be careful so as not to step on the wrong side of the law - starting your blog talking about the musician and giving out info as an excited fan is probably not going to get you in trouble though. You can monetize the blog in numerous ways without getting into copyright issues though.

      Good luck
      Yh... was actually thinking of pouring out my heart out about him on the "About" page.... is that a bad idea?
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  • Profile picture of the author DaveHodgkinson
    Hi, I have spent many years in the music industry, and I am confident that 90% of artistes are happy to see any site that helps promote their cause. But as mentioned by a few of the good people in this string, be careful not to use any content that is under copyright, including music, video, lyrics, images etc.

    As mentioned before, make sure that it is a "fan" based site as this will help your cause and probably attract a lot more traffic.

    Again as mentioned before, seek permission where possible form the artiste and/or management. This will not only help you from being sued, but if you can build some kind of relationship, they may well put you on their press list, set you up for competition tickets and maybe some merchandise arrangements.

    But be warned, artistes and especially management companies are notoriously fickle, and will change their minds quickly and easily. Also, artistes will often change management, so the bottom line is, get anything that you agree in writing.

    Sorry, to have ranted on, but hopefully that this was of some use. Good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author vishwa
    Grab a writing permission from that artist to have his consent. If they allowed then you can go for it. Otherwise you can't do this.
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  • Profile picture of the author AmericanMuscleTA
    Anyone can be sued for anything. Heck, I've heard of story (may or may not be true)about a thief who was robbing a house and he slipped and broke his arm so he was sueing the homeowner because the house was unsafe.
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    • Profile picture of the author maxigee
      Originally Posted by AmericanMuscleTA View Post

      Anyone can be sued for anything. Heck, I've heard of story (may or may not be true)about a thief who was robbing a house and he slipped and broke his arm so he was sueing the homeowner because the house was unsafe.
      LMAO... Seriously? Anyway, thank you all. I certainly know what to do. Thanks warriors.
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  • Profile picture of the author datingworld
    You can be sued for anything especially if you live in the western world.
    The best thing for you to do is to approach the concerned artist and ask his written permission. You will be on safe side.
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  • Profile picture of the author CarlosTorres
    I would seek council from an attorney in your local area about this. It would be a very good idea to get professional council as to what you can and you can't do before even starting the website.

    Hope this helps a bit!
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  • Profile picture of the author Gene Pimentel
    Generally speaking, it is perfectly fine to use a celebrity name in a domain if it is a fan site. However, the moment you begin profiting from the site, that can change things.

    Yes, you can be sued. Whether or not the lawsuit is valid depends on how you use the domain/website.

    I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author drem
    I had a website dedicated to Adele at one point that was ranked highly and even her managers contacted me with free offers to give to visitors. The best option is to ask the celebrity if you can make a fansite for them. Some people love it and would never think of suing, others have actually taken their fans to court to remove the site.

    You will also come across issues with image companies if you use an unlicensed image of the celebrity on your site.

    I closed down my site some time ago simply because it didn't seem to be a long-term or lucrative option anymore. It was a fun hobby, but I wouldn't touch another fansite again with the eminent possibility of being sued with certain celebrities.
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  • Asking anyone other than the artists legal representatives and the owners of any trademarks, copyrights, etc, whether you can or will get sued.... is futile and a waste of time.

    It's nice to get some encouragement and opinions on what everyone may think, but in the end, if you have not communicated directly with the appropriate sources regarding this, then you may be at risk of having your blog or fan site taken down at any time, at the least.

    This could happen for example if you upload copyrighted images or video footage, or anything else that you did not get permission to post on your site.

    In come cases a photographer may own the rights to a picture that you found somewhere on Google. Or a record label may own the rights to a CD cover that you decided to use (without permission) for an article, etc.

    Independent Artists themselves are usually open to these sort of things, especially because they may welcome any type of promotion when starting up. Unfortunately, artists do not always have the final say, nor do they have control over everything relating to their act, especially once they are represented by management, record companies, music publishers, etc.

    Once signed, you are then dealing with a whole bunch of entities that can come at you at anytime, for almost anything, because you are doing something that they feel you should have asked permission for first.
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  • Profile picture of the author brutecky
    I love when people say "Can I be sued". Its funny .. you can be sued for ANYTHING (at least in the US). I can sue you for asking me if you can be sued. But thats not really the question you want answered now is it. What you really want to know is "if Im sued will I have to pay money to the person who sued me". Thats a question for .. yep you guessed it, your legal adviser. You see this is a marketing forum, not an international law forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    Don't know your country but here its called a fan site and is perfectly legal. Theres a name for it but can't remember what it is.
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    Still can't remember but one way around it is using press photos.
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  • Profile picture of the author abubah
    Think about it: you're using someone's name, pictures, videos and music to make money.

    So yes, you would get sued.

    Heck, even lyrics websites need to ask permission first before posting lyrics on their website for any artist. It's annoying, but I think it makes sense.
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    • Profile picture of the author maxigee
      I just found out the artiste doesn't have an official website. The only site he has is a site of his clothing line. The artiste himself got sued for stealing the logo of his clothing line. Dont know whether he lost or won Getting sued for something is very rare here though and there are tons of websites here that uses celebrity photos alongside speak negatively of them and even makes fun of them. I think using his videos, photos and music on my blog is a way of promoting him because there are music promotion websites that put latest songs and videos everyday and I dont think they ask permission before they do that. Some upcoming artistes even pay the webmasters to get their songs on the website because of the sites PR
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  • We live in a world that is not free anymore it's like parasites. There are people who live from suing that's all they do. So yes you can if you are run into someone like that. Talk to a lawyer since they made our life impossible without them it's so complicated now.
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  • Profile picture of the author cheehien
    definitely need to get the permission from the original artist...
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery Moss
    If you're giving away the music that he creates, this would be copyright infringement and could result in some type of legal action. There are ways to create a Fan page on Facebook which are acceptable and many such pages already up. Maybe that would be an option which would work for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author DaveHodgkinson
    The "chances" are that while your site is relatively small and producing some promotional value for them, they will leave you to it, as long as you do not infringe any copyrights. But, the issue comes when you start to do well and have influence, because then they want want a piece or all of the action.

    As an old music lawyer friend of mine once said, "where there's a hit, there's a writ"!
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
    See if he will pay something for promoting him
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  • Profile picture of the author RichEmmett
    Hi, I'm a lawyer by profession and now involved in helping people start their internet businesses on the right tracks. I think that there are a couple of legal issues to consider with your project. Two of the most obvious are infringement of intellectual property rights (copyright for photos, lyrics, music etc) and, particularly if you're operating a forum, defamation - if for example a contributor makes a malicious / untrue comment that is published on your site. With regard to defamation, sites operated in the US enjoy a greater degree of protection than many places elsewhere in the world (e.g. the UK) and statute provides some protection to the publisher of the site, rendering them in many cases not liable for the posts of third party posters. In the UK, for example, the publisher of the site can be held responsible for what's posted on it, even by a third party. That's the main theoretical issues to look into. I think DaveHodgkinson has hit the nail on the head as regards the practical position - it's a pure commercial consideration for the corporate body behind the musician as to whether they take any action or not. If your site is either insignificant in size, or considered beneficial to promoting the artist, they will likely just let you get on with it. If the site is considered detrimental to the artist, or alternatively if it becomes a significant success and they can see a commercial gain in pursuing an action against the site - that's when the letters / writs may start to fly. Remember, it's the corporations contracting with the musician that stand to gain or lose as well - the artist might be the nicest person around - it's not them you're going to be dealing with. It is of course possible to run a fan site without either falling foul of defamatory comments from contributors or infringing on intellectual property rights. My advice to you - if you plan to invest a lot of time and/or money in this project, research carefully what you can and cannot do.
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  • Profile picture of the author karolk
    You will probably only get a C&D. But I'm no attorney.
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  • Sure you can be sued, and the bad thing is when you receive their letters asking you to close your website and delete all the contents. So open a normal and classic domain name, but never include:

    VIP names
    Company names
    Product names

    In this way you will stay safe with your site. If you have a doubt about a domain name, check on Google to see if any company may sue you about your domain name. I got around 3 to 4 domain names closed that way, including singer community site, videogames review sites, and things like that.

    So stay serious on your business, and nothing will happen
    See you soon,
    Alessandro
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